Friday, January 12, 2007

Mia's Birth and First Few Days

Monday night we were up till midnight trying to get done as much as possible since I wasn't going to be home till atleast Thursday, Friday at the latest if I or she had a fever. My mom came and picked up Damien around 9:30 and he was all happy and willing to go until she got to her house. Then he started crying so hard he couldn't breathe and she asked me to come over and comfort him. It took alittle over a hour to get him to relax and sleep in the pack n play there so i got home around 10:45 from doing that. I actually got sleep this time till 4 AM that is, then we started getting up and around. By 5 am, Kathy (a family friend) came by for her duties of getting Dominic and Alex off to school. I still needed to do one thing and that was take care of the dogs so I went out to do that at about 5:10 right before we were to leave for the hospital. I got out there fine but when I tried taking a short cut through this wire horse fence we have, I tripped on one wire and flipped right through, somehow did a little somersault and landed flat on my back. I ended up with a huge bruise along my leg and a big baseball sized bruise on my arm. I was in near tears and could barely walk. I didn't even think anything about the fact that Mia could have been hurt so I hobbled to the car and drove up there to the hospital.





When we got there I hobbled to the elevator and up to the maternity ward. I told them sorry for walking so stupid but I just fell right before we left to come to the hospital. They started looking me over and discovered how beat up I got and got ahold of my OB to tell her. From then on it was constant monitoring because they were afraid I had stressed her out. I had never been checked this pregnancy but because of my lovely clutsiness, I had the opportunity of being checked. Of course another baby who would rather live in me forever. I was dialated to a 1 and 50% effaced. She was way high though and she couldn't even touch her head when checking me. As we sat there waiting around I kept hearing babies screaming. I kept looking at Dave shaking my head saying "I can't believe we're doing this again." But I didn't cry this time before surgery like I normally do.



I got my IV, Pepcid, and signed all the paperwork. Then I had a nurse anesliologist come and talk to me about everything. These guys who give epidurals and spinals at our hospital are so nice. Each time they have just been super caring and want to answer any questions or fears I may have. Finally around 7:30 they wheeled me in and Dave waited outside while they did all the prep. Alot of the staff was like "wow! your 4th C-section. You're a pro at this." Guess there's not many who attempt 4 sections? Brian (anestesologist) gave me my spinal and after that.....all was good. lol I was however alittle freaked out by one of the instrument techs training another girl and listening to their conversation such as how they count instuments and what Dr's do what different. After my OB did the pinch test and I was completely numb they started. About 15 seconds after she said "scalpel" she said "ohhh, lots of scar tissue in here Sabrina." My heart sorta dropped because I knew that this could be a really bad thing. She told me the surgery was going to be longer than usual and I said I know and that was the end of that. Dave started asking me "what's that mean?" because he could tell it upset me and that it meant something bad. She wasn't lying the surgery took atleast 1 hr 15 minutes. It took about 15-20 minutes just to get her out from cutting through the scar tissue and my Dr asked for 3 extra scalpels. When they got to her they discovered she was so high in my body and wedged that she wasn't going to come out willingly. I actually thought they had to do a vertical incision during this because they had such a hard time and you could tell they were stressing on how to get her out. Finally standing on a stepstool the other OB in her practice started pressing on my gut so hard I thought I was going to pass out from the pain of it. I kept saying "oh god oh god that hurts!!" They kept apologizing and saying she's stuck and telling each other to try this and that to get her loose. She kept grabbing my OB's hand though which she thought was hilarious. I didn't obviously because they were killing me pressing so hard. My Dr finally got ahold of her and pulled her out and said "oh my gosh this one's big too!!!" Meaning that she was big like Damien. They brought her around the drape and she had so much hair and was so chubby! Looked alot like Alex at birth which was what I expected except for the chubby part since Alex only weighed in at 6 lbs 10z.



It seemed like the end of the surgery took forever. I started feeling my chest getting heavy and said maybe it's not the fact I can't breathe it's just the position I'm in so they got a pillow and that helped quite a bit. Brian kept giving me the play by play on what they were doing. Finally he said we were coming to the end. We got wheeled back into the room and I started munching on ice chips. Since she was under 9 lbs and wasn't tested for Gestational Diabetes like Damien was, they brought her in right away which was great. I wanted to kill the nurses last time for torturing me for 2 hours after Damien's birth. My dad and his wife and Kathy were the first visitors she had. My mom came by with Damien a few hours later. He of course didn't understand what was going on but sure knew he didn't like me at the moment. My whole hospital stay he wouldn't come near me and kept saying 'uh uh!" The rest of the day Tuesday was a blur. Lots of people in and out, lots of pain by the end of afternoon. Dominic stayed at Kathy's house afterschool and Alex came up around 6 PM with my Mom who picked her up afterschool. Dave went home with the kids though around 7ish to start the night time routine with them and get them to bed. We decided he would jus stay home with them the first night which was fine till it got late and I was going to have to do everything myself with Mia.



