I have two children. Both by c-sections. Both different stories.
first one, my daughter, who is now 8.
I had taken prenatal, thinking it would be a 'naturel' child birth. Was terrified of that thought. haha. I'm a shy person. so, was mortified that at some point, this baby was coming out. !!!!!!!!!
However, at the due date time, nothing was happening. I did have to go in for stress tests for several days, had the membrane broke, by the doctor.
Nothing.
then, they realized she had went breech. I was too far along to do an inversion, so a C-section, planned THAT NIGHT !!!
I was already 2 weeks over. I was terrified again, by the thought of being cut open. But, I only had 4 hours to be stressed.
When I got booked in, I started having contractions, due to the dr. having broke my membrane earlier. Oh, good times, I was having. NOT.
went into the operation room, got the spinal meds, and I could feel them tugging and pulling on my belly. My hubby said it was a bit 'gross', seeing my insides laying on my ribs. ewwww. so glad I didn't opt for the mirror on the ceiling. and out she came. perfectly healthy, and very long !!! 23" long, 8lbs 10 oz.
the recovery was longer, yes, but, now just a memory. I had the blues. I think the blues was worse then the pain of recovery.
2nd baby, came almost 3 years later. I opted for the c-section this time, and had it booked two weeks before the due date.
more complications came with the second one. It took an hour in the operation room to prep me instead of the 10-15 minutes. I wouldn't freeze, they injected me in the back 3 times !!!!!! and every time they'd start to put the knife in, I'd feel it.
it took me 3x as long to unthaw after the operation and I had very mean nurses to boot, one basically treated me like a child and had no problems shaming me while helping me to breastfeed, which I already knew how to do, thanks to my first child. Not a good memory of that hospital.
On release I had a headache, which became worse and worse. the light hurt my eyes, I couldn't sleep, I was so ready to jump out my front window, off a cliff. I can't even describe the pain. I suffered for 24 hours. Apparently, it was a spinal headache, which could have easily been fixed by injecting my spinal column, with some of my blood. GOod thing they mentioned this upon my release , grrrr.
my son was born with slight jaundice. after being in the hospital, upon being discharged, he had lost the maximum weight allowed before going home.
on day 2 of being home, (I was sleeping on the couch as too much pain to get into bed.) I was awakened, mothers intuition I think. I turned the light on, my son was sleeping in the bassinet beside me. When I looked in at him, he was as red as a tomato, stiff as a board. I picked him up, not a sound, I couldn't bend him, I held him over my knee to try and get him to breath, cry, anything. He had mucous in his mouth. A problem with c-sections vs. naturally, they don't rid themselves of the mucous as well.
I yelled to my husband, my mother was visiting from out of province at the time, she came up. We called 911, and what felt like an eternity, the firemen showed up and then the ambulance.
I went with my son in the ambulance and we raced lights and sirens to the hospital, which was 20 minutes away.
we were in the emergency for about an hour, he was then taken into the ICU for a week, had needles in his feet everyday, his jaundice had flared up, he was so yellow. He had to do the light therapy, the incubator, the eye covers. broke my heart.
I was a mess, between missing my 2 year old daughter, my son in ICU, being kicked out of the hospital bed due to no room for moms of babies in there. and post partum blues, I was pretty useless.
My son is now almost 6 years old.
Point to my story. As hard as c-sections, births, first weeks go. In time, they are memories, stories.
But, in reality, new life, is a gift, it's a miracle. It's amazing !!!!!
do I wish it was easier, yes, do lots of pregnancies go smoother, for sure !!!!
I love being a mom, I love my kids, and I love having the stories.
I put myself on anti depressants as soon as I had my second, to ease the post partums, and it helped. Though, there were some tears and some heartaches, and some stresses with the hubby, as he didn't quite understand.
Do, I wish sometimes things had gone differently, yes.
But, it's past. and I am so happy to be able to say I've been there , done that and got the t-shirt.
