Baby Stuff

So on October 24, 2013, my daughter Halo Taryn was born. Kiel got to be here for it... Which I can't even explain how happy that has made me...but I thought I would tell the story of Halo's birth and share my experience with a repeat C-section (being that when I was nervous and googling "repeat C-section" like crazy, for the most part I got a bunch of sob stories or judgmental "do a VBAC" type crap).

The worst part the night before surgery was having to stop eating and drinking at 10. Not because I was hungry, but because I was thirsty! I must have chugged 4 bottles of water in the half hour before my deadline, hoping it would tide me over until I woke. Thankfully we woke up at 4:45 am so I could get to the hospital by 5:30, but I was still thirsty. I may have taken my pills early just so I could have a drink of water....so sue me. The info paper said I could drink some water with medication.

So after waking up my moms (they flew in the night before), kissing Loki goodbye (which did make tear up) and telling my mother "You don't need to put on makeup to go to the hospital so get your ass in the car before my spot gets bumped," we were on our way.

Now if only the hospital was ready for us....

We got here and they hooked me up to the monitors and got an IV started on me. My moms went to get coffee because they are insensitive like some mofos, and I just sat there staring at the clock. They told me I was estimated to go into surgery between 7:30-8:30. When 7:30 came and passed my nerves turned to getting pissed off. I was tired, hungry and soooo thirsty. Let's get this show on the road people! Turns out there was a commander's call that all the doctors had to be on...be seriously, if they had this call why did they schedule me so damn early?!

A little after 9:00, I was given this funky drink that was about the size of a shot that was super sour and tasted like lemon. It was to help keep me from barfing during surgery. It just made me more thirsty. A nurse gave Kiel scrubs so he could go into the OR with me (he looked so tired and so excited). Then I stood up and we followed the nurse to my operating room. Kiel had to wait outside and I went in to get my spinal block and get all prepped for surgery.

I sat on the bed. And all of sudden I went from being impatient to super fucking nervous. I saw all the surgery stuff and seriously thought of telling them to just forget this whole surgery thing and let's have her get here on her own. I even thought about forgetting the whole baby thing and sticking with Loki but my next thought reminded me that at 39 weeks pregnant that thought was fucking dumb and that this baby was coming one way or another. I remembered Loki's scary birth, preeclampsia, Kiel
on Skype from Iraq, gestational diabetes, being pregnant with a three year old and Kiel being in Afghanistan. The tears, the fears, the nausea, the inability to sleep, the thirty pounds, the bloating, the waddling, feeling as sexy as day old dog shit, the hormonal bitch fits, that my husband waiting outside was able to get home to me for this and that my moms were already on their way to my house
to get my pop pop and Loki who was so excited to meet "his baby Halo."

I could do this. All I had to do was lay there.

I arched my back in preparation for the spinal block. I felt the prick and then it felt like fire was shooting down my right leg. I think they missed. "My leg," I said as I started crying, "my leg burns."

The nurse...or doctor. I met a lot of both that morning. Redid the injection and by the time I was fully positioned  (and even though this was a scheduled c section, my arms were strapped down...at least
one of them was for sure, my whole body felt heavy and immobile) on the OR table, I felt numb. But I also felt sick. Like that kind sick you feel when you drink too much and you aren't sure whether you want to run the bathroom and throw up or run to the bathroom and sleep on the cold floor. I told the nurse (doctor?) that I felt nauseated, but at the same time the narcotics in the injection hit me so I started crying because I wanted Kiel there. Some medicine was added to my IV, and my nausea went away, leaving me feeling high (so for those wondering- those are the differences I noticed between epidural  sand spinal blocks. 1-a spinal block is a single injection to the spine vs. an epidural's
constant and direct line into the spine and 2- spinal has narcotics in it because it wears off faster than an epidural and yes you will feel high). I was told that nausea I felt was due to a sudden drop in blood pressure. That made me giggle a bit. Both pregnancies I had to deal with high blood pressure (not so much with Halo as it went down and back to normal after I went back on my anxiety meds).

Then they brought Kiel in and he was such a sight for sore eyes. With Kiel there, I didn't feel alone. Even though with Loki, I had my moms and my sister, it just isn't the same as having your husband there with you. He just calms me and I know that with him, everything will be fine. He sat down on a stool next to my head. I think he held my hand? Like I said, I was high (which I promptly told him when he sat next to me). And then surgery started rolling along. I didn't feel anything for the most part. A nurse asked me if I felt anything. I said no and she said "Well that's good because they already started." I don't really remember what Kiel and I talked about. I doubt it was anything other than our usual small talk about silly things, but I'm still going to put as one of the best chats ever because of who it was with and what was happening around us.

