I still thought that we would likely get to the hospital and they would send us home to finish our lo mein and wait for our doc appt the next day. I thought this so surely that we almost didn't bring our bags for the hospital, but at the last minute we decided to play it safe. We grabbed a cab and loaded up and headed to NY Downtown. Of course, there was construction on Bowery, so it took a bit to arrive...
Once we arrived, everyone was very helpful. They took my into triage and put on the monitors and examined me. The good news was the baby was totally fine- great heart beat and fluid levels...everything with her looked great. The bad news was that the sonogram showed that my placenta looked to be blocking the way out and they would have to do an emergency C-section.
Now I had prepared myself for many scenarios with having this baby, but this was not one I had considered. I had skipped this section in all the books and basically not considered it as an option at all. Now I was told that I was being prepped for surgery and the baby would be out within the hour- not exactly part of my birth plan!
I didn't have much time to fret though, Eddie was in scrubs and we were in the OR within the hour.
The surgery itself was pretty scary. I had seen C-sections on TV, but nothing prepares you for that being YOUR body and you being fully awake. Also, it took what felt like forever...come to find out the surgery was complicated even more because they had to cut through the placenta to get to the baby...not the norm. So the exit wasn't totally blocked like they'd assumed, but the placenta was pulling away from the wall of the uterus, which caused the bleeding and could be dangerous for me and the baby. Thankfully my doc was cautious enough to get her out quickly and safely.
Eddie was next to my head the whole time and we got to hear her little cry for the first time as soon as she was born- 2am on the dot. She weighed in at 7 lb 6 oz and was 20 in long! Tall and skinny like her daddy :)
Eddie got to go with her to the nursery while I was stitched up- another long process. Then they wheeled me into recovery and brought little Mattie Rae in to hang out while they set up our room.
Once we made it to our room it was about 430 AM and we were exhausted. Mattie nursed for the first time and was instantly a pro at it- we were thrilled. The pediatrician and doctors start rounds at 5, so we did not sleep at all. So Tuesday was really rough for me...I really was not prepared for major surgery at all.
Tuesday night the doc recommended that Mattie sleep in the nursery because my blood pressure was really low and I needed to rest, but apparently Mattie didn't like that idea- they brought her back at 130 because she was upset and wanted mom and dad. But Wednesday and Thursday night she cooperated and slept in the nursery from 12-430 so that mom and dad could sleep a little. It totally changed things for me and I really felt better after sleeping a few hours. I felt so bad sending her, but knew I did the right thing when Eddie and I could both function on Thursday! It had literally been almost 72 hours since we'd slept at that point.
On Thursday I finally felt well enough to shower, so Aunt Tink (aka Wendy) stayed in the room with Matilda while Eddie helped me shower. Felt great to be clean! It's tough doing normal tasks with the incision pain, but I'm trying. Eddie was great and did all the diaper changing and lifting.
We finally got to come home on Friday. Wendy and Mom came to the hospital to help while Eddie went and got a Zipcar to bring us all home. Eddie had also decorated our apartment building with balloons-so sweet!
Here are some great pics from the hospital and homecoming:
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