Hellobee

It is my incredible pleasure to introduce you to the littlest love of my life, Graham Jeffrey.

Britt Fisk Photography

Short Version:

I had a scheduled c-section on January 24, 2015.  My little love was not so little at 9 lbs. 2 oz. and 20 3/4 in. long. After a few minutes of the initial care, they brought him over for me to see and it was one of the two best moments of my life. He’s perfect and healthy and even let me sleep for four consecutive hours last night. His big brothers are mostly warming up to him, but are still not entirely sure what to think of the new addition to the family.

The Longer Version:

After seeing my doctor on Friday, January 23, and making no progress, we knew Baby Boy would be born via c-section. I was at peace with that decision and at 40 weeks 5 days, I was ready to get the show on the road. My OB asked if there was a certain day we wanted to schedule the c-section, and my immediate response was, “When is the soonest you can do it?” He said, “Well, have you eaten today?” I had indeed, but he was on call that weekend and said he’d be happy to do the surgery the next day on Saturday as long as the hospital had the staff available. After just a few minutes, we had a time of 10 a.m. and we headed out: Mr. Blue to finish up things at work and me to get things ready at home. We knew that if possible our parents would all like to be at the hospital, so I arranged for our babysitter to keep the boys the next day. My mom was already in town and my dad arrived that night. Mr. Blue’s parents live 8 hours away, so they left that night and drove to where my SIL is in college and drove the last two hours the next morning.

Mr. Blue prepping in the standard giant scrubs.  My apologies for the blurriness; apparently, I was more nervous that I realized. 

On Saturday morning, Mr. Blue and I arrived at the hospital and we were ushered into a triage room to be admitted and prepped for surgery.  My OB came in a few minutes before the surgery and joked about how I was the most patient woman in the world for waiting to 41 weeks to try for a VBAC and suggested we name the baby Patience since we didn’t have a name yet.  We vetoed that as not quite masculine enough, and with that, we were ready to go to the OR.

The OR was much less crowded than my previous experience, and it was a casual atmosphere with everyone talking and joking with me as last minute preparations were made. I told them I knew this sounded silly, but to please straighten my legs as soon as the catheter was placed. In my previous c-section, I went numb before my left leg was straightened back down and for the next several hours, I felt like my leg was spread eagle and I kept asking people to straighten it so my business wasn’t on display. I got a lot of weird looks and people reassuring me that my leg was in fact straight already. The anesthesiologist laughed and said that can be an effect of the spinal block and promised he would make sure they straightened me up quickly.

After my spinal and catheter were placed (and yes, they did straighten my legs in time for me to feel like they were in the right place–so much better!), my OB came in and then Mr. Blue was shown in just before it was show time. It took a few extra minutes to get to baby because the doctor needed to cut out some scar tissue from my previous c-section. Finally, it was time for Baby Boy to make his appearance. As they cut into my uterus, my OB gave Baby Boy his first compliment: “I see a really cute ear!” As they pulled my little guy out, they let Mr. Blue stand up and take some pictures, so we have a picture of his first moments in the world, which I will spare you since it was a bit gory. After 7 looooooong minutes, the initial clean up and work up was done and they brought this beautiful, squalling bundle over to me and I got to see my sweet boy for the first time. He had giant cheeks, dark eyes and hair, and he calmed down as soon as I started talking to him and touching him. It was an almost spiritual moment.

Meeting my boy

After what felt like only seconds but was really several minutes, the nurses told me it was time for them to take him to the nursery to give him a bath, give him his first shot and eye drops. Mr. Blue went with our boy, and I watched the clock impatiently as they put me back together and wheeled me to recovery. Everyone kept speculating on how big he was and said they bet he would be eight pounds. After a few minutes, my nurse said, “Do you know how much your baby just weighed?!?!  Nine pounds and two ounces!” My OB said, “Well, Blue, I’m glad for your sake that we’re doing this this way!”

In recovery, I waited a few minutes before asking my nurse how long she thought it would be until they brought me my baby.  She had pity on me and called the nursery to let them know I was ready to see my baby as soon as they could bring him. They brought him in and I had a chance to hold him for the first time, try out breastfeeding, and really study my baby for the first time.

Finally holding my baby in recovery.

After about 20 or 30 minutes, the nurse from the nursery came back and said they needed to take him back to finish up. I hadn’t realized they weren’t finished when they brought him to me, so I was disappointed to have to send him back but happy to have finally got some quality time with my big boy. Mr. Blue left with our boy, who still officially remained nameless though we had discussed it a bit while studying his little face and agreed on what we thought it would be, and I sat back to finish my wait. My blood pressure dropped really low just as they were about to send me to the surgery recovery wing, so I had to have a shot of something and stay an extra few minutes. Once in my room, our parents and my sister-in-law came in to hang out with me while we waited. Before long, Mr. Blue rolled in with my guy.

Everyone let me hold him and ooh’d and ahh’d over him. After a look and a nod from Mr. Blue, I told our family, “Well, let me introduce you to Graham Jeffrey.” Everyone was excited to finally know who this little guy was going to be, and Mr. Blue’s mom was especially excited and said she had hoped that we would use Jeffrey, which is Mr. Blue’s middle name.

My parents brought the Little Dudes up that afternoon.  The results were mixed, but that’s a post in and of itself. Our stay at the hospital was great. The first 24 hours after a c-section are a bit of a pain with all the wires and tubes, but it wasn’t too bad.  They let me get up and walk at some point in the middle of the night. It was slow going, but I was able to make the big circle around that wing of the hospital. I walked a couple more times that night and the next morning they freed me of all my cords and tubes and I got to take the best shower ever.

These cheeks slay me!

We stayed in the hospital until Tuesday morning, and I have to say it was such a great time for Mr. Blue and me to enjoy our little Graham. As much as we love life with the Little Dudes, they bring a lot of chaos and the peace in the hospital to just love on Graham and spend almost all of our time focused on him was such a treat. We had a fantastic time bonding with him and reveling in this new life that had been given to us. Before long it was time to bust out of the hospital and head home to real life.  We’ve been home 5 1/2 days now. There have been some major ups and downs, but we are all slowly settling into life as a family of five.

Thanks for all the well wishes after my last couple of posts!