Out of 5 childbirths, this one was by far the best I've had. In the weeks leading up to the birth, I had spent time praying about everything I was worried about and I believe it helped a lot in staying calm before, during, and after birth.
My husband was able to photograph the birth and someone who worked in the maternity department video taped for us.
The anesthesiologist turned down the volume on the heart monitor- I don't even remember hearing it during the surgery at all, which was nice because listening to it had made me very nervous with the previous 2 c-sections. The nurses said it was okay for me to take an Ipod into the O.R., so I was able to listen to music in one ear (the other ear phone I left out to hear what was going on) to help me relax as they started the surgery.
When it was time to pull the baby out, they lowered the screen so that I could see the baby's head, but not my incision or anything like that. His head was already out at that point and he started to cry before he was even born : ) The doctor suctioned his nose and throat out real well while he was still mostly in the womb and I was able to watch the whole thing. And then for the first time I was able to see one of my baby's being born. It was amazing!
My baby was taken to the warmer and suctioned out some more and dried off well. Then the nurse weighed and measured him a few feet away from where I was so that I could watch. He was then bundled up and my husband carried him over by me so I could touch him too.
The doctor, nurses, and anesthesiologist continued to keep me updated on how I was doing during the rest of the surgery. They were very reassuring.
Once they were done stitching me up, the anesthesiologist took some pictures of my husband and I with the baby. They moved me onto a different bed and then I was wheeled back to my room (no recovery room- just straight back to my regular room) with my baby lying next to me. There was no separation from my baby at all.
As soon as we were in the room, the nurse helped me get skin to skin with the baby so that I could have the baby nurse. He ended up nursing great right away!
We waited on having Baby bathed until the afternoon, and when they did clean him up, they did it in our room so I was able to watch.
My mother and father-in-law came with our other children to meet the baby about 6 1/2 hours after he was born. The kids were excited to meet their new little brother!
The rest of my recovery went really well. My uterus clamped down right away, so no problems with clotting or excessive bleeding. I had fantastic nurses and a wonderful hospital stay. I feel MUCH better than when I was pregnant, (I was in a huge amount of pain the last 8 weeks of pregnancy).
Despite all the contractions I had had for weeks/months leading up to the birth (including contractions 3 min. apart during the 2 hours leading up to the c-section), as well as the immense pain along my lower abdomen during the past month, my uterus wasn't all that thin and actually looked okay. I shouldn't have worried so much about it.
My baby is 6 days old now and is a healthy little guy. My milk came in either yesterday or the night before. It hasn't been any problem getting up and down stairs as I was afraid it would be. My incision still hurts- it's feels like a giant paper cut. However, the pain isn't too noticeable when I take the pain meds.
So after 3 really stressful births and 1 good birth experience (my 3rd. baby), I finally had one where everything went as perfect as can be.
