Baby Zoe has arrived!! Paul and I headed to the hospital at 5am on March 10 for my c-section. We got there and immediately began prepping for surgery. One of the first things the nurses did was give me an IV, and it was probably the worst part of the whole experience!! The first nurse saw a big vein and tried to get the IV in, but it didn't work and was EXTREMELY painful. So she tried the other arm, and it still didn't work. It hurt SO SO bad, and I became nauseous and light headed, and Paul said I turned a funny greenish color. So, they went to get the nurse who puts IVs in newborns, and she did it just fine. I didn't have a problem last time, but I guess the big veins sometimes are deceiving. Ugh. I was so happy when that was over!
After they finished checking my vitals and doing everything they rolled me down to the operating room. It was FREEZING and I was totally nervous so I was shivering pretty bad. They administered the spinal epidural, brought Paul in and began. It was really strange being completely numb from the ribs down, but luckily it wore off after a couple hours. It was probably about 20 minutes later and she was on her way out!! Zoe was crying before she was all the way out, and once she was all the way out she really showed off her lungs. The doctor and nurses all commented how big she was and when they finally weighed her she was NINE pounds! And, a week early, so I'm really glad we elected to do the c-section. My doc also said she did not look like she was going to be making an entrance into the world any time soon, so it was definitely the right choice.
The whole thing was over pretty quickly and I went back to my room to rest. I was pretty out of it for the whole day and could barely keep my eyes open due to the anesthesia. My parents were there and eventually went to get Thomas and Sophia from school in the afternoon to visit. Sophia's teacher made her an awesome 'Big Sister' crown and they were happy to see Mommy and the new baby.
I slept most of the day, and then the morphine started wearing off, making my face extremely itchy. It was really wierd and I could not stop rubbing my nose and face so they gave me benadryl to alleviate some of the itching. It went away by Friday (Zoe was born on Wed.), but it was definitely a very strange sensation.
I stayed in the hospital until Saturday, which was awesome because I was able to really rest knowing that Zoe was well taken care of in the nursery and brought to me whenever she was hungry. They would have released me on Friday, but my insurance paid for up to 5 days in the hospital, so I stayed an extra day. I think I would have been too tempted to do too much if I came home on Friday. As it was, I was in a good amount of pain when I got home, was pretty weak and it was made a bit worse by having to move around more to tend to the baby than I had to in the hospital.
I'm getting better slowly but surely. The doc said there were 7 layers of stitches, so it's no wonder that moving around and doing things have been pretty taxing. But, Zoe is doing very well. She's eating like a champ, and looked great at her first doctor appointment. She seems to have her days and nights mixed up because she sleeps awesome during the day and then doesn't really want to go to sleep in the evenings until 1 or 2am. So, we'll work on that, but in the meantime it is awesome to have my parents here to help because I don't know how I would survive otherwise. Thomas and Sophia are adjusting, and they haven't been going to daycare, which I think it causing some stress. Between the new baby, Mommy not being able to do much, having a totally different schedule than before, they are a little extra whiney, but that is to be expected.
Anyway, all is as well as can be expected at this point! We're tired, but absolutely loving our newest addition!
