Monday morning we arrived at the hospital at 7:30 am. The nurse checking us in said that they had a big rush of women come in in labor the night before, some of which were high risk, so everyone was very busy and both scheduled c-sections were going to be pushed back a bit. Since they were so busy we were put into a triage room closer to the nursing station, hooked up to monitors and given an IV. After about two hours it was clear that this was going to be a long day of waiting since the scheduled c-section before me still hadn't gone into the operating room. We were finally moved into our actual room and were so thankful, this room was much bigger and had a TV. A little Kelly and Michael, The Today Show, and Friends was the perfect recipe to help keep me calm while I waited.
We had a lot of visitors anxiously awaiting Hailey's arrival.
Our doctor came in and spoke with us about the surgery and gave me an ultrasound to make sure Hailey was still breech. Our doctor was FABULOUS! He came into our room, which was FULL of family, he let everyone stay, answered all of our questions and was so reassuring that everything was going to be fine.
They gave J his outfit to wear in the OR. Even though he kept telling me he wasn't nervous at all, just so excited, he was clearly scared to death of what Hailey and I were about to go through.
Finally it was go time! The nurses came in, made me drink the most disgusting grape drink, and lead me to the OR.
I walked into the room and climbed up on the operating table. I was hooked up to a bunch of monitors and given my spinal. My legs started getting numb instantly, followed quickly by the rest of my body up to my chest. All of the operating staff came into the room and started putting up tarps and prepping my belly. I started getting very cold and shaking so the anesthesiologist put a bunch of warm blankets and an electric hot air blower thing on me. J finally came into the room, he was so strong and kept trying to tell me everything was ok, but we both were truly terrified. Seconds after he sat by my side the doctor yelled "hey! She's mooning us! I see a butt!" I could feel the nurse pressing on my stomach trying to push Hailey out. Then J said "oh she looks so good! She's out! She's so good!" I still hadn't heard her cry, J was trying to assure me she was moving and looked ok, but didn't want to leave me alone on the table, so I told him "well go get her!" He ran over and snapped a bunch of pictures as they suctioned and wiped her clean. (He was an excellent photographer, I had told him all I wanted were some pictures because being all strapped down I wouldn't get to experience anything. So he took his job seriously.) Then I heard the cry. It was more like a bark than a cry at first, but it was the most beautiful noise I had ever heard.
She made it out!
J took this after Hailey was out, this is me telling him to go get her!
The nurse came over to me with Hailey and I frantically started throwing all of the blankets off of me so I could get my girl on my skin. She laid her down and I was in love. As she let go she told J his only job was to make sure Hailey didn't fall on the floor. There was no chance of that happening, I had a kung foo grip on her. The nurse grabbed J's camera and took a bunch of beautiful pictures (this clearly wasn't her first rodeo). After a few minutes I started getting nauseated, so they took Hailey away and the anesthesiologist gave me something in my IV to make the nausea stop. They measured and poked and prodded and gave Hailey her shots. The doctor was done stitching me up in no time. J asked one of the nurses if she could go let our family know that everything went well and she told him she wasn't allowed to. So our doctor said "I'm all done, want me to? Are you all done taking pictures want me to bring your camera out with me?" We said yes of course and he walked out to the waiting room and showed our family all of the pictures from inside the OR. (Did I mention how much we LOVED my doctor?)
The three of us.
My sweet girl.
The best moment of my entire life.
J and Hailey went to the recovery room where I met them once the nurses were done cleaning and bandaging me up. Hailey latched on and nursed for the next two hours in recovery.
Our first official picture as a family of three. (Outside of the operating room)
Daddy and his girl trying to figure each other out for the first time.
Our amazing doctor. Dr. Le.
