Rosie Lee made her appearance this morning at 0801 via repeat csection at 40.3 weeks.

I have pros and cons about my experience but I'm happy that the anxiety from my baby and husband was much lower this time around. My first was an 'urgent' I failed medical induction at 40 wks. I had an epideral in place a few hours before the surgery and was sufficiently numb. No problems! But my son was born with scary-low blood sugars and stayed in the NICU for a week. We had a lot of stress for our first experience.

This time around, my daughter followed in big brother's footsteps and refused to drop into the pelvic girdle and not dilate my cervix. Possibly due to my pelvis being too narrow as both babies stayed transverse for quite some time (35/36 weeks) and then 'floated' until born.

The pros to this time around was that Rosie had a due date planned and a birth plan lined up- if she went into action and managed to get my cervix primed then we would attempt a natural delivery but we also set up a repeat section for today. Obviously we didn't get our natural delivery.

But we got to experience pp with our child, and bond uninterrupted for the whole first half of our day. Family and staff were limited to interruptions and we felt like WE had a baby instead of waiting for a NICU to give us a baby back like the first time.

We also got to experience a very-near gentle csection- a clear plastic drape to see her emerge, delayed cord clamping, minor time at the warmer before back to mom and dad while being stitched back up, and the golden hour of skin-to-skin and bf.

It was wonderful and my husband was so impressed!

I did have a unpleasant experience in the OR, however.

This time I received a Spinal Tap instead of the epideral. I was apprehensive, not really knowing what to expect, but tried to stay positive. The anesthesiologist spoke to me before the OR and told me to expect a simple injection and a very dense block. After our conversation and my walk to the OR I met with another anesthesiologist. However this man was lot younger than the first I met and gave that greenhorn vibe off as we spoke.

He prepped me and went to work on my Spinal. This surprised me but I tried to keep positive thoughts and laughed and chatted as the rest of the prep work went on. Aside from a sharp electric tickling of my left leg nerve (like a gunshot went off...) I laid back and waited on the sensation to take over. And it did! On that left side. I mentioned that I had pretty good feeling in my right leg and danced it around the table to ensure to the crowd that I still had very good control of one side vs the other and they delayed the surgery for a few moments longer in order to allow the drugs to spread to the right side, and it did...kinda.

Most of my surgery was painless. Until they started to work the baby out. Now, I knew about pressure and tugging, but this was more intense. I wouldn't say sharp or obviously unmedicated. I wasn't screaming internally at every new layer, but I was much more aware of the discomfort throughout the section. And I expected it to dramatically decrease when the pulled baby out.

I was squirming so much trying to cope with the feelings I was experiencing, and my poor husband wasn't getting his hand back while I had 3 women pushing on my whole chest and abdomen to wiggle baby out. It was so difficult to get a breathe while trying to keep my composure and avoid general anesthesia. But she was out and I waited for sweet relief from my anxiety and pain. But then I felt like I was a gapping cavity of heat and the cold OR air was hitting my insides! I felt my chest and abdomen swell with warm blood after baby was pulled out and I tried to keep my eyes on her and ignore my thoughts. I didn't really get to enjoy the clear drop cloth (but husband did!) and I began to writhe in pain, waiting for things to feel better.

This is where the Anesthesiologist, watching me, started to offer supplemental pain relief in my IV. And finally something that calmed me enough to slow my breathing while baby was at the warmer.

So, long story short, I felt my second csection was much more traumatic for me. But I'd rather that be the case than my babies going through the trauma, like my first. 🤷🏻‍♀️Trade offs, huh?

I'm recovering now and I'm very very sore like I've been kicked and punched a million time over in the abdomen, but I'm walking a little and on tramadol for pain now.

Just sharing to say that csections are not always

the same or more dense on repeat, but I'm happy for some aspects of the birth and less so with others.

On another plus side- look at what I made! 😍😍😍

Best reward after the worst pain I've ever been in! Even though it was a repeat section!

Happy November, mamas!