C is for C Section!

So it's officially been ten days since little Abigail came into the world and oh my has it been the craziest most insane wild ten days of our lives. 
I went to the doctor last Thursday, August 18th for a routine check up and my doc. ordered me a final ultrasound to determine size and position.  In my excitement I scheduled the ultrasound for the next day, Friday at 4pm, not thinking a think was wrong.  So the next day Joseph and I ventured off to get our ultrasound and we were so excited.  We were about thirty seconds into the ultrasound when the technician uttered the one word that made all the blood rush to my head and have a small panic attack; "Breech." I though oh no, what the hell are we going to do.  The last thing I wanted was a C Section but at this point in the pregnancy there was no way we could manually turn her around, she was too big at this point. or at least we thought.  The tech. finished her business but it's all a blur to me because all I could think was, "how the hell is she breech, she was head down a few weeks ago."  The tech went back and called my OB, she came back to the room and told me that I needed  to head over the L&D at Mary Washington Hospital.  Once again, blood rushed to my head, blurriness, and general confusion began...1) I did not want to deliver at Mary Washington, we were all set up at the Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center 2) I did not want a C Section
So off to L&D we went, both of us in a stuper and not knowing what would be occurring in the next six hours.  We got checked in and met with my doctor, thankfully my OB happened to be on call that night which is the only thing that made me comfortable.  She informed me that the baby was a bit small and  my fluids were low, and she was of course breech.  Basically we needed to have this baby, there was no way to turn her around, not because of her size but because my fluids were too low.  She said, you can have a C Section tonight at 11pm or you can have a C Section tomorrow morning at 6am, either way I wasn't going home nor was I going to Spotsy since no one from my practice was on call over there to do the C Section.  Awesome.  Joseph and I looked at each other and I lost it.  I was so overwhelmed I didn't know what to do adn this was not playing out the way I imagined at all, this was not the way it was supposed to be.  But we decided to go ahead and get it started and have our baby that  night with my OB doing the surgery.  The hours passed quickly, Joseph was able to go to the house and get our bag and his parents were able to make it in from Front Royal.  The nurses explained everything to me step by step beforehand which made things more scary and less scary at the same time.  Anyhoo, surgery time came around and I was scared to death.  The only thing that calmed me down was Joseph, he was amazing, reassuring me every step of the way that everything was going to be ok.  In the OR I got my spinal block which was awesome and scary.  Of course I couldn't feel anything but the thought that I was completely numb and helpless freaked me out.  Thankfully just as I started to panic, Joseph came into the room and sat next to me.  I can't even remember what we talked about but it was something silly like what I wanted to eat for dinner or something like that.  Not too long after they started did we meet our little Abigail Anne.  They showed her too me as soon as she came into the world and all I saw was a head full of hair before they carted her over to clean her off.  Joe spent the rest of the time with her  and went with her to the nursery while they put me back together.  I saw them again in the Recovery room a little bit later.  The whole thing took about two hours from start to recovery time.  It was exhuasting but at last I saw my baby girl when they wheeled her into the Recovery room, all 6lbs 5oz of her, she was soo tiny but with a head full of hair!
The next few days in the hospital are kind of a blur but we had Abigail stay in the room with us the whole time, except for when she went out for her shots, I didn't want to let her out of my sight.  my dad made it up from Georgia and helped a lot by staying with Abigail while we napped. which was awesome. We came home on Monday and were lucky enough to have Joe's mom stay with us the whole week which was a lifesaver.  I am very lmited on what I can do so she was a godsend.  Unfortunately over the past week I have developed an infection assocaited with my surgery so my recovery has been less than stellar but I am on the mend. 
I've since decided that C sections suck.  Recovery time from a C Section is twice as long as it is for a normal vaginal delivery.  You can't do anything, you're not even supposed  to go up and down stair! 
Joseph and I are attempting to settle into our "routine" or lack there of.  Abigail is amazing and she makes us smile and has brought so much joy into our lives.  Dont get me wrong, we are exhuated and overwhelmed and we have no idea what we are doing but that's ok.  We have a beautiful healthy baby girl and that's all that matters.
So that's it, no big labor story, no water breaking in the middle of the night or 24 hour delivery.  Just a wham bam C Section and there you have it, baby!

Dilated, Effaced, and Exhuasted

Dilated, Effaced, and Exhausted

So I just want to start out by letting you know that I will not be informing  you of how many centimeters dilated or what percentage effaced I am.  I am not one to overshare and I think that definitely falls into that category.  I will just say that things are progressing at a normal rate and all is well in baby land.

