Thursday, September 19, 2013

Baby Wilson's Birth Story

If you read my 38 week update, you saw that there was a chance I would have a c section because our little nugget was breech.

We went to my doctor's visit on Wednesday as scheduled and the doctor confirmed that Baby was still breech. I was also dilating further and my doctor did not feel comfortable waiting any longer to see if Baby would flip. As I absolutely love my doctor, I trusted her judgement and we came home making the final preparations for Baby's arrival. It was kind of surreal to know exactly when we were going to have the baby. I didn't get much sleep Wednesday night, obviously. I woke up several times and just couldn't go back to sleep. This was it, this was the end of our old life and the beginning of our new life together. I needed to be at the hospital at 10:30 am on Thursday for a 1:00 pm surgery appointment. We made sure to get one last "family photo" on Wednesday night. I wanted to do some nice formal pregnancy photos but we kind of ran out of time. Oops!

I also made sure to take one last bump photo before we left for the hospital.
I was a little emotional on the way to the hospital, thinking about how our lives would now change forever. And I was nervous about the surgery. I've had my wisdom teeth removed, but that is the extent of my surgery experience. The hubs was super supportive and we did our best to try to calm each other to make the process a bit easier. I checked into the hospital and was set up in our room. They got the monitors rolling and did a last ultrasound, confirming little Baby Wilson was breech.

The nurse we had was absolutely fantastic. She reminded me a bit of myself. She was chipper and very thorough (I could tell by the way she anticipated everything that the doctors needed). She made me feel more at ease with everything that I was nervous about. I was wheeled off to the operating room while the hubs waited right outside. They gave me a spinal so I would be numb from the waist down. If you've never experienced it before, the best way I can describe it is like novocaine. The doctors and nurses waited for it to kick in and I was laying out on the table. My doctor could tell I was nervous so she held my hand while I waited. (Just one of the many reasons why I LOVE my doctor.) My nurse also comforted me as well. The anesthesiologist was very helpful and explained everything as it was happening. I kept trying to move my toes as long as I could just because I was nervous I might be able to feel something. I was warned that the medicine might make me nauseous. As soon as the medicine was kicking in, they called my hubs in. He held my hand and we tried to talk to keep each other calm. He thought we were having a girl and I thought we were having a boy. We tried to guess the weight to help talk about anything. I didn't want there to be silence; I needed to talk! :)

I could feel the pressure of the doctor pressing on my belly. They were working for a bit and then we heard them say "IT'S A GIRL!" I couldn't believe it. I was in absolutely shock. I thought for sure I was having a boy! As soon as I heard that she was a girl, I immediately said I wanted to name her Patricia. I just knew it was meant to be (this was one of the names on our list). They held her up for us to see and I was surprised to see a full head of hair! They wiped her off, weighed her and then they put her right on my chest for some skin-to-skin time. This was one of the things I loved about my hospital. This is something that is very important to us so I was happy to get that time.
First family photo during skin-to-skin time

While they finished stitching me up, they took the hubs and our little baby girl to the nursery. He announced that it was a girl and the family went crazy. I heard that there was lots of jumping and screaming. I told him not to say the name and tell the family not to post anything on FB yet. After I was ready for recovery, they wheeled me back to my room where the hubs came in with our baby. We then got a full hour (called the "golden hour" with our little baby. It was more skin-to-skin time and more time for us to spend alone as a brand new family. (This is something else that I love that our hospital does/did.) As I was coming down off of the morphine, it made it much easier to have a nice and calm environment with our little baby girl who was completely calmed by the sound of her mother's heartbeat.

After that time, the nurse helped wrap her up so she would be nice and warm and ready to be passed around to all of her new family members. 
I really don't have enough positive things to say about the hospital, nursing staff, and overall positive experience I had. This wasn't my ideal situation but everyone on staff made me feel much more at ease. 

My husband's uncle is a local photographer (you should check out his work) and he came by to take some photos of our Patricia Rose when she was less than a day old. I love the way these photos turned out. She really is quite precious and I feel he captured her appropriately. :)



We were able to leave the hospital a little early and life at home has been a little chaotic (as I'm sure you can guess). I'm still recovering from the surgery but every time I look at my little nugget, I know she was worth every stitch. :) When we came home from the hospital, some of our friends had decorated our house for us with beautiful fall decorations.

We also had a pretty important introduction to make when we got home. Pepper has been pretty jealous of the new baby but I'm sure they will become friends in due time. It is just going to take some time... In the mean time she has been really sweet and tries her best to be gentle (although it doesn't really work out so well). 


We feel so very fortunate to be surrounded by so much love! Our family and friends have been so wonderful. We've had so many visitors coming and going and I really enjoy the company. The hubs goes back to work next week so things, I'm sure, will change quite a bit once he goes back. I couldn't be happier to welcome a beautiful baby girl into this world. Thanks so much for your kind words and support in following my journey! I hope you're ready for a blog full of baby photos! And maybe a little bit of running thrown into the mix.

35 comments:

  1. I am SO ready for a blog full of pics of Patricia!!!

    And I am so happy you had such a great experience there and got to do some of the things you wanted. This is a dumb question, but what are the benefits of the skin to skin time - like a first connection?

