Chase's Birth Story

Today is the first day of the rest of my life 

As I awoke the morning of November 25, 2002 - I could not believe that today was going to be the day. I mean it just felt like yesterday that I was getting so frustrated with not getting pregnant, wanting to give up hope, having it finally happen and then BAM - here it is 9 months later and my baby is going to be in my arms before the day is over.

Ken and I arrived at the hospital at 6:15am, according to the hospital we were late, but we knew from experience that we really didn't need to be there exactly 2 hours ahead of time.  We checked in at admitting and we sent on our way to the labor and delivery unit. The nurse, whose shift was about to end, was waiting for us, so she right away had me get in the gown and within 10 minutes she was poking me in the arm for my IV. My vein jumped the first time, so lucky me, got poked twice.  Then she asked me about 50 questions and I was able to tell her my requests for my surgery.  No resident anesthesiologist (I wanted the real deal), catheter after my spinal (no reason to feel the discomfort if I don't have to)l, stitches - not staples, and a couple medication requests. Then about an hour later we met with the resident ob doctor. She did a quick ultrasound because she thought she felt his head up top of my belly, but it was his butt sticking up. The nurses changed shifts and I met my nurse that would be with me during and after my surgery, whom was Lori, a friend of mine that lives in my neighborhood. It was nice because I knew she would make sure I was taken care of.  I also had 2 student nurses, which I approved (hey I was in nursing school at one time- got to learn somehow- right!) Then my doctor arrived and went over a few things and within 15 minutes and a few hugs and kisses later - I was rolled away to the surgery room.

At 8:11am I was transferred to the OR (operating room) and the anesthesiologist began to poke away at my back. In the past I have had trouble with epidurals and spinals. I have always had to get poked several times before they actually got it right.  Very scary, but mostly very very painful.  I thought by requesting the real experienced anesthesiologist I would avoid this, but I didn't.  I still had to be poked 4 times, and it hurt tremendously, All I can remember thinking the entire time was that there was NO WAY I was ever having any more children after this.  I kept praying the entire time, please just let me get through this, and of course I did.  Ken was then brought into the room as they finished prepping me. My arms were both tied down, I was hooked up to several monitors, catheter in place, a drape across my chest so I couldn't see, and oxygen tube placed in my nose.  I started to feel the spinal take affect and also felt a little nauseated.  The doctor gave me something for the nausea and it passed pretty quickly.  Then about 8:25am the doctor began the first incision into my belly.  They ran into a lot of scar tissue so it took them quite awhile to get through to the baby. I felt tugging and pushing, but no real discomfort.  Ken watched the entire thing, after all it was his second time, and nothing grosses him out.  From what I was told they had a hard time getting Chase out. My doctor thought that he was going to be at least 8 or more pounds and had said jokingly that the baby did not want to come out. Ken said they used several tools to pull my uterus open as far as they could.  Miraculously at 8:52am, Chase Matthew entered the world. I heard him cry within a few seconds and the tears came pouring down my face. The best sound in the world to any women awaiting the birth of her baby.  I did not get to see him, which disappointed me. I guess I should have discussed this with them ahead of time, but with my last baby they had the bassinet right off to my side so I was able to watch them do their routine on him, as they were stitching me up. But with Chase they had him out of my view, so Ken kept me up to date as to what they were doing. His apgar was 8/9...due to some problems with his breathing. I was told he was struggling to breathe with his belly...but within several minutes he got the hang of it and was fine.  At that moment though,  I was very scared and must have asked Ken 20 times what was going on. My nurse also kept me posted every minute as to what was happening, but I still hated that I could not see him. They did eventually move his bassinet so I could see him, but what was really only 15 minutes of waiting felt like hours.  They weighed him and thought that the scale was wrong because he only weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz. and everyone thought he looked bigger than that. But they later reweighed him and it was accurate. Ken was able to take pictures in the OR, he even got a snapshot of my uterus laying on top of my chest, and the placenta! After I was all put back together and unhooked from everything -  I was wheeled to the recovery room where I got to start bonding with Chase.

In the recovery room, Chase nursed right away like it was nothing new to him.  He didn't fuss at all except when the nurses had to take him to check his vitals.  Here Ken and I got to really get a good look at our new baby.  My favorite part of Chase is his dark brown hair. I had said all along during my pregnancy that it would be so nice to have a baby with dark hair and one that looked like me. Chase has my hair color and my dimple in my chin. I also seen a little bit of a dimple in his left cheek too! He really doesn't look like Andrew or Blake or his father for that matter!  After awhile we had our mothers come back so they could see Chase for the first time.  They could not believe how small he was, especially since the doctors thought he was going to be a bigger baby.  After 2 hours in recovery I was transferred to my regular room and there I really began to spend quality time with Chase.

 The first two days I nursed him on demand, pretty much every 2 hours for about 45 minutes at a time. Even though he wasn't getting any milk yet, he really liked to nurse, and I enjoyed the time with him. My milk did come in early Wednesday morning, less than 48 hours after his birth. The first night I had the nurses take Chase from 11pm to 3:30am, but other than that he was with me in my room the rest of the time, minus me showering and him getting circumcised. I really have no complaints about the entire experience except for a minor mishap. When the doctor removed the gauze Tuesday morning that was covering my incision she was kind of quick about it and she tore off a decent amount of skin with the tape. It was pure white flesh, that hurt like something terrible when I showered that day. Other than that I really enjoyed my mother/baby time in the hospital but after 3 days I was ready to go home and share baby Chase with the rest of my family. I was able to go home Wednesday around 5pm and we spent our first Thanksgiving as a family of 5.