He's here!
Elijah Justin was born on March 2, 2009 at 10:49 am. He weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces and was 21 inches long, earning him the nickname, "Our Little Linebacker."
What a difference two years makes. When Baby H was born, I was excited to finally meet my little guy, but not so excited about the circumstances that surrounded his birth. This time around, I was confident in my choice of a c-section, and I think that it was reflected in my attitude.
We got to the hospital at 8:00 am (thankfully, the storm that threatened the East Coast that day was not an issue) and the first two hours were all a blur of checking in, meeting my nurse and the anesthesologist, having one final NST, etc. I was in great spirits walking into the operating room, and although I was very nausous during the entire procedure, it went really well - hubby was so great during the whole surgery and kept me smiling throuhout. In less than 20 minutes, we were meeting Baby Elijah for the very first time.
I'll be the first to admit that I was a bit surprised to learn that we had another boy, but delighted nonetheless. Looking at him for the first time, I was blown away by how beautiful he was - and how fortunate we were to have another perfectly healthy little boy.
Hubby went to tell our family the good news and accompany the baby to the nursery while the doctors and nurses stitched me up. Again, the entire procedure was rather uneventful - I was chatting with my doctor and the nurses the entire time.
Before I knew it, I was being taken back to my room and nursing Elijah for the first time. Hubby and I spent some time getting to know our new little boy, and by 2:30 or so, my mom and dad, brother and his girlfriend, and Nana had all stopped by to visit, bring hubby some lunch and meet the baby.
It was at this time that our perfect day started to go wrong. (Warning: If you are pregant, you may not want to read on...)
I am laying in bed, watching my family play "pass the baby," when I started to feel really bad. At first, I thought that it had to do with the spinal wearing off, but the pain just kept getting worse. I tried not to think about it, but after a few minutes I couldn't focus on anything else. Then I started sweating and getting dizzy.
At this point, I mentioned to hubby that I think I needed to call the nurse for some more pain medication. Everyone else left, and I buzzed the nurse to see if it would be possible to get some stronger pain medication. They buzzed me back to let me know that I wasn't due for anything else for another 45 minutes. Normally, I would've just dealt with it until my next round of medication. But I was pretty convinced that something was wrong, so I requested that the nurse just come in for a minute to make sure that everything was okay.
Right away, she came in and took a look at me. All was well until she lifted up my sheet - I swear, all of the color left her face as she walked out into the hallway and yelled, "I need some help in here."
Before I knew it, the room was filled with people. Hubby was just standing in the corner, holding Elijah while they started trying to stabilize me. There were a million things going on at once - someone was holding my feet up, I was connected to all sorts of tubes and wires, hooked up to oxygen and they brought down that giant lamp that they use for surgeries.
Within 10 minutes, my doctor was in my room, where at this point, she kicked hubby and Elijah out. What happened next felt like it only took a few minutes - I was so out of it - but according to hubby, it was much longer.
To make a long story short, I suffered from what is known as "postpartum hemorrhage" - basically, for whatever reason, I started bleeding uncontrollably and it took some major intervention to get it to stop. According to the doctor, I lost 4 times as much blood postpartum - in the span of just a couple of hours - as I did during the entire c-section.
Thankfully, I didn't know what was going on while they were working to get it under control, which is a blessing - I am sure that I would've been completely freaked out. And I am fortunate that I spoke up as quickly as I did - the outcome could've been far worse.
As a result, I ended up spending an extra two days in the hospital, and have a long road to recovery ahead of me. I am pretty much prohibited from doing anything besides breathing in the weeks ahead. My blood count is still very low, and I need to be focused on bringing it back up to normal levels. But given my experience, I am just thankful to be around for my newly-expanded family...
Now that the immediate danger is over, there are a couple of questions that I am hoping will be answered:
1. Why did it happen? My doctor mentioned that they are running a lot of tests to try and determine whether there was something wrong with my placenta, or if it was just a fluke thing.
2. What does it mean for the future? Hubby and I are perfectly happy with our family of four, but we had been talking about the possibility of a third child sometime in the future. Is it something that we can consider down the road?
I have spent the weekend trying to fully grasp what happened to me, and what could've happened. Feeling a little weepy (and extremely tired), but thankful that I am going to be okay. Next on my agenda is to take Baby E to his first pediatrician's appointment tomorrow, then schedule all of my follow-up appointments for the weeks ahead.
Although my birth story was not 100 percent the happy event that I expected it to be, I cannot emphasize enough how fortunate and happy I am to have Elijah in my life. Here are a few pictures (all taken before "the incident"):
Pre c-section
First family photo - isn't he beautiful?
My beautiful baby boy
Mommy and baby
Me, hubby and baby
What a difference two years makes. When Baby H was born, I was excited to finally meet my little guy, but not so excited about the circumstances that surrounded his birth. This time around, I was confident in my choice of a c-section, and I think that it was reflected in my attitude.
We got to the hospital at 8:00 am (thankfully, the storm that threatened the East Coast that day was not an issue) and the first two hours were all a blur of checking in, meeting my nurse and the anesthesologist, having one final NST, etc. I was in great spirits walking into the operating room, and although I was very nausous during the entire procedure, it went really well - hubby was so great during the whole surgery and kept me smiling throuhout. In less than 20 minutes, we were meeting Baby Elijah for the very first time.
I'll be the first to admit that I was a bit surprised to learn that we had another boy, but delighted nonetheless. Looking at him for the first time, I was blown away by how beautiful he was - and how fortunate we were to have another perfectly healthy little boy.
Hubby went to tell our family the good news and accompany the baby to the nursery while the doctors and nurses stitched me up. Again, the entire procedure was rather uneventful - I was chatting with my doctor and the nurses the entire time.
Before I knew it, I was being taken back to my room and nursing Elijah for the first time. Hubby and I spent some time getting to know our new little boy, and by 2:30 or so, my mom and dad, brother and his girlfriend, and Nana had all stopped by to visit, bring hubby some lunch and meet the baby.
It was at this time that our perfect day started to go wrong. (Warning: If you are pregant, you may not want to read on...)
I am laying in bed, watching my family play "pass the baby," when I started to feel really bad. At first, I thought that it had to do with the spinal wearing off, but the pain just kept getting worse. I tried not to think about it, but after a few minutes I couldn't focus on anything else. Then I started sweating and getting dizzy.
At this point, I mentioned to hubby that I think I needed to call the nurse for some more pain medication. Everyone else left, and I buzzed the nurse to see if it would be possible to get some stronger pain medication. They buzzed me back to let me know that I wasn't due for anything else for another 45 minutes. Normally, I would've just dealt with it until my next round of medication. But I was pretty convinced that something was wrong, so I requested that the nurse just come in for a minute to make sure that everything was okay.
Right away, she came in and took a look at me. All was well until she lifted up my sheet - I swear, all of the color left her face as she walked out into the hallway and yelled, "I need some help in here."
Before I knew it, the room was filled with people. Hubby was just standing in the corner, holding Elijah while they started trying to stabilize me. There were a million things going on at once - someone was holding my feet up, I was connected to all sorts of tubes and wires, hooked up to oxygen and they brought down that giant lamp that they use for surgeries.
Within 10 minutes, my doctor was in my room, where at this point, she kicked hubby and Elijah out. What happened next felt like it only took a few minutes - I was so out of it - but according to hubby, it was much longer.
To make a long story short, I suffered from what is known as "postpartum hemorrhage" - basically, for whatever reason, I started bleeding uncontrollably and it took some major intervention to get it to stop. According to the doctor, I lost 4 times as much blood postpartum - in the span of just a couple of hours - as I did during the entire c-section.
Thankfully, I didn't know what was going on while they were working to get it under control, which is a blessing - I am sure that I would've been completely freaked out. And I am fortunate that I spoke up as quickly as I did - the outcome could've been far worse.
As a result, I ended up spending an extra two days in the hospital, and have a long road to recovery ahead of me. I am pretty much prohibited from doing anything besides breathing in the weeks ahead. My blood count is still very low, and I need to be focused on bringing it back up to normal levels. But given my experience, I am just thankful to be around for my newly-expanded family...
Now that the immediate danger is over, there are a couple of questions that I am hoping will be answered:
1. Why did it happen? My doctor mentioned that they are running a lot of tests to try and determine whether there was something wrong with my placenta, or if it was just a fluke thing.
2. What does it mean for the future? Hubby and I are perfectly happy with our family of four, but we had been talking about the possibility of a third child sometime in the future. Is it something that we can consider down the road?
I have spent the weekend trying to fully grasp what happened to me, and what could've happened. Feeling a little weepy (and extremely tired), but thankful that I am going to be okay. Next on my agenda is to take Baby E to his first pediatrician's appointment tomorrow, then schedule all of my follow-up appointments for the weeks ahead.
Although my birth story was not 100 percent the happy event that I expected it to be, I cannot emphasize enough how fortunate and happy I am to have Elijah in my life. Here are a few pictures (all taken before "the incident"):
Pre c-section
First family photo - isn't he beautiful?
My beautiful baby boy
Mommy and baby
Me, hubby and baby
posted by Daisy | 6:38 PM
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