Aeson's birth & the last two weeks

We're finally home, so I finally have time to write about Aeson's birth and the last (almost) 2 weeks!

I couldn't sleep at all the night before going in for the scheduled C-section. I was so nervous. They'd called to ask me to come in at six and we ended up getting up around 4 a.m., I think, just because we couldn't sleep. We arrived at the hospital a little early and the nurse got me all prepped. IV's and cath's stink.. they were the worst part. It was a new girl taking my blood too so that also wasn't fun. Add all this in with my nerves and I wasn't in the best of moods! My doctor came in to do one last sonogram to make sure Aeson was still breech, which he was. The whole morning went so fast after that. They wheeled me down to the surgery waiting area after I was all ready and Eric was able to wait with me. The anesthesiologist came in and asked me lots of questions. It was freezing in there which again combined with the nervousness made me shake. Doctor checked with me one more time and then they came to wheel me into the surgery room. Eric had to wait outside and when the midwife came in my room, she said his eyes were huge and she thought he was more nervous than I was. :) (Up until that point, he'd insisted he WASN'T nervous) There were two anesthesiologists.. one a nurse, one a doctor. The nurse tried to get the spinal in first. I'd been nervous about this, but they'd put something on my back already to numb it and I couldn't really feel anything. He did have trouble getting it in so I felt a pinching on each side as he was trying, but that was it. The doctor then tried and got it right in. Yay! I'd been soo nervous it wouldn't work and I'd have to be put to sleep for the birth. I didn't get an epidural with Westen so I had no idea what to expect, but the two men doing it were WONDERFUL. They told me everything to expect and just their manner was fantastic. I started to get warm and numb from my feet up. The midwife talked to me and explained what was dull versus sharp pain. They then laid me back, put oxygen on, and it seemed everybody came in at once. The room is FULL during a C-section! There were nurses.. the two anesthesiologists.. the pediatrician.. the OB doc.. the midwife. Eric got to come in at that point too and they'd put a sheet up so we couldn't see what was going on. When the doctor started, I couldn't feel a thing. As they kept working, there was some movement of my body I could feel but no pain or anything like that whatsoever. Not even dull. They said at first that Aeson had lots of hair.. and that he was almost head down.. and then they said there was a knot in the umbilical cord and everything got kind of rushed after that. I had no clue what that meant, quickly asking 'is that bad?' to which the doctor said 'it can be!' in a voice that didn't reassure me at all. I didn't ask anymore questions because it was at that point that Eric and I both got pretty scared I think. We heard a couple of cries, which relieved us somewhat, and when they got him out they held him over the curtain for a minute before saying he needed some oxygen and taking him over to his doctor. Eric stayed with me while they were working on him.. They used one of those things (not sure what it's called) to help him start breathing and while it seemed like FOREVER, I guess they had him breathing within two minutes. The anesthesiologists were the ones keeping me informed, which again they were SO wonderful about. As far as me, surgery went perfect. My blood pressure from the pre-eclampsia dropped so much when they took Aeson out that they actually had to give me something to boost it. I guess a lot of people feel sick or vomit during a C-section too and I had none of that. Back to Aeson.. his Apgar score at one minute was only a '2' but by five minutes it was an 8. Eric went over to see him once they had him breathing and they brought him over by me quickly before taking him to the nursery. I had to go to recovery for an hour, but they didn't make me stay quite that long. I had them call to check on Aeson once too.

We didn't find out until later (because they didn't do too much right away b/c of the problems) that Aeson weighed 7lbs, 5oz.. at four full weeks early!! He was 20 inches long and he was born at exactly 9a.m. We also found out later that the knot in the cord could have lead to his death. The doctor didn't think it had been there for long, though, and it hadn't tightened. I don't even know how to express my feelings about this.. It's extremely scary.. and makes me extremely thankful actually that I did have pre-eclampsia making him come early.. and thankful too that we decided to go with C-section instead of trying to turn him (which could have tightened it). I'm so thankful for how things turned out, even with how the next week proceeded.

I didn't get to see Aeson when I got back. He was in the nursery hooked up to things and getting oxygen. They explained they couldn't feed him because it requires too much work for him. I was still numb so I couldn't get up to go in there.. and he couldn't be brought out. Eric continually checked on him, though. I finally got to go in later that night but of course there was no holding. He was getting better on the oxygen and they expected him to throughout the night. Then, about 2:30 a.m., we were woken up by the pediatrician saying they'd had to give him more oxygen and she thought he should be transferred to the children's hospital about an hour and a half away. They were going to fly him by helicopter but it was foggy and stormy out, so they ended up taking him by ambulance. We went in and stayed with him until the last minute. It was so scary when they took him because he was in this box thing, hooked up to so much. They'd also discovered a heart irregularity. Eric and his parents left when they did to head up there. I cried in my room all morning after that. I ended up not able to leave that day, but I was able to leave by Wednesday.

Time to feed us and baby.. I'll finish the rest of the story later.