So we finally got the nursery done, hooray!  The furniture came last Tuesday but not without several additional hours of waiting around.  This whole furniutred debacle began back in June when we ventured down to Richmond to get our 4D ultrasound.  We went into a furniture store not expecting to buy anything because I had read several reviews online about how long their delivery process takes.  My sole intent in this store was to look at a lamp…

We were only in the store for a few minutes when we were approached by a very nice saleslady, we informed her of how far along I was and how we knew there wasn’t much time for delivery.  She informed us of their rush delivery process and gave us her “word” that the furniture would be there on time with weeks to spare, for an additional cost of course.  Well inevitably I fell in love with a crib set and wanted it.  Joseph of course agreed and indulged my non budget friendly taste in baby furniture and we ordered it.  That said, the furniture we ordered is very high quality and def. worth the few extra bucks we spent.  Anyhoo, we paid the “rush” shipping fee and were given a window of 3-6 weeks for arrival in Richmond.  After that, the furniture would be delivered to Fburg by a private company, which we were told would take no more than 5-7 days.  So we waited…and waited…and waited.  Week six rolled around and no furniture.  I called and they said, oh it’s on the next truck it will be here in a few days.  Seven days later it arrived, of course no one called to tell me that, I had to call them.  So there we were, Friday afternoon, seven weeks after purchase and the furniture had finally arrived in Richmond.  I was told by the store that I would be contacted by the company to schedule delivery that next Wednesday.    Well Wednesday came and went, no one called.  Of course, I called back on Thursday at which point they told me that their truck had broken down and the private company could not pick up the furniture until Friday but that I would hear from them in a few days.  Well the private company finally called me on Saturday the 30^th to set up delivery.  The first available date they had was Aug 9^th.  So we set that up and were given a time slot of 1-3.  Joseph took the afternoon off of work and waited at the house…and waited…and waited.  At 3:30 I called the company and they told me that they were running behind but would be there by 4:30, well it was already 4:15…the drive finally called us again at 4:55 saying he would be there at 5 which he was and the furniture miraculously made it to our house. Not only had we waited over 3 weeks longer than we were told but Joseph took an entire afternoon off to accommodate them for no reason at all.  Ugh. I was just relieved it finally arrived. I thought for sure I would have this baby and no furniture.  Needless to say that I am very unhappy with USA Baby in Richmond and have written them a scathing review online…and here.

After everything was situated, organization began.  I had a time trying to figure out which drawer should house what.  I will probably move things around five more times but for now it’s all “organized” or as organized as tiny baby onesies can get.

Everything is strategically placed in the house including the bassinet and playard.  All these new things seem like new play areas for the animals.  I woke up to find Gwenivere in the bassinet the other night at which point I freaked out and yelled at the top of my lungs at her.  I don’t think she’ll make that mistake again. Lincoln is afraid of the stroller, so we’re working on that. 

I can say, as I’ve said before, it’s not for the faint of heart and it’s definitely not for the lazy.  I am so glad I was in shape and have maintained somewhat active /healthy lifestyle while pregnant.  There is no way I would have made it if I was a lazy person, it takes a lot out of you and you have to have the willpower to keep active and keep going otherwise you’d end up being a 400lb miserable pregnant person.   And as I've said before you have to get used to the jealous/bitter people who are unhappy with their own lives and can't possibly find it in their hearts to be happy for you, but you learn to ignore/laugh at them fairly quickly.  Oh and you also have to get used to the people that have absolutely no idea what it's like to be pregnant and are therefor just plain rude but you get used to/laugh at those people too (most of these people are also the jealous/bitter ones as well). 
But enough about all that.  Joseph and I are so excited to meet our baby girl.  I can't wait to see what she looks like and to finally give her a name!!  We both think we are "ready" now and the anticipation is building up so much we can't stand it. 
We’re in the home stretch here, my doctor says it could be any day or a week from now so I am of course on eggshells in everything I do.  I am just waiting for my water to break at the most inopportune time.  I don’t sleep much at night and I can barely put pants on but other than that everything is fabulous.  I can’t say that I’ve minded being pregnant all that much.  It’s uncomfortable, exhausting, but at the same time awesome.  It’s a crazy/weird thing being pregnant but it’s been a cool ride and definitley worth all the things you have to go through in those nine and a half months. 

Til next time...