She and I are doing well, the c-section recovery has been pretty easy so far. I'm down 20lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight
Here is the birth story
My CS was scheduled for noon and I arrived at the hospital at 10am. I was checked in through the maternity welcome center then taken to pre-op room. Once there I was changed into a gown and hooked up to heart monitor, oxygen, IV was inserted (2 tries, they had to put it in my hand, boo) and baby monitors were hooked up. They took blood and I had to sign a bunch of papers and answer a bunch of questions. I had one nurse who was my nurse through the whole thing which was kind of nice. My doctor came in and talked to me, then the anesthesiologist- I told her I was nervous about the epidural not working or wearing off during surgery, she was great and told me to keep up a conversation with her throughout the surgery and she'd make sure I was comfortable. They then came in to put in the epidural, that part was very easy, a shot to numb which hardly hurt at all then pressure from the placement. They had me tell them if I felt pressure on the left or right to get it placed properly. Once it was in it took probably 15 minutes to take effect, my legs felt like they were waking up from being numb but when they pricked me with needles I couldn't feel it. They then took me back to the operating room and got me on the table. I started getting nauseated from the epidural and she gave me 2 different nausea meds through the IV, she said she'd also be giving me blood pressure meds throughout as my blood pressure was on the low side and would probably drop (it did). She said to tell her what I felt (nausea, dizzy, etc) and I did and she adjusted meds throughout, I liked her :)
For the actual procedure we got back to the OR a few minutes after 12 and baby was out at 12:22. They are talking to me through the entire thing and when they start to get the baby out my husband said that two nurses had to push on the upper part of my stomach while baby pulled with the vacuum assist. I heard my doctor say "Wow, that's a big head" then a pause and "look at those shoulders! its a good thing we did it this way!". She's kind of short and was up on a stool pulling at one point my husband said. Then baby was out and they brought her up to me for skin to skin, we only got to do that for a couple minutes though because she was gurggling and coughing a lot, they were afraid she'd inhaled some fluid on the way out. They took her away to the side of the room to suction her. Her oxygen was a bit low so they sent for someone from NICU to come down and take a look. They suctioned her nose, mouth, stomach for several minutes and everything came back to normal. She was never blue or anything, she was purple in fact. Her apgars were 8 & 8. I'd had a lot of nausea meds at this point and felt kind of disconnected and tired. They finished up with me and the three of us got to go back to the same pre-op room for recovery.
She was 10 pounds 2 ounces, head was 15 inches around and she was just at 22 inches long.
We stayed in the hospital from Tuesday through Friday afternoon, she lost 9% of her body weight but my milk had started to come in already and she was making enough wet/dirty diapers so they were not concerned. We had a weight check the day after we were released and she'd started gaining back already.
My husband didn't stay at night in the hospital and because of the c-section I needed help from the nurses but they were really great. I didn't send the baby to the nursery at all the first night though and as a result got basically zero sleep and was wrecked the next day. I ended up sending her to the nursery between feedings a few times and felt guilty about each one.
Since coming home we have had a few issues with breastfeeding (engorgement issues when my milk came fully in) but are getting the hang of it for now (everyday is something new). The first few nights at home were kind of hellish to be honest, she won't sleep lying flat, she has a lot of gas and spits up a lot. So for now she sleeps in a swing that lays almost flat. Last night was the first night I actually slept in a bed between feeds and feel amazing for it.
I'm recovering well from the c-section, they left the epidural in place until Thursday morning in the hospital, it was on a pump system, it was delivering a continuous dose of meds but I could push for additional dose, I did the additional dose 3x total. After they took it out they put me on oral Vicodin, I took 3 of those and moved to 600mg motrin. I take the motrin still when I remember because it does help. Lactation consultant said it would help with engorgement too and it seems to. The pain is not so much pain but burning and is only when I try to sit up in bed too fast or twist the wrong way, 80% of the time I could forget I had surgery a week ago which makes my physical restrictions very frustrating.
Otherwise I think my biggest challenge so far is the hormones. I cry and cry and cry, I'm not sad though I am feeling housebound and hate the restrictions from the surgery and want some semblance of normality back (want to go to store, etc). I'm not an emotional person so bursting into tears for no reason multiple times a day (especially when breastfeeding) is hard for me. My husband is AMAZING he took a week off work and has waited on me hand and foot and keeps telling me how proud he is of me. I've never loved him more.
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