Did I ever tell you that I had a c-section? In fact I had three.
With my first child I was nervous, but resigned to the childbirth process. I attended the childbirth classes with Coach Dad. We had the tools and the trusty rusty, handy dandy “Childbirth for Dummies” manual as we sat in the L&D room on January 4 or so. (Editor’s Note: I don’t think the Dummies manuals were around back then, but the manual we were given was just as blatantly self-explanatory.)
On January 4, I *thought* I was in labor. My as-yet unnamed baby was one day late at that point. I had gone through Christmas, New Year, back to school for my husband, and a little thing called the Blizzard of 1996. Three huge puzzles later…
The Blizzard of 1996 paralyzed the DC suburbs. After a day of watching the snow fall in ever-growing quantities we decided to evacuate to my parent’s house — it was safer and my husband was closer to his job. There I sat for days and days waiting for any signs of labor.
A visit to the doctor was like a polar expedition as the roads were still snow covered and the snow was still falling. I was trapped in the house. My parents and husband were livid when I suggested going outside to shovel the driveway. I existed on gavel-to-gavel cable TV, snacks, and eyewitness reports from family members who were actually PERMITTED to go out in to the real world. I could only observe The Real World from the window beside the front door.
My husband, father, and brother-in-law reported that some unnamed persons had kicked in the window to the closed, deserted Giant Food store. Stores were closed all over Maryland due to workers not being able to get to work and delayed shipments.
My parents were so worried about whether I could get to the hospital or not that they called the Town Council. The Town Council came out and plowed their cul-de-sac…tax dollars at work! In the end an emergency evacuation was not needed. I made it to January 8 with almost daily doctor’s visits, but no signs of active labor at all. Nada. Zip.
Finally I was scheduled for an induction on January 11. I lasted on Pitocin exactly ONE contraction before opting for the epidural. Who knew an induced contraction could be so painful? I didn’t and certainly did not want to experience another!
From early evening up to midnight I lay in a L&D bed with my husband sitting beside me. We watched Thursday night TV except for the episode of ER where Dr. Green delivers a dead baby. Thanks for the heads up, OBGYN doctor! Very much appreciated.
Shortly before midnight the OBGYN doctor told us that I was barely 3 cms and really labor was not likely to happen. So, I gladly accepted the c-section as the best way of ending my nonexistent labor. I was not in pain, but anxious to get on the road to motherhood…finally.
At 1:19 a.m. I delivered a healthy baby girl….Crafty Daughter! Holding my baby for the first time several minutes after surgery was absolutely wonderful, except for the pesky problem of the pain and the discomfort of the c-section. I’ll post about my recovery from the c-section and also the experiences I had the second and third time sometime soon.
In the mean time, I was recently contacted by Heather over at A Mama’s Blog about my c-section experience. Here’s Heather’s post on
https://amamasblog.com/2009/04/09/my-c-section-five-years-later/
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