On Friday November 11th between 10-11pm Tracis water broke. It was just a trickle. At midnight Traci was pretty certain what it was and we began our preparations for leaving. Let Tanner out, make sure he had water in his bottle, pack up the SUV and tookoff at about 12:20am By the time we were in the examination room it was about 12:45. It took until 2:05 for a definitive yes your water has brokento come from the hospital staff. At that point they checked us in and started Traci on the Pitocin.
Her contractions were getting unbearably painful and she still hadnt dilated beyond 3cm by 5:30am when the Epidural was put in. I found this part quite interesting. With the pain gone, Traci fell to sleep almost immediately. Sometime in the next hour or so, it was determined that the baby was not dealing well with the contractions and his heart rate had dipped and hed had a bowl movement. The Pitocin drip was stopped.
By 9am it was becoming clear that a c-section was probably in order and preparations were made along those lines. At 10am the decision was made. The babys vitals were fine as were Tracis but nothing had changed since she was admitted and it didnt look like anything was going to change. The doctor was concerned about bowl movement and didnt want the baby to inhale any of it and said if there was no change in the next hour she would make the call for a c-section on medical grounds. We decided not to wait and to go ahead with the c-section.
From here out things went VERY fast. I was given a full set of scrubs and ushered in right behind her to the operating room where I sat by her head. There was a small wall of blue fabric that blocked Traci from seeing her body, but I could look over it if I sat up really straight. At one point the anesthesiologist tilted the bed back a bit and my view was considerably better. I got to see just about everything.
When the pulled him out they cut his cord and rushed him to 3 people waiting to suck all the goo out of him before he could inhale scream. Then they yanked the placenta out right after him. Wow is that large. They cleaned him up and I went and stood by him and held his hand while he cried under a baby cooking light. I had a good view of Traci being sewed back up and stapled from there.
It was an incredible process, with 8 of people who seemed to keep getting text messages and calls on their pages and cell phones. They count towels a lot to make sure nothing is left inside. Before the c-section we were told that its not usually a heavy bleeding procedure and Traci wouldnt need any transfusions. I now want to see what a heavy bleeding procedure is. There was blood everywhere! But she didnt need any transfusions. not an activity Id recommend to anyone who is blood squeamish in the least.
After they were done cleaning out Traci and sewing her back up they moved us all into recovery where I fed Greyson and worked on the cord blood paperwork (Cryocell) while Traci drifted in and out of consciousness.
From there we finally got to ourroom around 2pm and the parade of visitors began shortly thereafter. Traci was pretty drugged out and slept from about 4pm until 7am the next morning waking only to mumble things now and then, and of course when the nurses came in to poke and prod and push more meds.
Since it was a c-section delivery we were at the hospital for 3 days. We let the nursery handle Greyson at night so we could get what sleep we could. Everyone recommended we do this and it seems most people do as the nursery was always chocke full o babies at night and almost empty during the day.
Now Im home and its time to start integrating Greyson into our lives.
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