Introducing...Kyler

The Birth Story:

We were told to arrive at the hospital on Tuesday, November 16th at 5:30am for a scheduled C-Section, because of the baby's breech position.  I was awake practically the entire night before.  I was too excited/nervous to sleep!  The alarm went off at 5:00am, but I was already awake. We grabbed our hospital bags, and were out the door...we couldn't believe it was already time to have our baby!

When we arrived at the hospital, they had me dress into the hospital gown, and then they strapped a few monitors to my belly to check on baby.  They also started an IV to put in fluids before the surgery.  A nursing student tried to put the IV in first.  She was horrible at it.  It felt like she was stabbing a knife through my hand instead of a needle.  Then she broke one of the IV parts, and apologized because she had to start over.  I was thinking, “great, this is real comforting, I am going in for MAJOR surgery today, and my doctor is allowing a student who doesn't even know what she is doing put my IV in.”   Forty-Five minutes later, (honestly no exaggeration) after two people had given up, they found someone that was finally able to get the IV in. Apparently because I was cold, nervous and dehydrated my veins were tiny and that's why they were having a hard time. Because we were now “behind schedule”  they then had to RUSH the 3 bags of fluid in me really fast in order to not be late for the C-section. Did I mention the bags of fluid were freeeezing?? That combined with the fact that I was nervous resulted in my entire body violently shaking.  I was shaking so bad it was hard to breath.

Then, they wheeled me to the surgery room. I was nervous to get the spinal because I was still shaking so bad, and was worried that I would move and mess the spinal block up and get paralyzed….but they put warm blankets all over me first, and waited til the shaking stopped completely.  I was pleasantly surprised that the spinal didn't hurt at all! My body went numb almost immediately.  My nurse hung a curtain over my chest so I couldn't see what was going on.

Next thing I know, Jared was by my side saying “Can you feel that?!”  I had the sensation that someone was touching my stomach, and assumed they were cleaning my belly and preparing it for surgery, but then I heard the doctor say “There’s foot!” Then, Jared snapped this picture of me. Pretty sure I wouldn't be smiling if I had been giving birth naturally with no pain meds haha- I love technology these days!

They had our baby out within 5 minutes of starting the surgery. I got a little squeamish just picturing what was going on the other side of the curtain.  Then, Jared exclaimed: “Oh....wow!” so of course I panicked and asked him what was wrong.  He said that the cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck…TWICE and that he looked a little blue.  So I of course panicked some more, and waited to hear a little cry, but I heard nothing.  Again, more panicking, and my head started to spin. I tried to take a deep breath to calm my nerves down as I stared at the curtain that was hanging in front of my face....then a splatter of blood spewed (nice choice of words right?) and stained the curtain right where my face would have been if the curtain hadn't been there. My nurse told me I looked pale and asked if I needed some medication for nausea. I closed my eyes and nodded my head, still listening for my baby's cry.

I heard them suctioning out his mouth, but he still wasn't making a peep.  I was about to have a nervous break down when I heard a little coughing sound, I thought “Oh! he’s alive!” but they didn't show him to me, they just rushed him to another room.  I wasn't comfortable having my baby in the other room, I wanted to know what was going on, but I really didn't have a choice as I the doctor wasn't done with the surgery. Jared stayed with me and held my hand. Then, I heard that glorious cry from the other room.  It was LOUD. I felt relieved and instantly knew that everything was going to be okay.

Then, they brought our son, Kyler, to us.  We were told he was born at 7:55, and that he was 7lbs 5oz and 20 inches long. Healthy as can be!

Here is our healthy baby boy getting cleaned off. His first picture!

The C-section itself took a total of 30 minutes.  After they were done stitching me up, the doctor told me that everything looked great.  He said that the reason Kyler was breech was because the cord was wrapped twice around his neck, and it was practically just hanging him up there with my low fluid levels.  He said that he was REALLY glad that they didn't try to turn him a few weeks ago from the outside, because it would have resulted in an emergency C-section, and a preemie baby.  He said everything else looked great, and that I can definitely have my next baby naturally provided that the next one isn't breech too. I was happy to hear that.  I had the C-section on Tuesday, and went home Thursday night!

The proud Daddy!

The proud Mommy!

The timing of Kyler’s birth worked out perfectly.  I was able to graduate and complete my internship, and now it's Thanksgiving break so Jared gets to stay home with us all week!  My parents are also here helping out, and I am SO grateful for that.  Recovery from my C-section is going very slow and it’s painful, but everyday I feel better and better.  

Today Kyler is 5 days old. He is so stinkin cute and SUCH a good baby. Here are a some pictures of Kyler’s first few days of life: