Charlie's Birth Story

It is the strangest thing to wake up in the morning knowing that your baby will be born that day. I thought I might feel more anxious about it, but really, I just felt good knowing that. Chris let me sleep in a little bit (since I WAS starving), and I took a nice leisurely shower, shaved my legs, painted my toes, put on mascara...you know, the important things! Chris took the kids to school and got in one last pre-baby bike ride and then we ran a couple of errands on our way to the hospital. We arrived a little before 2:00 for my 4:00 surgery. "I'm here to have my baby," I told the birth center receptionist. They had me sign in and then took us back to a room where we waited for a bit.


I asked if I was a "fall risk" because I was starving to death (I was told nothing to eat or drink since midnight the night before)...

A triage nurse came in to admit me. I had to answer a bunch of questions that seemingly had nothing to do with one another. I swear one was "when was your last bowel movement", followed by, "by what method do you learn the best?". Anyway...then she gave me a surgical gown to change into, typed my blood, and put in an IV. Finally, at 4:10, the nurse walked me down to the OR. I was so ready! Chris was told to stay behind and change into scrubs and they would come and get him after I was all prepped. The operating room was freezing! They gave me a couple warm blankets and had me sit on the edge of the table. The anesthesiologist, Dr Banish, was awesome...he scrubbed the injection site on my lower back, then told me to touch my chin to my chest and he injected the spinal medication into my lower back. Within seconds I had to lay down before I lost all the feeling in my legs. What a weird feeling! Slowly my legs went to feeling very tingly to feeling like they weighed 200 pounds a piece. It is so strange to be able to see your legs but not feel them or move them at all. It felt like they weren't even mine! Dr Boutry came in as well as the assisting surgeon, and they brought Chris in when everything was ready to go, at about 4:40. Chris sat right next to my head and Dr Banish sat on the other side and the surgery began. With a spinal I didn't feel any pain at all, but I could feel tugging and pushing (they were pushing on my upper abdomen to get the baby out). At 4:47 Charlie was born! It was amazing to hear him cry. He was really yelling! His body turned less blue-ish and more pink with each yell. His feet and hands were the last to turn pink, (which is apparently normal), and then he looked absolutely perfect.

Hearing him cry, and seeing his beautiful face felt like such a huge weight lifted from me. He was BIG, and healthy! While I knew in my heart all along that he was going to be fine, I think I still held that possibility in the back of my mind that something was going to go terribly wrong. When it didn't tears flooded my eyes. He was perfect! We were going to be able to take him home! At that second I stopped worrying about his entrance into this world, and began worrying about the rest of his life!


STATS:
Charles Peter Drechsel
born January 28, 2010
4:47 pm
7 lbs 15 oz
20 inches
Apgar 9, 10