Taking Stock
I'm blogging! And this morning, I even ran the dishwasher and put in a load of laundry! MY GOD. I'm doing STUFF.
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind for obvious reasons, but I think I've survived ok. It started out with a strange morning on the 9th of June, a day after my due date, when I went into labor and things progressed much faster than I imagined. TJ and I had been to all these classes and heard all sorts of advice from previous first-time mothers - we knew that babies don't just pop out like in the movies! It takes HOURS, potentially DAYS, and you aren't supposed to go to the hospital immediately at the first signs of contractions - you're supposed to wait until they are 1 minute long, four minutes apart, for an hour. I was so sure the whole process would take me 24 hours or worse, but by 11 am I was in so much pain that TJ and I and my mom jetted over to the hospital. By 12:30 pm, Sam was born.
But not the regular way. The escape hatch way. It turned out something was wrong -- some kind of placental abruption for those who want to google the condition, and almost as soon as I got into the hospital I was informed that I was having an emergency C-section STAT. Interestingly, at that point everything gets semi-hazy, but I do remember some things clearly: I remember them taking off my earrings and the ball chain around my neck where my wedding rings were. I remember them putting the gas mask on my face and thinking that it sure smelled funny. I remember not so much the waking up part, which I think took a while, but I remember them showing me Sam's footprints stamped on a piece of paper, and then they placed the baby up by my head - he was on my pillow, and believe it or not, he was frenching me! He was definitely trying to make out with me, or perhaps he was trying to suck milk out of my face... either way, it was a bit foggy but I remember it.
Later on, I gave some thought to how traumatic the whole thing was for TJ and for my mom. TJ told me he was very scared, and my mom would have been except no one really told her what was going on. She somehow got relegated to a remote waiting room and didn't even know I was having the emergency operation until after it was done. Once she knew about it, she was really worried about me even though the baby was already out and in TJ's arms - I can imagine them handing him a baby not more than five or ten minutes after I was wheeled away... "Here's your baby sir, have fun with that. We're gonna go back and stitch up your wife now, ok? Cool." It would have been nice to have that moment together, but what can you do?
I think it all worked out in the end. I am recovering pretty well, and Sam seems no worse for the wear. Plus, most importantly, I don't have any hemorrhoids! Nor stitches in my stuff! All that worrying, and nothing but a five inch scar under my bikini. I mean, under where I would be wearing a bikini, once I can actually imagine wearing a bikini again...
To be continued!
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind for obvious reasons, but I think I've survived ok. It started out with a strange morning on the 9th of June, a day after my due date, when I went into labor and things progressed much faster than I imagined. TJ and I had been to all these classes and heard all sorts of advice from previous first-time mothers - we knew that babies don't just pop out like in the movies! It takes HOURS, potentially DAYS, and you aren't supposed to go to the hospital immediately at the first signs of contractions - you're supposed to wait until they are 1 minute long, four minutes apart, for an hour. I was so sure the whole process would take me 24 hours or worse, but by 11 am I was in so much pain that TJ and I and my mom jetted over to the hospital. By 12:30 pm, Sam was born.
But not the regular way. The escape hatch way. It turned out something was wrong -- some kind of placental abruption for those who want to google the condition, and almost as soon as I got into the hospital I was informed that I was having an emergency C-section STAT. Interestingly, at that point everything gets semi-hazy, but I do remember some things clearly: I remember them taking off my earrings and the ball chain around my neck where my wedding rings were. I remember them putting the gas mask on my face and thinking that it sure smelled funny. I remember not so much the waking up part, which I think took a while, but I remember them showing me Sam's footprints stamped on a piece of paper, and then they placed the baby up by my head - he was on my pillow, and believe it or not, he was frenching me! He was definitely trying to make out with me, or perhaps he was trying to suck milk out of my face... either way, it was a bit foggy but I remember it.
Later on, I gave some thought to how traumatic the whole thing was for TJ and for my mom. TJ told me he was very scared, and my mom would have been except no one really told her what was going on. She somehow got relegated to a remote waiting room and didn't even know I was having the emergency operation until after it was done. Once she knew about it, she was really worried about me even though the baby was already out and in TJ's arms - I can imagine them handing him a baby not more than five or ten minutes after I was wheeled away... "Here's your baby sir, have fun with that. We're gonna go back and stitch up your wife now, ok? Cool." It would have been nice to have that moment together, but what can you do?
I think it all worked out in the end. I am recovering pretty well, and Sam seems no worse for the wear. Plus, most importantly, I don't have any hemorrhoids! Nor stitches in my stuff! All that worrying, and nothing but a five inch scar under my bikini. I mean, under where I would be wearing a bikini, once I can actually imagine wearing a bikini again...
To be continued!
posted by Dubin at 11:36 AM
1 Comments:
thank you for this! i was very curious as to how sam came into the world. my mom and mom in law were left hanging just like your mom was! what is up with hospitals not letting grandmothers in on details?! glad you guys are doing well. we're thinking about you!
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