I had her stay in the nursery and asked for her to be brought in every 2-3 hours. These nurses were retarded though and this one told me "oh she's content and hasn't waken at all, I don't think you need to feed her." What?? I was always taught the best way to keep your supply up is to nurse often but whatever. By morning since she only came in at 2 AM I was pretty well rested and wanted out of bed. I wanted the freakin cath out, the IV out and I wanted to try walking. NO ONE would help me. Infact 3 nurses came in saying they were going to do this, that or the other and then they wouldn't come back!! Finally I called my mom and told D to hurry and get his ass up there because I'm getting pissed because the nurses won't help. My mom decided though to call and bitch. nice! One nurse that HAD helped me that morning came in and got me out of bed and was talking to my mom on the phone when she came in the room. I was hot my mom did that but oh well. She took out the cath and my IV and got me up and to the bathroom. After that we worked on getting me in the shower and taking off the horrible bandage on my wound which about killed me. I felt so much better after the shower!



Later Wednesday, my mom came by with the kids. Dominic and Damien were obviously still hating me. They threw themselves all over the floor crying and wouldn't come to me at all. Neither wanted to see Mia and it was just a big bawl fest. Alex was great though! LOL My mom insisted Damien had an ear infection but D and I knew it was from all the changes the past 2 days. Damien hadn't even got a nap Tuesday or Wednesday. I couldn't believe Mia slept completely through their crying fits. You could tell my mom was stressed by them so Dave took them home for their evening bedtime routine and came back at 10 PM when they were settled and all asleep. My sister Mandi stayed the night with the kids just so he could stay the night. Thanks Mandi! Mia roomed in with us and it was crazy. I guess the nurses weren't lying. She tried to sleep the whole night but did wake once around 3 ish. Waking once a night is fine by me!!




Thursday morning Mia pooped and pooped so much that she ruined the use of her coming home blanket. Grrr! Then at 7 AM a nurse came in telling me they were going to have to boot us out of the maternity wing because they needed the room and I was the first one there that had our baby. I asked instead of that if we could just leave. At first she said that would work and she'd call our OB to come up and get us out so I told her I'd jump in the shower real quick. 5 minutes later however she called back saying that our OB was booting out one of her other patients and I would have to wait till after her morning meeting, then she'd come spring me out. I begged the nurse to call her back and tell her about the day before with the boys and how hard they were taking me being in the hospital so she did. My OB decided to swing by 10 minutes before her meeting to get me out since she understood why I needed to go. She has 6 kids herself.




We got home with Mia and the boys were so happy. Alex was at school already since it was 9 AM but both boys got to see her when we first walked in. Dominic kept saying "it's my baby Mia!" Damien was running around all excited which shocked us with how he acted at the hospital. I think just seeing me so run down, hurting and being in there upset them. He's tried batting at her a few times but all and all I think he loves her, he just won't kiss her yet. He loves watching me feed her and change her diaper though, especially poop his eyeballs get real big when he sees her runny poop. lol I use my other arm to play or touch him when I feed her so he doesn't feel left out. I think he knows that Mommy still loves him though and he's still my baby.



2 comments:

S said...

See you are a pro and you came out just fine! Four beautiful little ones to love and cherish! You are amazing Sabrina - I am in awe of you! Loving the pictures too! Please don't try to do too much and rest when you can! Reading your birth story brought me to tears remembering Adam. It's so wonderful! Oh and I'm jealous of having the baby in the nursery! Here the baby is always with you! The only nursery is the NICU!!

Sara K. Parker said...

Sabrina, oh my! what a story! LOL. And what a huge bruise, oh my gosh. Anyhow, I was literally at the edge of my seat reading about how Mia was STUCK and the doctors were pushing on you to get her out!!! I mean, obviously, I knew she was fine in the end, but that would have really freaked me out!

I just love the picture of Damien and Mia. He really does look exhausted! Poor little guy, not getting his naps, and being all confused. But despite his exhaustion, he just looks relieved to have his mom back, and to be back in his house. I don't know how you find the time to come on here and post. I'm glad you do, but please take it easy. I don't know how you are up and about with four kids. You seem so easy-going about it all...I really admire that.

Love,
Sara