C-Section

Our beautiful baby boy was born today at 3:37 pm by c-section. He is 8 lbs, 9 oz and 20.5 inches long.

I wrote earlier that Thomas had two decelerations earlier in the induction process and our doctor told us one more deceleration would mean a c-section. When he told us this, he asked that I get the epidural put in just in case we needed to go that route. So, yesterday, I had the epidural put in, but did not have it turned on with any medication.

After no progress all day, the doctor was set to come over and break my water to see if the process would get moving. In the meantime, we started the epidural (since I had not progressed, breaking the water was going to be painful and he did not want to do it without some medication). As soon as the epidural went in, the baby had another deceleration. So, when the doctor came over to break my water, we knew that he would recommend a c-section. At that time, we had been here for about 30 hours and we knew that it would be better to go ahead and have the c-section since Thomas was not doing well with labor.

It turns out that we made a really good decision. Normal amniotic fluid is clear and mine was black and thick, indicating that Thomas had already had released meconium already and this is bad for the baby in utero. It turns out he also had the cord wrapped around his neck. If the doctor had broken my water, we would have had to have a c-section anyway since the fluid was black.

Everything went pretty fast from there. This is my first major surgery, so I had no idea what to expect, but Josh was really good at keeping me calm. After surgery, the recovery has been pretty good so far. They let me eat a sandwich about an hour ago and it was the best food I've had in a long time.

The worst part is that they have to take the baby to the nursery during the first hour of recovery, but Josh got to go with him, so that made me feel better. After about 2 hours, they brought Thomas to me and I was able to breastfeed. He is now in room with us and doing really well. For being in as much stress as he was in utero, he was amazingly healthy - pink and crying right away. His sugars have been perfect.

I was able to get up a few minutes ago, which is great so soon after surgery. We are all making good recoveries. Josh is the best dad ever (no bias there) and Thomas is the smartest, most beautiful baby in the world (also no bias). Seriously, we are all doing well and appreciate all your thoughts and prayers throughout the process.