I had been scheduled for this date for a couple of weeks, but had been praying that he would make his appearance on his own before this - needless to say, he didn't lol he was much too comfortable it seems 😊

I was told to fast, absolutely nothing to eat or drink, after midnight the night prior to the induction and to be at the hospital at 9am to get he process started. Unfortunately, the night before our air conditioning decided to go out and not only was I anxious, excited and nervous along with incredibly uncomfortable as I hadn't been able to sleep well for a couple weeks at this time, but I was hot and sweaty and couldn't even drink any cold water to cool down 🙄

So the next morning my husband and I pack up the car, he installs the car seat, and then we head to the hospital. I made sure my husband stopped to get something for him to eat because I didn't expect him to suffer along with me lol so we stopped by mcdonalds and I tortured myself with the smell for the next 5 minutes in the car 😜

Once we got to the hospital, the nurses immediately started getting me hooked up to monitors and starting my IV. They asked a million and one questions about various things. I had to sign tons of forms about SIDS, consent forms, circumcision forms, etc. They got my husband prepared to go back in the OR with me and got him his scrubs to wear. My mother showed up about 11am. My husband and I had asked that no one come to the hospital prior to his entrance in the world b/c we wanted to relax and focus on us, but we were glad my mom came b/c she was able to capture moments we wouldn't have been able to and she was super nervous also. 

They finally came into the room a few minutes past noon and told me my dr was there and they were ready to wheel me into the OR. My anxiety immediately went from a 3 to a 10. Then they informed me that my husband wasn't able to go in quite yet, they needed to get me prepped and get the anesthesia started and then they would come back to get him. This caused my anxiety to spike again. I was so nervous despite this being my third csection. It had been almost 10 years since my last one so I almost felt like this was a whole new experience!

In the OR they got me on the table and got the spinal started and I felt like all feeling in my legs went away in a split second. Within a minute or two I started feeling incredibly light headed and felt like I couldn't breath. The anesthesiologist asked if I was okay and without hesitation I told him no. He said that my blood pressure had dropped but they had just given me two doses of a medication to bring it back up and insisted that I just needed to relax and give it a couple of minutes to work. At this point I just wanted my husband, I was starting to tear up and I my anxiety was out the roof.

When my husband finally came in I started to feel so much better because I knew my rock was by my side and we were about to welcome our first child together. My husband explained that they had already started and so I just took some time to breath and wait for my son's first cry. I couldn't help but notice that they were playing Michael Jackson's greatest hits and honestly, I was completely happy with their choice of music lol

Once I finally start to hear his cry, I heard my dr say "Brittany - you've got a big boy!" And tears slowly started. I remember having a huge smile on my face knowing that he was here. The only concern I had was that his cry sounded so muffled - it definitely didn't sound like a normal baby cry. My baby boy had apparently decided to cry prior to being out of the amniotic fluid completely and therefore had swallowed some of the fluid and it had gotten in his lungs. They brought him to me once they got him cleaned up and I got my skin to skin with him. He immediately stopped crying as soon as he was in my arms and this made me so happy to know that he knew who his momma was so quickly. They took him pretty quickly after so they could take him to the nursery and check on him a bit more and my husband went with him. 

Once the csection was over, I thought we were free and clear and I was so ready to see him and hold him again!! We got about 3 hours of baby time until the nurses kept noticing that he was experiencing moments of difficulty breathing. They notified me that my postpartum room was ready and they asked if they could go ahead and take him to get cleaned up since we had a lot of visitors and I agreed. When we got settled into the post partum room we sat and talked with our visitors and a bit later I asked my husband where Rickey was - it seemed to be taking so long just to clean him up. My husband left and when he returned he said that the newborn nurse practitioner would come talk to us, but they had put him in the NICU and my heart sank. My middle son had spent 2 weeks in the NICU and I was not ready to experience that again. 

When the NP came to speak with us, she explained that they had admitted him to the NICU as more of a precaution, but they wanted to keep an eye on his breathing. 

My son stayed in the NICU until Thursday, 4/6. We were woken up on the 6th with a happy surprise when the nursery wheeled our baby boy in and told us that they had discharged him from the NICU and that he would be discharged home with us that afternoon!!!

We were discharged around 1pm that afternoon and he has been doing wonderful ever since 😍

I had forgotten how tiring it is to have a newborn. But I am incredibly blessed to be Rickey's mommy and the whole experience was incredibly worth it 💙