And Then She Was Here

Shelby Renee was born at 9:02am on 9/18/09 weighing in at 8lbs 3oz and 19 and 1/2 inches long.

She is gorgeous and wonderful and all things fabulous.

I always hated it when people post ridiculously long birth stories, because really, who cares? But now that I've experienced another "birth story", I DO plan to write it out and now I feel like a goober for thinking birth stories are dumb.

I just took 15mg of Percocet, so if I made errors, don't judge me.

I came in at 6:00am on 9/18/09 for my scheduled c-section. I got my IV, I got some anti nausea drugs and I was monitored with the belly heart/contraction monitors for a while.

At 8:00am, they wheeled me into the operating room. When you're having a scheduled c-sec, they do your anesthesia right there in the frickin operating room, so while you're waiting for your anesthesiologist, you get to sit there and read/stare at every sign/tool/machine and basically scare the shit out of yourself.

The anesthesiologist came in and game me my spinal. While I'd rather never have a spinal again for the rest of my life, it wasn't all that bad. It felt similar to the epidural I had for Luke 9 years ago and took a ridiculously long time (to me, anyway) to take affect.

They laid me down and started with all their "doctor speak". I asked for my husband 10 times and I started freaking out. They had made the first cut without my husband in the room!!! A nurse ran out to get him. Ziggy said that when he walked in, the doctors already had bloody gloves and there were blood drops on the floor.

I wasn't hurting, but I could literally FEEL everything they were doing. It felt like rubber bands snapping in me. Between that and finally having Ziggy sitting next to me with a terrified look in his eyes, I had a full blown panic attack. They strapped down my arms and immediately shot me up with a drug that I would later learn was Ketamine.

Now here is finally the benefit of having an ex-addict husband. He can explain drugs to me better than any pharmacist can. Ketamine's "street name" is Special K. When abused, it is used as a hallucinigenic and yes, my dear husband has experienced it many times.

Let's just say that the next five minutes were the strangest and best 5 minutes of my life. I was high as a kite and I could have cared less if they killed me or not. Fabulous shit, that Ketamine is, and if you ever have the chance to experience it, by all means, go for it!

I remember seeing Shelby naked and being carried through the room. I remember them calling Ziggy over to see her. He cut her cord, which he swore he wouldn't do, but he did it. I remember him looking at me like he knew what I was experiencing with the Ketamine and he was so sorry and so scared to leave me. He kissed me and whispered "don't worry, it's a short high, I promise" and he left with Shelby.

I was left alone then with 2 doctors who were sewing me up and having coffee talk with me...kind of strange to talk to your doctor about her weekend plans when you know that she's stitching up your innards while she speaks. I got more shots of god knows what and was wheeled to recovery.

Once in recovery, I was shot up with Dilaudin, another lovely drug that my husband later explained to me and called it "pretty good shit". Again, so great to have a husband who once abused almost everything I was being given.

Shelby was taken for hours. And hours. And hours. Erick was being given all of the info - no one was talking to me...I guess so that I would relax? Who knows, but it took 7 and 1/2 hours for me to actually get to hold my daughter. True to his word though, Ziggy made sure that I was the one who held her first.

She had swallowed amniotic fluid on her way out and had fluid in her lungs and she was breathing too fast so she had to be monitored in the nursery for a while. It was torture waiting for her, but once we finally got her...she was ours.

The best part of this whole experience? Watching Ziggy become a father. I've never been more impressed with a man in all my life. When I say that he stepped up, I truly mean that she is 2 days old and I already feel like I could go out of town for a week and Ziggy would be just fine alone with his daughter. He's jumped right in and it's a beautiful sight to see.

So that's my birth story. I'm in the hospital until tomorrow so I need to get my butt back in bed. I was diagnosed with bronchitis Friday night after my doctor realized that even with all the drugs, I was coughing through my whole surgery(fabulous, right?). So I'm on about 9 million extra drugs for that, plus I have to do breathing treatments all day long. This was actually the really shortened version of the birth story, but no need to bother you with pages of details that are probably only important to me.

Smooches and hugs. I promise to post a photo when we get home.