Griffin Gann!

I have been seeing/reading a lot of birth stories recently.  I have never thought about writing one myself…I guess I don’t really have it in my mind that I really did have a baby since I had a C section.  But I really did give birth!  I don’t think I should think anything less of myself because we chose to go this route (with the advice of my dr of course).  So here it goes…a birth story from a different perspective.  J

Pregnancy was great! I felt sick in the beginning but never actually got sick.  The worst part was finding out before Christmas, but waiting until February to tell anyone we were expecting.   Christmas was interesting with the family to say the least.  It’s hard to keep such a great thing a secret, but we did! Here was our annoucement of who would be Griffin Gann!  :)

All went well and each appointment the dr said everything was going great.  Later in the pregnancy I began to ask if I needed to prepare for an early delivery due to the size of the baby or anything she could tell.  She told me not to worry, that the chances of having a first baby early were small and that I would have a small baby.  At my last ultrasound appointment, the ultrasound tech sounded concerned and tried forever to get good measurements.  But they just weren’t making sense.  His head measured right on track but his abdomen was measuring large, I think it was measuring like a baby at 40 weeks.  So we scheduled another ultrasound with a more experienced tech just to be sure.  Sure enough, at the next appointment, the tech said the same thing.  We went into the room and waited for the dr, amazed at what we had just heard.  He was already measuring over 8 lbs.  The dr came in flabbergasted and said she wasn’t sure where I was hiding such a big baby.  This kind of made me feel good, but I felt huge!  So she laid out our options at this point.

1)      Wait and see what happens.  If I went into labor and he was too big to come out on his own, they could “help” him come out.  She assured me she felt confident she could make it happen, but it might involve having to break bones.  But if that didn’t work or we decided at the last minute we could rush to a c-section.

2)      Schedule a C Section unless he decides to come naturally before then.  We could still decide to have him naturally if I went into labor before the schedule C section or we could go ahead and do a c section as soon as labor started.

 

Since he was measuring so big in his mid section, the dr explained, that probably meant that his shoulders were quite large.  She told us that women have big babies everyday and it goes great, but big shoulders don’t fit in the equation very well with my type of bone structure (not very wide hips).  She also explained to us that she was very good at her job but the risks with having a big baby naturally could be nerve damage.  Trying to help the baby out could involve pulling his neck/stretching it away from the body to make room (not sure how to explain what she said exactly) and that could cause nerve damage in the neck which has bad side affects.  And I didn’t like the sound of them having to break his collar bone or arm to deliver him. 

 

Trent and I had discussed what we wanted to do before the dr came in and we heard all this and we were pretty open minded.  My mom had two C sections and so I wasn’t against the idea, but I had it in my mind to try and handle labor.  But with the options we now had, we both thought it was best to just schedule the C section.  We both felt that if God really wanted us to have this baby naturally I would go into labor earlier and if would happen.  (I prayed for this everyday those few weeks before the scheduled C section and felt a peace in our decision).  Trent’s question for the dr before we made the final decision involved me (how sweet!).  What were my risks, what would recovery be like and what about future pregnancies and future births.  The dr assured us that the risks really weren’t many more than a natural birth.  There were more costs of course and recovery was longer, but that it really wasn’t that bad.  She had gone through two C sections and had a fairly quick recovery.  She also told us that having more babies later on wouldn’t be a problem, that the risks weren’t much higher (again) than a natural birth and that their practice does require the future births to be C sections as well.  They don’t allow natural delivery after a c section because of the risks that go along with it.  So with all this information and us coming into the appointment having prayed for guidance, we decided to schedule the C section.  It was kind of a relief to me, just to know when it was going to happen.  Of course there was still the possibility of going into labor early, but the chance of that happening with a first baby is small. 

 

Those next few weeks went by slowly it seemed.  I was so ready to meet this little big boy!  We never really got a good picture of his face from the ultrasounds (that poor tech tried so hard!).  He was just being stubborn I guess, but now we take lots of pictures!  J So I really didn’t have a clue what he would look like. 

So the day finally came – August 23 (due date was August 28).  I never felt any real contractions leading up to that day so I had no scares.  We had to be at the hospital early that morning, but didn’t get called back for like two hours.  They had some ladies come in that were clearly in labor and couldn’t wait, so I was okay that they went in before me.  We finally got called back and they got we ready to go to the operating room.  The doctor came in and got our estimates on his weight.  I don’t remember what we said, but they were all 9 lbs or smaller.  I think the dr’s guessed 9 lbs.  They walked me back to the operating room and said Trent would come in just before they took Griffin out.  I was very nervous, but also felt at peace about it.  It was a strange feeling.  All the nurses and dr’s were great.  The anesthesiologist was my favorite.  He as a young guy about my age and his job was to give me drugs and keep me from feeling anything and keep me feeling good.  He was supposed to talk to me the entire time, telling me what was happening, what I would be feeling and that it was normal.  This was great for me, because I tend to worry if I don’t know why I am feeling something.  The hardest part was to relax and bend over for the epidural/spinal (I’m not really sure which I got…they explained the difference but I don’t remember).  Griffin was kicking up a storm and it was very hard to bend over and hunch my back with him kicking me in the ribs.  I kept thinking, just hold on little buddy, you are fixing to come out of there and have some more room!  So they finally got that in and quickly laid me down on the table.  I can remember thinking the entire time, “this is an operating room?  It seems so relaxed and open and not what I see on TV.” Haha!  They started cutting me open and I was about to panic because Trent wasn’t in the room.  He finally came in, all dressed in the garb, and I was relieved to see him.  Not too much longer I heard the dr’s say something like, ok we are going to have to push him out so you will feel a lot of pressure.  He must have been warm and comfortable in there.  So one dr pulled and the other dr pushed from the top of my belly.  It was such a weird feeling!  This point seems very blurry for me.  I guess lots of emotions were going on and a lot was going on with my body even though I wasn’t having to work hard like in labor to push him out.  I heard him cry and the dr said something along the lines of “oh my, he’s definitely not going to be just 9 lbs.”  It didn’t hit me until much later what she had actually said.  They took him over to the table to clean up and weigh and Trent went over to watch, take pictures and talk with his baby boy.  I was so glad he was there.  I couldn’t see anything that was happening because of the divider that they had put up.  I finally got them to move it just a little so I could see what they were doing.  There was my boy!  I heard them say he was 10 lbs 4 ounces and there was a lot of happy and excited voices, but again it didn’t really register that he was 10 lbs yet.  

