liam's birth story

where to begin?!

it's so weird to look back at this picture and imagine such a huge baby stuffed inside me! this was taken to document my last day being pregnant.

we had a surgery time of 12:30 which meant we had to be at the hospital at 10:00, which really meant we were sitting in the lobby until 10:50. finally they called us back into triage where i got into the gown and was strapped up to the machines. they did all a whole bunch of paper work and blood work and got my i.v. all set up. i had one of the nicest nurses assigned to me and i'll call her my nurse. i wouldn't say i was ever nervous but she really helped lighten the mood. 

another nurse walked in around 12:00 and said dr dixon was running about 15 minutes late, which apparently could mean anywhere between 15-45 minutes late so in the mean time they let my mom come back and hang out for a bit. my nurse was going over how the procedure was going to go and what all was going to happen so i would have an idea of what to expect. at one point she started talking about the spinal block and said that sometimes the medicine will flow to the top of the body instead of to the legs like it's supposed to. after that little scary story, we finally got the word that dr dixon was ready and we were off!

lance had to wait until they called him back to come in and i was never really sure when we were going to part our ways as we were walking to the OR so i kept on stopping and looking back at him and my nurse kept asking if i was ok like i was starting to get nervous. when we get to the OR i see dr sundstrom (an LDS OB at the office i go to) and he's asking how i'm feeling and if my parents are in the waiting room so i'm just thinking that i happen to run into him but then i find out that he'll be assisting dr dixon in the surgery which was nice to know that he'd be in there. i had all the confidence in dr dixon but having a member of my church in there was a relief.

so, once they opened the door to the actual OR my first thought was "crap, this is about to get real. this isn't grey's anatomy". i sat on the table for about 5 minutes while the nurses did their last minute things and then they got me set up for the spinal block. my worst fear is moving during a shot to my spine and getting paralyzed so i told myself no matter how bad it hurt, i wasn't going to jump. the anesthesiologist put that plastic sheeting on my back and pushed her nail marking where she needed to do the shot. then she did the numbing shot which stung like crazy and made me jump a whole lot but i could still feel my legs so i knew i was good. then came the real stuff. i just felt a little sting and that was all. almost instantly my toes started to tingle and i knew the medicine worked it's way down instead of up like the horror story my nurse told us.

right when she finished up they hurried me to lay down. my nurse asked if i could feel anything and said she was going to put the catheter in. next thing i see are my legs being moved around but not being able to feel anything at all. that was so weird. one thing i didn't expect was my hearing to fade some.

then dr dixon and dr sundstrom walk in and we get started. lance is eventually let into the room. i ask him if they've started and apparently they both had their hands in my open body and i didn't have a clue. lance was able to watch for a while but then he decided he should sit and take a breather for a second. then we heard dr dixon say for lance to get his camera ready.

they always say it just feels like a lot of tugging and pressure and thats exactly how it was. it felt like someone was sitting on my chest as they were pushing to get him out.

i think this must be the moment i heard dr dixon say "this is a two hander baby!"

on a gross note: you can see that liam didn't wait long before he pooed.

it was so surreal to hear a baby cry and think that it was my baby's cry. the instant they pulled him out  i felt so much lighter. i also heard one of the dr's say that i had the largest placenta they had ever seen. speaking of placentas, when we scheduled the c-section they asked us if we wanted to donate my placenta, amniotic fluid, and the cord for people with burned corneas or retinas or something like that. i didn't need them so i said sure. glad my large placenta could be used for a good cause.

see that pink thing in his hands? that's my uterus. outside of my body. apparently they were cleaning it off and then put it back in. they found something interesting about my uterus while they had it out though. they said it is shaped like a heart and most times when its like that there is a divider between the sides that makes carrying children nearly impossible. this also explained the rectangle shape my stomach had during braxton hicks.

while they were cleaning him up, everyone was talking about how big he was!

lance got to snip a few inches off the cord but felt silly doing it since it was already cut from me so he basically did it at the urging of the people there for reasons of  "tradition"

our first family photo! it was kind of hard for me to see what he looked like because lance didn't have experience with babies and was holding him upside down.

this was such a touching moment. you may not be able to see it but lance was crying before this picture. i haven't seen lance cry but maybe once or twice the whole time i've known him. the moment he sat down and was holding his son, he began to cry. i could see an instant change in him.

(lance always says this picture is bizarre to him because here i am looking normal as ever, yet my stomach is sliced open at the same time.)

just a few minutes later lance and liam were taken out to the recovery room while they closed me up.

in the OR i felt like it was taking a long time to close up and i was getting bored so i remember trying to talk to anyone i could and asked them what they thought he weighed so everyone in the room gave their estimate. most were guessing in the 9 lb range and finally we got the call with the results. 10 1/2 pounds!!! with a 15 cm head. as soon as those were read, dr dixon immediately told me that we made the right decision with a c-section.

liam's first bath.

to get out of the OR i had to get onto another gurney.  how do they do this when your legs are numb? they roll you to your side, which gives the sensation that you're falling off the table and you cling to anything you can grab, put a board underneath you, and lift you to the other table. then they wheeled me into the recovery room to be with my husband and son. this is the first time that i got to hold liam. the first thing i remember doing is trying to figure out who he looked like and not seeing either of us. looking back at these pictures now, liam looks so different than he does now.

a few minutes later i nursed liam for the first time while we waited to be moved to our postpartum room. my nurse told me that as soon as i could move my toes we could go upstairs. there was no way i could move my toes or feet. it was impossible. somehow they let us go anyways.

(funny story about this pose: lance was holding him and he was facing the other way and the person taking the picture told him to turn liam around and lance's response was "i haven't learned that move yet")

at TMH whenever a baby is born and is moved up to the post partum floor, they go past this "lullaby bell" that the mom pushes and it plays a little tune for the hallways of the hospital to hear.

after getting to our post partum room, i started getting really groggy and loopy and even threw up a few times. i felt no pain from the surgery though. not to brag, but i think i was the perfect c-section patient. the whole time in the hospital my pain level was always kept below a 4 or 5. the next morning they took my cathetor out and i was up and walking with no problems. we were discharged on monday and i took my last pain pill on tuesday. i was closed up with glue instead of stitches or staples so i think thats really helped with the pain and helps with how much i was able to get around.

now that it's almost been two weeks since liam's birth, i feel great! it's hard to believe i had major surgery just a few days ago! it has been tough getting up every two hours at least to feed liam but i wouldn't trade those early hours when it's just me and him. i couldn't have imagined a more beautiful and perfect baby to come to our family.