Baby H: Birth Story Pt 2

John had loaded all of our bags into the car, moved the carseat and base from my car to his (we hadn't installed the base in his car yet- our inspection wasn't for another week!). We got in the car and looked at each other. Then  John turned on the CD player- Metallica's Enter Sandman came on. Any Hokies recognize the significance of this- it is played before/as the football team comes onto the field at all of our games. It is a big GET PUMPED song. LOL. I (again) almost started crying.

Once we got to the hospital, we went to the front desk (bonus for delivering during the day- we didn't have to go through the ER) and they told us to go register. That took a lot longer than I expected it would, especially since while I wasn't having an emergency c-section, it was definitely a little more urgent than a planned surgery. Eventually we were escorted upstairs to the maternity wing.

I was weighed and brought to a room to change into a gown. Then I was stuck in bed. My nurse hooked me up to my fluids and eventually antibiotics (due to my heart stuff and I was group B strep positive). Then we just had a lot of sitting and waiting (and starving! I hadn't eaten since 7:30 am!).. My doctor came in and told me it was probably going to be 5ish when I went into surgery- once that came and everyone could get assembled it would be go time. The anesthesiologist came in at one point too to review the spinal with me (ugh). Other than that, we did a lot of TV watching (the hospital had cable!). Somehow, we haven't had cable for over a year, yet every single episode of My First Place that came on, I had already seen. Awesome.

Also- apparently I was having impressive contractions. The nurses thought it was crazy that I had no idea.

I also spent a lot of time reading the room service menu- I hadn't eaten in SO LONG!

After a lot of watching the clock, it was eventually 5 PM. And nothing... 6 PM came and someone came in and told us that there was someone else who was delivering twins and they needed to make sure she could have her c-section first, so I was pushed back more. Probably closer to 7 or 8. More waiting.

 

At 8:30, they came in to get John dressed in his scrubs. The anesthesiologist and a nurse got me out of my bed and walked me to the OR. John had to go in a side room and scrub while they did my spinal. That was the worst part- ugh. The spinal freaked me out SO MUCH. I HATED IT. I hate puke and the doctor told me that a lot of people puke, so I was petrified of that. I was trying to do positive visualizations to make myself feel better (beach in St.Lucia, and running and crossing the finish line) but the dang nurse kept talking to me! LADY LET ME BE IN MY OWN HEAD!

Eventually (it felt like YEARS!) the spinal was in and they laid me down. Pretty quickly I lost feeling from my chest-ish (?) down. I HATED IT. I can't say that enough. I kept feeling like I needed to fidget/wiggle my legs, etc. and I would try and couldn't. I eventually kept just telling myself to not even try because that freaked me out more.

John came into the OR and was told to stand by my head. They tested me to make sure the spinal had taken effect. I did feel something, but I think it was just more pressure than pain. Then... there was a lot of tugging, an awful burning smell (John and I both thought it smelled like the dentist when they sand down your teeth?) and more tugging. It felt gross. I just couldn't think about what was going on. I honestly have no idea how long this all went on for- I tried to just zone out.

Soon the doctor and nurses were saying that they saw the legs and they knew the sex. They asked if John wanted to say what it was- YES PLEASE! He wanted to confirm first though, so he looked over (yup- saw all the guts) and then looked at me and told me it was a BOY!

I was.. shocked. I wanted a boy but had convinced myself it was a girl (so I wouldn't be disappointed if it was a girl?). The doctor's asked the name..we told them the name and they asked if there was a middle name- I looked at John but he had forgotten which middle name went with which first name, so I called it. Haha.

Lane Vincent was born at 9:07 PM on February 11, 2014. He weighed 7 lbs 5 oz and was 20.25 inches long.