Nate's Birth Story - Part 2, Delivery Day - The Prize!
Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 8:02PM *I had a coworker who was the cheeriest pregnant woman I've ever known. Whenever anyone asked her how she was feeling, she would say she felt great: "Now I'm just waiting for the prize!"
So the hubby is seated right next to my left ear and holding my left hand as the doctors settle in to do their work. My OB/GYN comes in and goes, "Oh! What happened here??" Not exactly what you want to hear as you're strapped down to a table and paralyzed from the waist down. What was it? My water broke - apparently, hugely. Like I mentioned in Part 1, I had started having minor contractions the previous morning and (skip to the next line if you're easily squeamish... go, skip, go ahead... are you gone?) I had lost my mucous plug as well, so I knew my body was preparing to bring this little boy into the world, regardless of our c-section plans and Nate's plan to enter butt-first. And now my water had broken. All of this together was comforting to me; I felt like we weren't forcing him to be born much earlier than he planned. As I said at the time, it was like he was saying, "You can't fire me - I quit!"
So they cleaned up the table and got to work. The next 15 minutes or so are a blur. I worked hard to not listen to what they were talking about (when they weren't talking sports) although every now and then I would hear something like, "Well, yes, I'm going to use the number two here ... okay, and now just hold that part here, thank you..." I really didn't want to think about the fact that I was awake and my insides were visible on the other side of the blue curtain in front of us.
Finally, the resident assisting my OB/GYN said, "Okay, you're going to feel a bit more pressure right now" which I knew meant they were about to lift Nate out of me, so then I listened. And what did I hear?
I kid you not, I heard a slurp and a pop. Like, as they pulled him out, his body made a "shhhlurp" and at the moment he popped out, "Pop!" Quite possibly the funniest moment I remember from the whole experience. At the same time, they told the hubby to stand up so he could watch them lifting Nate out of me. After what felt like minutes but was actually just a few seconds, they had him sit back down. I have no idea what we said at that time. The moment is so emotionally huge, there really aren't words. Soon we heard his first cry as they cleaned him up and they called the hubby over to go see him. Shortly, the hubby brought Nate to me and I got my first look at him.
The emotions of that moment are beyond words. Here, in the arms of the man I love a zillion more times than anyone I've ever known, was our son - a little person we made. And there, bundled in what seemed like a dozen blankets, was the cutest little round face I have ever seen. I couldn't see much more than that, though, before it was time for my little man to go back to the nurses while the doctors closed me up.
As the overwhelming feelings of seeing our son for the first time faded, I began to remember where I was and how I was feeling, which can best be described as twitchy. I had a bit of the shakes, but it was more like I had a twitch. It's not fair to describe it as being like Parkinson's, but that's the best visual I can provide. It was like having a series of ticks - I couldn't stop touching my face and flinching my head, things like that. This continued throughout the time they closed me up and into the recovery room.
After a while, they escorted the hubby out to go be with Nate in recovery and wait for me. Before I could get wheeled in, though, they had to flip me from side to side and then transfer me to the bed that would be wheeled to recovery. The issue? The table was about the same width as me (or at least it felt that way) and I was still completely numb from the waist down, so the sensation of about being able to fall off the table was inescapable. They flipped me to my left and the resident said, "Don't worry, I've never dropped someone!" They flipped me to my right and that resident said... nothing! So naturally I flinched, but of course I wasn't dropped. They transferred me over to the wheelie bed and off to recovery I went.
As soon as I got there, they handed me Nate and we tried to breastfeed. To my delight, he latched on easily and happily sucked away. After a while, the nurse came to take Nate to the nursery and a bit after that, my parents showed up and were allowed into recovery to say hi. Within a few minutes, the nurses came to tell me I was finally ready to go up to the room. The litmus test for that is being able to move your legs, which was a slow-going process. I could move my toes, then my ankles, and so on until near full mobility. The twitching also slowed down and stopped, which was great. Once again I felt like I had control of my own body again.
And now this phase was over and we were on to the next stage - the hospital room. Being a surgical patient while also beginning my journey as a mom. It was sure to be unlike either of my previous two hospital stays, where my only concern was myself. This time I had a prize.
Nate's Birth Story - Part 1, Delivery Day - Prep
Nate's Birth Story - Part 2, Delivery Day - The Prize!
Nate's Birth Story - Part 3, The Hospital Stay - Visitorville
Nate's Birth Story - Part 4 - The Name
Nate's Birth Story - Part 5, The Hospital Stay - When it got hard
From Breast to Bottle - My Story
Nate's Birth Story - Part 6 - The Hospital Stay - When it got scary
Nate, baby, birth story, pregnancy in Baby 
Reader Comments (2)
That moment of meeting a person you MADE is magical. I'm so glad nursing is going well so far. Enjoy your prize!
Oh, I love it. Congratulations again!