 

 

They finally brought Griffin over and put him in front of my face so I could see him.  It was quite awkward because he was very close to my face.  The divider didn’t give much room at all.  So I can remember feeling like, I love this baby boy and love seeing him but you have got to get him out of my face!  He’s too close!  I couldn’t hold him or reach out and touch him because my arms were out on the table.  I can’t remember if they were tied down or not but I couldn’t move them or didn’t feel like I should (I don’t know…its all a little blurry now). 

My dr had to leave to go to other appointments since we started late, but another dr would be closing me up.  If you are squeamish and don’t want details, don’t read the next part!  It was really funny to me hearing the other dr when they took out the placenta.  He said something like, wow look at this placenta.  It’s very healthy.  He sounded really impressed and I felt proud for some reason.  Haha!  It did make me happy to hear that what had taken care of my baby for so long was healthy.  The anesthesiologist told me I might start to feel nauseous and get a headache and to let him know if this happened.  So anyway he started closing me up and they took Trent and Griffin out to the recovery room to wait for me.  This was my least favorite part of the whole experience.  I was by myself all of a sudden and started to get scared.  But I kept praying and thinking it would be over soon.  I started to feel nauseous and a headache and told the anesthesiologist and he gave me some medicine and it helped very fast.    They got me all sewed up and wheeled me to recovery.  The elevator was quite a rough ride, just because it made me feel really sick.  In recovery they let me hold him finally!  He was perfect and amazing.  I couldn’t believe that big boy was in my belly!  They kept checking both of our temps and vitals and that would continue over the next couple days.  But we never had any issues, thank the Lord!  I was very sleepy and over the next 3 days feel in and out of sleep, even while people were talking to me.  They basically gave us the option of going home after the second day since everything was going well, but said we could stay the third day if we wanted.  I opted to stay.  I felt more comfortable there in the hospital where I had help in case something did go wrong.  Our hospital doesn’t have a nursery for newborns, unless they are sick or something like that.  So the baby stays in the room with the mom the entire time unless they take them for tests or procedures.  So we had plenty of practice taking care of him before we left, but I still wanted the extra day in the hospital.  It was probably more for me rather than Griffin.  Here is a funny story about walking the hallways in the hospital – I saw a scale in the hallway walking one day.  I asked if I could use it, just to see how much I had lost.  I mean, I had a 10 lb baby so I should have lost a lot!  Well I stepped on the scale and to my amazement I hadn’t lost any weight!  I finally figured out (when I got home) how swollen I was and how much fluids they had given me. 

We went home when Griffin was 3 days old.  My mom stayed with us for a few weeks so I could have help when Trent went back to work (he took the first week off of work).  She was a great help, doing housework and such.   Our wonderful church family provided us with dinner for what seemed like a couple weeks, but I can’t remember exactly how long it was now.  It was such a big help!  And they are wonderful cooks, so we had some good food!  Those first few weeks involved not much sleep and a lot of figuring this new little boy out.  But I loved it.  I knew motherhood would be amazing but you really can’t imagine what it is actually like.  As far as my recovery from the C Section, the first week was rough.  This was mostly because I tend to worry about things way too much.  So I was constantly worried about pulling my stitches or something.   I also had a lot of swelling the first two weeks.  Some of this was left over from being pregnant and some of it was from the fluids they gave me in the hospital.  This worried me at time too.  My poor feet were huge!  I finally started wearing Trent’s Nike’s to go out for a walk.  I was trying to walk as much as possible but not over do it.  Finally, after exactly two week after the C section, the swelling was almost completely gone!  I felt amazing then!   I kept reminding myself to take it easy though.  By the time Griffin was 4 weeks old I felt pretty much like my normal self.  Technically, with a C Section you have 8 weeks to recover.  But my doctor had told me she was back to normally by 4 weeks but I guess it just depends on the person.  I was very glad to have recovered quickly.  I still wasn’t back to getting my full night of sleep but we were starting to get good naps during the day.  I think by around 8 weeks old Griffin was sleeping through the night, maybe 11-5.  Then he started sleeping about 11-7 and for a few months now its been more like 11-8 or 9.  I love that he is more of a night owl than a morning person.  Trent and I both are night owls so it works out well.  Of course, I could have used the push to become a morning person, but I am very happy to have a baby like us.  J We are blessed!  Our little lineman is almost 6 months old, I'm guessing around 20-23 lbs (we go to the dr next week for his 6 month check up and will find out officially) and wearing 9 lbs clothes but getting close to wearing 12 month clothes.  He is growing up so fast!  Its nice that he is sitting up on his own but its also a little bittersweet.  I keep telling myself to enjoy each day, relax and soak up this stage in his life.  He is learning more and more everyday and we are loving him more and more every day.  God is good!