The Delivery

I did start crying here. I was scared. Totally scared, for me and for Joshua. I have never had major surgery... I was worried that at 24 weeks, Joshua was going to have problems. So many thoughts going through my head. This got Dave crying. He not only had to worry about me, but the baby too. We were both scared but it was go-time.

So off we went to surgery. They decided that they were going to do a spinal for anesthesia. This scared me, but who was I to argue and I did want to be awake... so they left Dave behind so that they could get me prepped. The spinal wasn't too bad.... a little pinch in the back and after that total numbness in my legs but I could still feel them touch me and could feel pressure. The doctor said that this was normal.. that I would feel touch, but not the actual cutting. I was really scared at this point that I was going to feel something! So they did the initial cut which I didn't feel at all, and then someone went and got Dave.

Dave was fantastic and held my hand the whole time. He made me laugh a few times, not a good thing when doctors are cutting your stomach open! It only took like 5 minutes after the second cut before Joshua was born. We heard a little cry (such a good sign, as this meant that his lungs were good!!) and then they took him away so that the doctors could work on him. Before they did that, they verified that he was indeed a boy.

The doctors continued to work on me... the pressure and stuff was terrible... but endurable, I guess. After about 20 minutes of sewing, one of the nurses said that Dave could go and see Joshua. He was stable.. YAY! So off Dave went and I continued to get sewn up. 5 minutes of cutting and an hour of sewing.... wow. I was starting to feel "weird"... I think it was one of the doctors leaning on the top part of my abdomen, who knows, there were 2 down there doing whatever doctors do. Dave came back after a few minutes and told me that he was small but looked good... They were finally done and asked Dave to leave while they removed the cerclage. I don't really remember any of that. I found out later that they had given me some more drugs through my IV to knock me out for that part.

The next thing i remember was heading back to Labor and Delivery for my recovery. By this time, some of the spinal was wearing off. I had already started having major tremors/chills before we left the OR and they were getting worse. The nurse said this was normal after delivery, but I don't remember this happening after Arran or Emilee. I was shaking so badly and was starting to feel real pain. This was probably the worst moment in the whole ordeal. I was swearing like a trucker, dropping the "F" bomb a few times. They got me some warm blankets and some pain killers. It took about 15 minutes before the tremors went away and I was finally not in excruciating pain. Holy cow. It was all over. We have a son!