I had a scheduled c-section for the birth of my daughter on August 20 due to her being breech. I was initially disappointed as this is my first child and I had so many ideas of how I wanted birth to be. My whole family has needed c-sections for various health reasons (usually stalled labor) but I was determined to break that cycle. So when I found out baby girl was breech I was sad but also comfortable with the decision to move forward with a C section since it’s in her best interest. Baby’s due date was August 26 so they wanted me to come in on the 20th to try to avoid me going into labor.

I arrived at the hospital for a preadmission appointment with a L&D nurse on Friday August 17. She took some blood and thoroughly went over what I should expect from the procedure and my next few days in the hospital. It was a 90 minute appointment and it was so great to have someone walk me through everything. She gave me antiseptic wash to use the night before and morning of surgery to prevent infection.

I barely slept the night before surgery. Between nerves, fighting a cold, and horrific heartburn it was just not a good scene. I was scheduled at noon for surgery and told to arrive at 10:30am to the hospital. Hubby and I arrived and they asked us to take a seat in the waiting room and the nurse would call us back. It was kind of strange waiting for your name to be called to have a baby!

A few minutes later we were led back to a small recovery room. It wasn’t one of the dance laboring rooms. Just a small room with a bed and fetal monitoring equipment and a private bathroom attached. At first I was disappointed I didn’t get a big fancy room that they have but then I realized I wouldn’t be in this room long anyway and it didn’t really matter. They had a hard time getting an IV on me because I was dehydrated from having the cold plus not being able to eat or drink that morning. My surgery ended up pushed back a bit due to an emergency c-section needing to take place so I wasn’t taken back until a bit after 1:00. My husband had to wait outside the OR while they did the spinal block. This was what I had a lot of anxiety about. My nurse anesthetist was incredible. She talked me through the whole thing and it didn’t hurt one bit. The very short sting of the initial anesthetic was the worst part but it’s just like if you’re getting a tooth pulled or something at the dentist. Short sting and then numb.

So the spinal block goes in and they quickly move me to a lying down position and wait for the block to work. The nurse anesthetist used alcohol prep pads to touch various sorts of my abdomen to see if I could feel the cold of them and a nurse placed my catheter. I’m 5’9” so it took some time for the block to get everywhere it needed to go. But after a few minutes they were setting me up and cleaning my belly. My husband came in and sat next to me and my OB started her prep work. The nurse anesthetist talked me through everything that was going on and reassured me that everything was fine. And my nurse from the L&D unit was in there too with me.

My OB is an advocate of gentle c-sections. Everyone spoke in hushed voices, she encouraged us to make a playlist to play, and she turned off the fluorescent OR lights and just used the surgical lights. My OB has told me once she begins it only takes 3 minutes to get baby out but those 3 minutes felt so long! She talked me through what was going on and as we began listening to Elton John singing Your Song, she said “Dad, stand up and take a look at this and tell Mom what you see!” My husband stood up but was speechless! He told me later he was just overwhelmed at watching her pull our daughter out (feet first!)

My OB dictated to me what was going on as she cleaned her off and stimulated her to cry (a common thing with breech babies is they don’t cry right away during c-section which I was warned about by my OB). She said she looked great and had good muscle tone and had big open bright eyes looking around. Then I heard the tiniest squeaks. Sounded like a kitten! My hospital invented a perforated drape for c-sections to pass the baby through for immediate skin to skin which I opted for. So once I heard the squeaks I knew she would be coming. Reaching up to hold my beautiful daughter right as Elton was singing “how wonderful life is now you’re in the world” is a memory I’ll always cherish. She laid on my chest and cried on and off through the rest of the surgery (about 30 minutes). My L&D nurse told me what a great job I did and took lots of pictures of me and my husband. Then they moved me to the recovery room and baby started nursing. She latched on immediately! The nurse gave my husband and me some time together. About an hour. I felt bad for hogging her and he hadn’t had a chance to hold her yet but our nursing and skin to skin felt very important. After about an hour they weighed my daughter and daddy got to do some skin to skin before we let our parents back to meet their granddaughter.

They moved me up to the mother baby unit another hour or so later where I stayed for 3 nights. Had excellent nurses taking great care of us. It was a hard few days taking care of the little one and waiting for my milk to come in. Now we are at home and finding out stride as a family. I’ve never been so happy.

I hope this birth story maybe helps another mother who is fretting about a c-section. They can be truly beautiful. My recovery hasn’t been bad either. I never took anything stronger than Motrin and an ice pack on my incision. I still have discomfort (about a week later) and am taking it easy but it’s not terrible by any stretch.

Happy birth day, Claire! 8lbs 10oz 20inches born at 1:33pm on 8/20/18.

*pics of surgery ahead*

Our first moments!