4/20/2010 ... what a day! A wonderful, magnificent, magical day that I will never forget. But, if I for some reason start to miss a few details, I want to make sure to get it down while it is still so fresh in my mind. Here's Raleigh's Birth Story:
Sarah Jane, George, and I got to the hospital at 7:00 a.m. that Tuesday morning. It was a sunny day - probably about 85 degrees outside. We checked in with the receptionist and then took our seat in the waiting room. They called me back about 5 minutes later and made George and SJ wait in the waiting room while I got ready for the surgery.
When I got to the back, I changed into a "lovely" hospital gown, they hooked up my IV, strapped on the baby monitors, and then they let George and SJ come back to join me. Sarah Jane checked out all my new medical hardware... she watched his little heartbeat on the monitor, asked all about the fluids in the IV, and gave me about a million kisses. George spent alot of time texting people and tweeting (what else would anyone that knows George expect from him?) and helping me answer the million questions from SJ--- When 8:00 rolled around, George walked my Janey Girl into the waiting room to sit with her Nana.
Various nurses and etc. came in and out for the next hour checking on this and monitoring tha... and then, finally it was time!
Dr. Smurda came in at 9:15 and escorted me to the operating room. I gave George one last look, and went with the Doctor... I sat on the bed and leaned my head onto a nurse's shoulder while the anesthesiologist put a spinal tap into my back... before I even had a chance to lay down, the feeling was gone in both of my feet. When I finally got situated on the table, my blood pressure dropped significantly and I felt like I was going to throw up - since I was numb from my ribcage down, the sweet nurse just held a pan by my face and let me throw up what little bit I had in my stomach into the pan and then she wiped my face off. I do not want her job. - she also covered me with lots of warm blankets and rubbed my hair out of my face until George got there.
When he came in, I was so relieved. I was a little woozy, probably from the medication, so my conversation skills weren't quite up to par - but George was GREAT! He held my hand talked me through the whole thing.
At about 10:05, I saw George's face light up and heard the cries from my new little man on the other side of the blue screen. I got to see him when they held him over the curtain for me. I cried alligator tears! I heard all of them say things like, Wow - what a head full of hair, and Oh my- he is huge!... The nurses took George's camera and took lots of pictures there in the operating room for us... they moved the weigh table into my eyesight so I could see them clean him up. George got to hold him as soon as they were done. For a surgical birth, it really couldn't have gone any better.
They hung around for a few minutes, but then they had to go get him all ready... so George followed the nurses and Raleigh to the nursery. They had to roll him through the waiting room to get to the nursery --- where Sarah Jane was waiting very patiently and she finally got to see him for the first time. After the big introduction, They stood at the window and watched him bathe, weigh, get measured, dress, and etc. --
In the meantime, I was still on the operating table. 2 hours later.. Dr. Smurda was finally done sewing me back together. Apparently, there was a lot of scar tissue left from my first incision and he spent alot of time cleaning me up so this incision would heal better (and it has).
I finally made it to recovery around 12:00 - and by 12:20 I was out of there, thanks to my friend, Amy, that arranged for me to have 2 nurses that only worked on me and got me out of there as quickly as possible.
I was so relieved when I finally got to the 5th floor and saw my Janey Girl standing there waiting for me. The smile on her face was one I will never forget. She was so excited!
When I made it to my room, the transport nurse moved me from the surgery bed to my official hospital bed and then they let my family come in.
The first time I held Raleigh in my arms was a moment that I will never forget. He was perfect - so tiny, so sweet, so amazing. It was wonderful to share that moment with the people that I love most - my George and my Janey Girl. I never knew that anything was missing in our family before, but from that moment - I knew that he was exactly what we needed, and so did they.
3 long days later, we finally came home from the hospital.
He's a great baby - sleeps 4-5 hour streaks at night, he NEVER cries (unless it's bath time), he nurses like a professional, and has compeletely stolen my heart - as well as everyone else's (including SJ).
Also, It was a blessing to be able to have Kim Russell there to photograph this special day - she was there for all the things that I missed out on while I was in surgery and in recovery. I couldn't imagine these pictures possibly being any better than they are - she did an amazing job! Here is a video that I made of Raleigh's big day from a few of the pictures that Kim took that day:
Sarah Jane, George, and I got to the hospital at 7:00 a.m. that Tuesday morning. It was a sunny day - probably about 85 degrees outside. We checked in with the receptionist and then took our seat in the waiting room. They called me back about 5 minutes later and made George and SJ wait in the waiting room while I got ready for the surgery.
