In case you didn’t catch the memo, our family welcomed Townsend Ryan Mack to the world on March 29, 2013 at 7:45 am. He was a little porker compared to our oldest son and weighed 6 lbs 14 oz and was 19 ¼” long. But most importantly, he was healthy and to our standards, perfect!!!
In my opinion, our “birth story” is fairly boring. I was forced to have a c-section with my first son after learning he was breach. It just made sense to move forward with a second c-section, even though this second pregnancy technically would have allowed me to have a vaginal delivery. With my first pregnancy, I went into labor a night early and my husband and I were operating off of full blown adrenaline. I was desperately hoping that we would have a repeat of baby #1. I’m a fairly regimented person and live off of a schedule and a calendar. Baby #2’s delivery had been on the calendar since August 2012, but when it comes to having babies, I want some excitement, spontaneity, and the complete opposite from planned.
Alas, the days counted down to the 29th. We had to be at the hospital at 5:30 am, which meant a 3:15 am wakeup call in order to get “ready”. It’s very important to me to look good while giving birth. Here’s my short theory on that known fact about me:
- If you look good, you feel good… that’s my motto!
- I always try to look my best when meeting someone for the first time… why should meeting my child be any different? Rhetorical question, of course… please don’t answer because I totally understand he can’t see diddly squat.
- Pictures!!! There are always plenty of photo opportunities and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my hair in disarray and a makeup-less face to make it in the baby book for life or Facebook {duh!}.
- Since I do not technically have to do anything {c-section}, there’s no reason why I can’t at least put in the effort to look somewhat decent with a bit of effort in the makeup and hair department.
So yes, I showed up with full on makeup and rolled hair.
Ironically, I had the same anesthesiologist as I had when I gave birth to baby #1. Embarrassing fact: she totally remembered me by the fact that I was worried about how my hair looked with my first. I’d try to blame that on the drugs, but I just gave my version of appearance so I’m stuck.
All in all, we had a pretty smooth delivery. The experience is completely different being in active labor versus not being in active labor. This time I was VERY aware of everything. I had to be given oxygen because a.) the spinal block made my chest lazy so I had to really really focus on breathing and b.) I had SOOOOOO much anxiety that I could have sworn I was having a heart attack. In fact, the anesthesiologist had to assure me that my EKG was totally normal.
One strange thing that happened in the OR—one of the doctors asked my husband if he wanted to take a peek… I guess he peered over the huge drape right as my doctor was cutting out my previous c-section scar and was holding it with a pair of tweezers. Yeah, the look on my hub’s face said it all… he decided to stick by me for the remainder of the surgery.
I can’t wait to write a top list of “Things I Didn’t Expect with a C-section”, because being more aware made me way more… aware.
At 7:45 am this little doodle popped out and we seriously couldn’t be happier, blessed, excited, etcetera. It’s weird to say “my kids”, “my oldest”, “my youngest”; however, I’m getting the hang of it and am over the moon to have two beautiful healthy boys!
Was your delivery everything you hoped it would be?