    The pics your uncle took are FAB! And that is so awesome your friends decorated your house!

    LOLing that you had to tell fam to wait to post on Facebook. I love seeing the pics they tag you in! More Patsy pics for me to see!

    Congrats!!! Can't wait to come meet her next week! :) (Gosh, and meet Pepper for the first time too!)

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  2. She is so stunningly beautiful - congratulations mama, she is amazing!


    I am so glad your hospital is so fantastic - I am so jealous as my section was so much more brutal. Getting the skin to skin in the OR is absolutely fantastic and I love the pic - beautiful beautiful family!





    And just...eee. She is so cute! <3

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  3. Oh my gosh this made me cry :) I'm so happy you had a positive experience even though I'm sure a c section isn't what you had planned. Hope you're feeling better each day.

    This photos of her and of course your family are just precious. Keep the Baby Patsy photos coming!

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  4. and of course im crying :) so happy you had such a great experience. it only gets better, trust me!

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  5. I am so so ridiculously happy for you all!! She is just beautiful and so obviously loved <3

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  6. awe I'm so happy for you Kelly!

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  7. I'm so glad you had such a good experience! This is seriously one of the smoothest birth stories I think I've read. It's so important to have a doctor that you trust, so that even when things don't go quite as planned you still can feel comfortable with the decision. But I didn't realize you had never had any type of surgery before - geez, no wonder you were nervous!


    Please do keep posting baby pictures, she's so cute!


    And what a sweet picture of your two girls together :) Has Pepper figured out that Patsy is there to stay yet? Totally not the same thing, but I remember it taking a long time for Jude to accept that Meko was actually living with us, not just visiting, so I wondered if it's similar with a new baby.

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  8. Love the pics and love the pic of Pepper and Patricia! Congrats again.

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  9. Ahhh! What a precious baby face. Congratulations on the new addition to your family!

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  10. Oh my goodness she is so cute! And that picture with Pepper... adorable. Congratulations!!!

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  11. Thanks Kim! The benefits of skin to skin are something that have been popular in Europe for awhile and have now made their way to the US. It is a first connection between mother and child outside the womb. There have been studies to show the importance of this first connection.


    Kelly Photography does a fantastic job and I couldn't be happier with the photos he's taken!


    I'm so excited for you to meet her (and Pepper too). We'll have to take lots of photos so we can blog about it, obvi.

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  12. Thanks so much! I'm sorry your c section experience was rough. It makes me feel better to have had such a good experience. (The nurse even said that it was possibly one of the easiest c sections she's ever done.)

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  13. Aw, I'm so glad you enjoyed reading.


    Oh there will be more photos coming, for sure! We can't take enough! :)

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  14. Thanks! I can't believe she is already a week old! Time really does fly, I must say!

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  15. Thanks Anne!


    There will be plenty of photos to come, don't worry! :)


    I think you are right with Pepper's assessment of the situation. She is probably waiting for this noisy, attention-grabbing thing to get the heck out of here so life can go back to how it was. I think with some time, she'll come around. Especially once Patsy starts eating real foods in a few months. Pepper is very food motivated. :)

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  16. Thanks Britt! Who knew way back when we had our meeting about my secret marathon that this little one was growing all along. We got the BOB jogging stroller and I can't wait to get out there again. We, of course, got Pepper a nice new haircut once the baby arrived. :)


    Thanks!

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  17. Katie @ Live Half FullSeptember 19, 2013 at 12:20 PM

    I love this! SO happy for you!!!

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  18. Baby Patricia is adorable! MOAR BABY PICS, BRING IT ON. Oh, and I ended up with a c-section too so if you're running again before I did, I'll be extremely shitty. ;)

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  19. Congratulations to you and your husband on your new arrival. I'm glad everything went well, despite her not turning. Enjoy these days, and get as much rest as possible.

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  20. That was so sweet to read. My hospital experience with the doctor was also wonderful, plus I can't say enough nice things about the nurses. Brought back a lot of good memories reading what you wrote. I am so happy of you, and I can't wait to meet your little cutie. Pepper will come around. She will. Promise.

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  21. I'm trying not to cry at work, but this post is so sweet!!!!! Can't wait to meet her!

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  22. congratulations! I'm so happy for you guys!

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  23. Thanks Jill. I have confidence she'll come around too.

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  24. Oh, Kelly, she is just precious. And I love that you call her "Patsy". Is there any significance to her name? It's beautiful!


    I cannot wait to continue reading more about your journey into motherhood! And hopefully, our little ladies - and us! - can meet someday soon!

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  25. Michelle @ Crazy Running LegsSeptember 19, 2013 at 9:33 PM

    Aww - so sweet! That "golden hour" is so important - and is a memory I have with all of my kids. No interruptions - just the 3 of you. Even if it's at 2:30 in the morning. Lol.


    She is SO sweet and I'm so happy you had a great birth experience, even if it wasn't what you expected.


    I was SO convinced that Evan was a boy - I probably would have had the same reaction that you did with Patricia if they said he was a girl :)


    Enjoy every minute... it goes by SO fast.

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  26. So awesome! Congrats again! I can't wait to meet her!

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