The Birth Story of Rebecca May Chrabaszcz

I know what you might be thinking, that I had a scheduled c-section so how excited could my birth story be. Well not everything went according to plan, and I want to share it, so here it is. It may be a bit graphic for some people for read with care.

My doctor(who is amazing), scheduled me for my planned c-section at 38 weeks, which was December 1st, 2009. So on November 30, I got us all packed and ready to go, my parents came and picked up Emily, and took her to there house, while we were in the hospital. Then Keith and I went to bed early, as we knew that we had a big day ahead of us. But true to form as soon as I lay down, the baby started kicking and rolling and I couldn't get to sleep. So when 4:30am rolled around, I didn't much want to get out of bed, but up I got. Keith went and had a shower and I finished packing the last minute things, and then we were off to the hospital. Well with one small detour.......Tim Horton's, of course I couldn't eat, so just Keith got coffee and breakfast. We arrived at the hospital at 5:40am, we were a little early. The nurse led Keith and I to our room, and then proceeded to get me ready for the surgery. They started by giving me my IV, which only took 2 tries to get in, which might be a record for me. Then my catheter, which hurt more than I thought, as last time I had drugs in me before the put it in. After that we just waited as they filled me with liquids to help keep my blood pressure up.

Just before 8am Dr. Fouche arrived at the hospital and came to check on me. Then the OR nurse came and we were ready to go. They walked me to the OR, which even though I had been in there once before, I still didn't remember how to get there. Once in the OR they prepped me for the spinal, which is pretty much the same thing as an epidural, except there is no IV attached, it's just a needle into the spine. I was very nervous about the spinal, as when I was a teenager I was given a lumbar puncture and it was very painful, also when I got my epidural with Emily, I had problems letting the doctor put it in. Once I was prepped for my spinal the doctor, told me he was ready to proceed, I was still really nervous, but had been preparing for this moment for months and was ready to over come my fears, and I did. When the doctor first touched my back with the needle, I pulled away, but then I told myself that I needed to push against the needle for this to work, and I did just that, and within seconds the freezing was in. Then when they did inject the spinal I didn't even feel anything.

It's now around 8:30am, and the surgeon has just arrived, so they get me strapped to the table, literally. My arms are strapped spread eagle style and they have a belt around my hips. They then tip the table so as to take off the pressure. True to form, not long after the spinal kicks in, my blood pressure drops and I start to feel sick, but the doctor was watching me closing, and quickly gave me a intervious injection of something to counter the drop in my blood pressure. Now finally the surgeon gets into the OR, and we're ready to go. Just before she starts she lets me know that she was about to start, and then after asks me if I can feel anything, which thank goodness I couldn't. So they get you all open and then they have to stretch out your muscles so that the whole is big enough for the baby to come out of. Which Keith was watching, and he said the 2 doctor's were pulling as hard as they could to stretch my muscles. Then once that was all done, they had to turn the baby. Oh did I forget to mention that she was breech. So they spent a good while trying to get her turned around, and thank goodness for the belt around my hips, because if it wasn't for that belt I would have fallen off the table. Finally, in order to get her out, one of the doctor's had to push down on the top of my uterus, while the other turns her. The doctor was pushing so hard that I heard my heart rate drop and it was hard to breath.

Finally after what seemed like forever, they tell me it's coming, and at 8:44am, Rebecca May Chrabaszcz was born. But wait it's not over yet. So the doctor announces that it's a girl and hands her off to the scrub nurse. They then take her over to the little bed that they have there. After a couple of seconds the 3rd doctor asks the nurse if she's happy. She says yes, but not a second later, she tells the doctor that she's not happy. The doctor then goes over to where Rebecca is laying, and starts working on her, it takes a few more seconds and she lets out a small cry. Then after a little while longer, she finally starts crying like she should. By this point I'm very worried and am also crying. I keep looking at Keith for reassurance which he gives, telling me that everything would be OK. So after a agonizing 24 minutes, the nurse finally tells Keith that he can come look at her. So off he goes, and he gets her and brings her to me.

By this time the other 2 doctor's have me all stapled up and we are ready to go to recovery. In recovery they give me a shot of benydril for the itching. The nurse has just got back with Rebecca after getting her weighed and measured. They tell me that she was 7lbs and 6oz and 19 3/4 inches long. I was amazed, Rebecca was born a full 3 weeks before Emily and was only 2oz smaller at birth. The nurse asks me how I'm feeling and if I want to try breast feeding. I get excited and eagerly say yes. So we get all ready and lay Rebecca next to me, and she has no interest, which was disappointing, so we just have some skin to skin, until they take me to my room.

Once in my room Keith and I start making the phone calls to let everyone know that she was born.

I wanted to tell my story, because it was a much better experience then what I had with Emily. With Emily, I don't remember anything for the first 6 hours after she was born. My body was in so much shock and pain that I couldn't stay awake. I also got very sick in recovery, and didn't actually get to hold Emily until the next morning.

Kate