Baby Rylan is Born

So I'm officially 3 weeks late... sue me! Spending hours at the computer uploading pictures and updating the blog hasn't been high on my priority list, unfortunately. I finally had took the time this after noon.

While we have hundreds of more pictures, from the past 2 weeks, I just wanted to start from the beginning, and just the first 5 days of my baby boy's life are accounted for here.

On the morning of Tuesday, May 18, 2010, Rusty and I woke up, knowing that our lives would forever change that day. I was scheduled to arrive at the hospital at 7:30 for admission that morning. When my alarm when off, I made the comment to Rusty that it was the alarm to the beginning of the rest of our lives. How true that was. My external version wasn't scheduled until 9:30, so we had a little bit of time after admission. During those first few hours, I was on monitors, started getting my drugs, etc. Ask Rusty - I was surprisingly calm all morning. I actually even slept well the night before.

They started my IV right away since I was to get my epidural before anything started. Of course they had problems with my veins rolling over (go figure...) so I had to be stuck a few times before the nurse got it in correctly. After this little "issue" getting the IV going is when the nerves set in - and believe me that they set in. The anesthesiologist was next up. This was my official cue to freak out. I did. I cried and just internally panicked. It was so easy. It wasn't bad at all - getting my IV was worse. The worst part for me is that I had nothing going on to justify any of this happening yet. I wasn't in labor, I had no pain, and I hadn't had any contractions. I was just getting poked all over for no reason.

After the IV and epidural were both in and running, I got 3 shots of what I remember to be Demerol. (I could be completely wrong, and I have no idea how to spell it.) Whatever it is, it's a medicine used on arthritis patients to help relax the muscles. In this case, it was used to help relax my uterus to hopefully make the version work better. The first two shots were in my arms, and they hurt. They were "smart" on the 3rd one and gave it to me in my leg since I couldn't feel anything below my chest. Woo hoo!

My doc didn't have high hopes that my version would work. I remember looking down at her and the other doc while the were doing it. I could feel my body moving and that is about all. To see the strain on their faces only indicated they were trying to push a stalled out car out from the middle of the road. I even looked over at Rusty once and his mouth was hanging wide open, in shock of how hard they were working on my stomach. After a few minutes, my doc threw in the towel and said, "Let's go have a baby." Rusty threw on his scrubs and they began wheeling me away to the OR.

Once in the OR, it was all very Hollywood-ish. It was a bright white and silver room with metal things all over the place and a big operating table right in the middle. They wheeled my bed right up beside the table and even used one of those board things to transport from one to the other. Once on the table, I kept wondering what the commotion was about. Come to find out, one of my legs kept falling off of the Op table. I couldn't feel a thing, and had no idea. Looking back now, it was pretty funny. Apparently they couldn't get it on the table and strapped in fast enough before it would fall again.

To my surprise, Rusty watched the entire process. I couldn't watch his face, because I knew that if he saw something bad or gross, and his face showed it, I'd freak out and start panicking. I watch the nurse that was holding my other hand the whole time.

Here are the things I most vividly remember from my C-Section:
1.) When we were in there, right before the procedure started, the song that was on the radio was "Hurt So Good." How ironic. I even pointed this out to everyone else and we all just laughed.
2.) My doc's voice was the most soothing sound in the room. She talked during the whole procedure about what was going on. I wasn't listening at all, but just hearing her upbeat, happy tone the whole time let me know it was all ok.
3.) The most awful smell filled the room throughout the procedure. I asked what it was, to which my doc said, "I don't think you want to know!" and to which I replied, "OK!" Rusty later told me what it was. OH. MY.
4.) When my doc started saying the baby was coming out, I looked to Rusty to see his expression, since everything was "numb" for me and I couldn't see a thing. His face was my window to the baby. This is when I cried happy tears for the first time. I'll never forget the love/excitement/joy written all over Rusty's face the first time he saw Rylan.

When they were putting me back together, my doc pointed out my mal-shaped uterus to Rusty. This is a big part of the reason Rylan didn't turn. Instead of being completely round, my uterus was flat on top, making it more like a triangle, and preventing our little baby from turning like he needed. The disturbing part is that she literally pulled my uterus out of my tummy and held it up for Rusty to see before jamming it back inside where it belonged. AWESOME.

The rest of Tuesday and into Wednesday were all a blur. To be honest, I don't remember much from these 2 days. The recovery was a lot rougher than I expected it to be upfront. I didn't get feeling back in my legs until the next day because my epidural was in for 24 hours as pain management. That was just odd. Also, my stomach was incredibly sore from the version, since they were working so hard on it. Never having had surgery or anything like that before, I didn't know what to expect from the c-section recovery. It was tough, but manageable. There were times I was in a lot of pain, but it was nothing the pain medicine didn't help with. 3 weeks later, I still have random soreness, but nothing terrible at all.

We had so many wonderful visitors while in the hospital... thank you to each and everyone of you that came out - it was wonderful to see and visit with you all (even if I barely remember it!!!).

Thursday through Saturday were rough days for us in the hospital. On Thursday morning, our pediatrician filled us in on some concerns they had for Rylan. And all day long this kind of news just kept pouring in. It was terrible. On top of dealing with all of the emotions and stress from the birth alone, I couldn't handle this. I cried so many times on Thursday. I can't even count them. This day brought Rusty and I so much closer, as we leaned on each other for everything that day. Thursday night was our celebration steak and lobster dinner. That was the worst celebration dinner we've ever had. It was hard to enjoy the evening when they had taken Rylan away from us for special testing and monitoring due to the previously expressed concerns.

In the end, everything is "ok" and all of the testing and monitoring was a precaution. I know that I wouldn't have had it any other way, looking back, but it was so difficult to deal with in the hospital. We're happy to say that Rylan is doing wonderful, and all of the concerning issues have nearly worked themselves out, thank goodness. Most of it was attributed to how he was in my uterus - he was just jammed so tightly in there and had no room to move, which made his adjustment into the new world a little more difficult than anyone expected it to be.

On Saturday, we finally got to go home!!! I was so sick of the hospital room! It was wonderful to be back in the comfort and privacy of our own home, but I will admit I missed the 3 meals a day, cooked, delivered bedside, and cleaned up all by someone that wasn't me. :)

To see pictures from the hospital and our trip home, click here. Enjoy!!