Going with the flow..

~Birth Story, Part II~

People with kids just laugh when you say, "Well I had planned to do such and such before the baby.."

I have definitely learned, you cannot plan a damn thing..

I had big plans for Thursday, the day between my last day of work Wednesday and the csection Friday. I was going to do the 5 loads of laundry that had piled up, and clean the house (our downstairs bathroom was absolutely filthy with toothpaste on the mirror and a scuzzy bathtub), and prepare some freezer meals like lasagna and casseroles..

Those plans changed drastically Wednesday afternoon when I was informed that baby boy was arriving in just a number of hours..

The nurse brought in scrubs, a scrub cap, and shoe covers for E to change into..

She jump started my IV for pre-op hydration..
We were told to hurry up and wait, as each department involved kept changing their go-time..
And then the anesthesiologist was ready for me, and E was directed to a chair outside "csection room 1" where he was to wait while I was prepped and received my spinal and foley catheter.

How strange, how utterly bizarre it was, to look down and see an OR nurse propping up what seemed and felt like someone elses legs to insert the catheter..
They called E into the OR, the lights went up, the curtain raised, and the show began.

Some strange tugging and pulling, and next thing I knew, the anesthesiologist was pulling a large mirror into view above my head- I raised my eyes and watched them deliver my son, feet first of course, stubborn little guy..

I heard his first cries, and over the curtain he peeked, wailing and all "River Monster" as E likes to say..

 The camera clicked furiously (after video recording the River Monster's arrival) and eventually the anesthesiologist became photographer as E watched them clean and record the foot prints of his firstborn.

After helping cut the umbilical cord, he was handed the teeny bundle and carried it over to me, and as the doctors stitched me up and closed up where he had lived snuggled close for the last 39weeks, I met Benjamin Ryan.