Then I felt a ton of movement in my stomach. I knew this was them maneuvering Halo out. I was told I might possibly feel nauseas and throw up, but I didn't. I just felt excited. So excited that I held my breath waiting for those first cries and Kiel had to remind me "Breathe, baby." I looked up at the light above me and in the mirrored edges of it, I was able to see a bit of what was happening on the other side of the curtain. I saw a tiny leg. A tiny, chubby, pink leg (she was laid on top of me while they were severing the cord). And then I heard her cry. At 9:38 my daughter was born.

    She was so tiny at only 6lbs 3oz, but she was perfect. Scoring a 9 on her initial APGAR test (an assessment of her appearance, breathing and other functions done right after birth, a 7-10 is a healthy score with 10 being perfect and most C-section babies scoring on the lower end of normal or sometimes even below normal with the initial test), she was deemed healthy but still needed to be monitored for her blood sugar, since I had gestational diabetes. Kiel went with the baby and helped clean her up. Then he brought her to me so I could kiss her and they left so that I could get stitched up.

    So I tried to lay there and will the doctors to work not only skillfully, but quickly. I would have to go to into recovery before I would even be able to hold my daughter and put her to my breast. But before I could be fully stitched up, there was the matter of my fallopian tubes. I was getting a tubal ligation (aka tubes tied). This was done quickly, though. MY surgeon asked me, right before, "Krystle, are you sure you want to do this?" Still high, I replied, "Cut 'em, doc!" And with that, my tubes were cut and destroyed, preventing me from having any more children, any more pregnancy scares, and forever ending my decade long off/on relationship with ortho tri cyclen.

     I was wheeled into recovery. By now the narcotics had eased up enough to where I didn't feel (super) high, but I also didn't feel pain. "Let's hurry this up folks, I have a little girl to meet and snuggle and a little boy on his way here to see us," I told them. They were so awesome. I was told that I would be in recovery for a least an hour. The point being, to monitor me and also to check and see when the spinal block had worn off enough for me to regain movement, control and feeling in my legs. They had me out of there in less than 45 minutes. My blood pressure (which was quite low during surgery) was back to normal, my pulse was in the 70's, and my sugars were normal. As soon as I was at the minimal required levels to get out of recovery, they sent me out stressing "She needs to get to her baby to initiate breast feeding and maternal/child bonding."

   They rolled me into my room and there was Kiel, holding this little wrapped up bundle. He looked so ecstatic, talking to her. Then he handed her to me. She was so beautiful. I unwrapped her and looked her over. 10 fingers, 10 toes, a vagina (it was definitely a she!), bald, and looking almost exactly like my Loki when he was born! I put her to my breast and after only a few minutes, she latched perfectly! A technician came in to check her blood sugar once more, saying that with her last test she was right at the line of normal/low blood sugar. They checked her and her sugar was a little bit higher and perfectly normal- meaning that she wasn't diabetic AND that she was already getting colostrum from my breast (breast feeding after a C-section can be difficult, but I was able to nurse Loki for 7 months and Halo has been even easier to nurse!). A little later, my moms, Pop Pop and Loki arrived and I was in heaven having both of my children with me.

 

The rest of the stay was pretty basic but here are some things I noticed during my stay with the second c-section that differed from the first:



1. It did hurt more once the medicine wore off. The uterine contractions from breastfeeding were much stronger than the first time around. Once I got home, I actually needed to use the pain medication given to me. It wasn't unbearable pain, but it did suck.
2. With a second child, I was up and moving much faster. Probably because I had a 3 year old, so I knew I needed to get my ass walking around the hospital ASAP so I could recover as fast as possible and play with him. Having said that, I was pushing myself too hard and so much of my post partum bleeding would stop and then start back up due to over exertion.
3. Being that I knew what to expect, I had packed a lot more stuff that I knew I would need. Night gowns instead of pants (as they hurt the C-section scar), my belly bandit compression wrap (the tightness of the wrap helped to ease the pain and it's much more comfortable than the hospital wraps, I recommend the bamboo wrap if you are having a C-section), some lullaby music on my phone and my boppy pillow to ease with nursing.

I am so happy to have my family complete. I feel as though I am filled beyond capacity with love. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to love another child as much as I love Loki, but I can honestly say I love both Halo and Loki equally. They are different people and have won my heart with their own personalities. They are both such happy, easy going children and the nights where I have both of them sleeping with me (which is a lot- Loki tends to climb in our bed during the night and Halo just sleeps better when she is next me), I feel as though I am surrounded by such a beautiful, perfect love that I'm not sure how I was able to function in my life before they were in it.





 

 

My next blog (if I ever get to it! GRRRRR moving/ buying a house is very time consuming), will be about how I defeated mastitis (a breast infection that many nursing mothers know about and are terrified of) using natural remedies (NO ANTIBIOTICS!!!).