September 18, 2012, at 10:10 AM
This is the first blog I've ever written. But its not the first one that I've every read, so I'm using a "jump break" so that you don't have to read this whole post if you don't want. It could get long. Short story: the delivery was text book c-section. 9lbs 3oz. Vera and Vicki both did beautifully. Click "Read more" below to, well, you get the idea.
We left the house at 6:40 AM for Salem Hospital. It was a Tuesday.
They told us to be there at 7:00 for a 9:00 scheduled C-section. We were only in the waiting room for a few minutes before they called us in. Little did we know, one of our favorite nurses from Griffin's delivery, Dianna, was our nurse for the day. Yeehoo!
They hooked up the fetal monitor and Vicki had to answer a bunch of questions. Sue (another awesome nurse) and Dianna brought all kinds of post-delivery things into what would be Vicki's and Vera's room for the next 5 days. Mostly lady things, you get the idea. Enough said about the lady things. I won't mention the lady things again.
The anesthesiologist and her nurse came in to introduce themselves at about 8:30, both of whom were awesome. Holy peat - if you are having a C-section, get to know these people. They're the only two you'll see during the procedure because they're at the head end of the table and they're done with their active part and now just making sure you don't feel anything.
Then we saw the OB for a few minutes. Vicki signed some consents. Vicki had taken the time the night before to say a just-in-case goodbye to me in case something went wrong. This made it easy to keep the mood light in what is really a pretty serious situation. Childbirth still has plenty of risks no matter how you do it.
We handed the nurse our CD of Hawaiian music to play during the operation (really!). The docs and nurses had a little pow-wow to review the surgery plan. We waited in Vicki's room. There was a student nurse shadowing Dianna and she brought me a glass of orange juice before we went to the operating room. That was nice.
We walked to the operating room about 9:30. "Lets go have a baby!" we all said (cheered?) and took pictures. It was so weird and welcomed compared to last time's 36 hour ordeal leading up to Griffin's birth. I'm surprised there weren't more high fives before, during, and after the delivery. It was that good.
I waited outside and suited up while they did the epidural and anesthesia. I enjoyed (ok, nervously choked down) my cup of OJ and heard our friend Carrie's voice (she works in the birthplace) from down the hall so I went to say hi and she promptly left me to go see Vicki in the operating room. They got everything set up before I came in.
Mostly I remember chatting with the anesthesiologist during the operation, which was calming. She talked about raising her two kids and periodically told us what was going on on the other side of the curtain. Oh yeah: there's a curtain. The first dad rule of C-sections is you don't talk about or wonder or look at the other side of the curtain. Mike George told me that. But I wondered and I even stood up off of my stainless steel stool and peeked once ("Sir, sit down please" our very kind and very good OB said. Good advice!).
Vicki's nose itched, so I scratched and picked it for her. When they noticed this, they offered her and O2 mask, rather than the nasal canula she had started with.
Vicki's nose itched, so I scratched and picked it for her. When they noticed this, they offered her and O2 mask, rather than the nasal canula she had started with.
The other thing I remember is that one of the doctor's feet moved close to the head end of the table to brace her for the literal push that they do to get Vera out. Apparently you need leg-triangulation to squeeze a 9lb 3oz baby through a cesarian section I guess. Vicki didn't slide down the table with this push (maybe her legs were strapped down?), but it seemed close.
And then Vera was there.
They handed her right to Marie, the baby doctor (in keeping with this whole "We had the best team taking care of us" theme, Marie was also awesome). They told me I was cutting the cord right then. OKsoundsgoodI'mstillnotpassedoutsowhynot. Not to sever Vera from Vicki (they'd already done that behind the curtain - remember, don't ask). But I trimmed off the excess length off of Vera's belly button. It was cool.
My second favorite part of the whole operating room experience was after they foot printed her for the records, Marie asked me if I wanted foot print tattoo on my arm. Heck yes I did. It also resulted in one of my favorite pics of the day. Note that I have Vicki's rings on my wristband there. It seems like they had all of the Vera checks done in 10 seconds. It was probably more like 4 or 5 minutes before Vera was all swaddled up and they handed her to me.
My first favorite part of the operating room experience was the first family moment where Vicki and I got to hold her close and say we loved her and the three of us cried, though maybe for different reasons. Vera had never seen bright lights and was still getting used to this whole "breathing" thing. Vicki and I were just so relieved and elated to be double the parents we were before, and Vera was perfect.
OK, yeah I was right. It got long. Sorry - the other ones will be shorter. This is just really important to me. I want to remember it forever.
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