When I got to the back, I changed into a "lovely" hospital gown, they hooked up my IV, strapped on the baby monitors, and then they let George and SJ come back to join me. Sarah Jane checked out all my new medical hardware... she watched his little heartbeat on the monitor, asked all about the fluids in the IV, and gave me about a million kisses. George spent alot of time texting people and tweeting (what else would anyone that knows George expect from him?) and helping me answer the million questions from SJ--- When 8:00 rolled around, George walked my Janey Girl into the waiting room to sit with her Nana.
Various nurses and etc. came in and out for the next hour checking on this and monitoring tha... and then, finally it was time!
Dr. Smurda came in at 9:15 and escorted me to the operating room. I gave George one last look, and went with the Doctor... I sat on the bed and leaned my head onto a nurse's shoulder while the anesthesiologist put a spinal tap into my back... before I even had a chance to lay down, the feeling was gone in both of my feet. When I finally got situated on the table, my blood pressure dropped significantly and I felt like I was going to throw up - since I was numb from my ribcage down, the sweet nurse just held a pan by my face and let me throw up what little bit I had in my stomach into the pan and then she wiped my face off. I do not want her job. - she also covered me with lots of warm blankets and rubbed my hair out of my face until George got there.
When he came in, I was so relieved. I was a little woozy, probably from the medication, so my conversation skills weren't quite up to par - but George was GREAT! He held my hand talked me through the whole thing.
At about 10:05, I saw George's face light up and heard the cries from my new little man on the other side of the blue screen. I got to see him when they held him over the curtain for me. I cried alligator tears! I heard all of them say things like, Wow - what a head full of hair, and Oh my- he is huge!... The nurses took George's camera and took lots of pictures there in the operating room for us... they moved the weigh table into my eyesight so I could see them clean him up. George got to hold him as soon as they were done. For a surgical birth, it really couldn't have gone any better.
They hung around for a few minutes, but then they had to go get him all ready... so George followed the nurses and Raleigh to the nursery. They had to roll him through the waiting room to get to the nursery --- where Sarah Jane was waiting very patiently and she finally got to see him for the first time. After the big introduction, They stood at the window and watched him bathe, weigh, get measured, dress, and etc. --
In the meantime, I was still on the operating table. 2 hours later.. Dr. Smurda was finally done sewing me back together. Apparently, there was a lot of scar tissue left from my first incision and he spent alot of time cleaning me up so this incision would heal better (and it has).
I finally made it to recovery around 12:00 - and by 12:20 I was out of there, thanks to my friend, Amy, that arranged for me to have 2 nurses that only worked on me and got me out of there as quickly as possible.
I was so relieved when I finally got to the 5th floor and saw my Janey Girl standing there waiting for me. The smile on her face was one I will never forget. She was so excited!
When I made it to my room, the transport nurse moved me from the surgery bed to my official hospital bed and then they let my family come in.
The first time I held Raleigh in my arms was a moment that I will never forget. He was perfect - so tiny, so sweet, so amazing. It was wonderful to share that moment with the people that I love most - my George and my Janey Girl. I never knew that anything was missing in our family before, but from that moment - I knew that he was exactly what we needed, and so did they.
3 long days later, we finally came home from the hospital.
He's a great baby - sleeps 4-5 hour streaks at night, he NEVER cries (unless it's bath time), he nurses like a professional, and has compeletely stolen my heart - as well as everyone else's (including SJ).
Also, It was a blessing to be able to have Kim Russell there to photograph this special day - she was there for all the things that I missed out on while I was in surgery and in recovery. I couldn't imagine these pictures possibly being any better than they are - she did an amazing job! Here is a video that I made of Raleigh's big day from a few of the pictures that Kim took that day:
Ignore my giganto face - they just pumped huge bags of IV fluids into my body
2 comments:
simply beautiful. I sat here crying. Thanks so much for sharing!
That is so wonderful...I am so hapy for all of you...take good care of them...they are gifts from God.
ACluck
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