Introducing Ben Austin Facer
Born 7.8.2016 at 12:31 a.m.
7 lbs 8 oz / 22 in
How do you even start a post like this? I know this is a novel, but this is mostly for me to remember everything. So don't feel bad if you don't make it through the whole thing.
During the last few weeks of pregnancy, people would not stop asking me if I was nervous, ready, excited, etc. Obviously I was excited, but I wasn't nervous...yet. I've realized that I don't usually get nervous for things until right before they happen. I was just waiting for a nervous breakdown but it hadn't happened yet. At around 36 weeks, I talked to my Dr about my due date, which happened to be right over the week that both my mom and Austin's mom were going to be at girls camp. At this point, Austin still had a job that would require him to go back to Alabama after the baby was born (he'd have about 2 weeks total to be home). I really didn't want him to come out here and spend all his time waiting around for the baby to get here and not have any time left for after he was born, so we decided that as long as everything looked good, we would have my Dr induce me. At my 38 week appointment, he said, "Okay, we'll see you at 7 am on the 7th! Eat breakfast before you come! We're havin' a baby that day!" I was so excited to hear that because A: He was really coming! It was getting real, and B: Breakfast?! I thought it was ice chips only? Wahoo!
Since we knew the day he was coming (a Thursday), I started my maternity leave that Monday so that I could spend time with my family during "Cousin Camp" that week with all my nieces & nephews. We went to the parade, saw a movie, played games, went to Cherry Hill and just hung out for 3 days. The last night of Cousin Camp we were hanging out at my brother's house having dinner and my sisters had been asking me all day if I was nervous. Nope...not yet. We left the party for a bit to come home and pack our bags (Yeah, I hadn't packed anything yet. Bad idea.) and that's when the breakdown started. I had a million thoughts running through my head. What was I supposed to pack? He's really coming tomorrow? I'm not ready! I never got a newborn sized outfit for him to come home in! Our house is a mess. How bad is this really going to hurt? The dresser we painted for him needs to be re-painted. This is our last night as a family of two...ahh! After we got our bags packed for the most part, we went back to the party and I couldn't hide it when people asked if I was nervous. Yep...pretty nervous. On the way home Austin smacked a mosquito on his arm and says, "Dang it! I found the mosquito that bit all the way up my arm! I'm going to be so uncomfortable tomorrow!" I didn't think it was very funny... :)
The next morning, we got up and finished some last minute packing, picked up some McDonald's for breakfast and headed to the hospital. Of course we were 30 mins late (my fault) but we got there and got all checked in. Here's the final belly pic:
We'd been there for a total of about 3 mins before Dr. Ward came in and broke my water right away. He said I was at a 2 and his head was super low so it should be a breeze to get him here. He told me that I should start to want my epidural around 11:30am and we should have a baby by 8 or 9 that night. Wahoo! At around 8:30am, they started the pitocin. We watched on the monitor to see when I was having contractions because I wasn't feeling a thing. By 9, they were 3-4 mins apart but were not painful whatsoever. By 10:30ish, they were about 2 mins apart but still not hurting. The nurses kept asking me what was wrong with me. They stayed 2 mins apart for a loooong time and by 3ish, they started to hurt but I was only at a 3 so they gave me something to help with the pain, which only helped for like 30 mins. By this time it wasn't terrible pain, but I couldn't talk during contractions like I could before and it was getting harder to just breathe through them.
This is what most of our day looked like.
At 5:30 they checked me and I was at a 4, so they told me I could have the epidural anytime. At 5:45 I decided it was time. I was super nervous about it, but I just leaned into Austin and my nurse on the side of the bed and it was over super quick and I couldn't even tell when he did it. By 6:30 I was numb and feeling good, but could still feel when contractions were happening which was perfect. Austin was loving it because he had a happy talkative wife again :) I was thinking this was great! The nurses got me lots of Dr Pepper and Coke and popsicles and we were watching endless episodes of King of Queens...so I was happy. The only problem was I was not progressing at all. At 8:45 I was at a 4. At 9:30, I threw up and was still at a 4. At 11, I was still at a 4. At 11, they told us that if I hadn't progressed by midnight, they would probably have to do a c-section. That wasn't what we wanted to hear. The thought of having a c-section crossed my mind for like one second earlier in the day, so I was kind of expecting them to say that and I was surprisingly okay with it. Austin, on the other hand, started to freak out a little bit and got really nervous. He hadn't thought of that being a possibility at all, so he quickly started researching c-sections and I didn't look up anything because I didn't want to freak out at all.
At midnight they checked me and sure enough, still a 4. She called my Dr to ask if there was any other alternatives, but he thought we should just do the c-section. So at 12:15ish, she brought in the scrub looking things for Austin and hair nets for both of us. The anesthesiologist came in and adjusted my epidural and added morphine. I actually knew him from working at Zions Bank, so it was nice to see a familiar face. He told me the bank hasn't been the same since I left ;) They then wheeled me into the OR and left Austin in our room. I was doing everything I could to stay calm and it was working. I could tell Austin was freaking out though. I think because I knew he was nervous, I was trying so hard to not be. The second we got in the room, I started shaking almost uncontrollably because it was freezing in the OR and being nervous and freezing is not a good combination. They hauled my numb body onto the table, and checked to make sure I was numb. To do this, the anesthesiologist put a cold cloth on my leg to make sure I couldn't feel the coldness. I could feel the cloth on my leg, but not the coldness. Weirdest feeling ever. I was super worried about being able to feel them cutting into me, but they assured me I would only feel "pressure, tugging, and pulling"...whatever that meant. They got all set up and put the sheet up in front of my face, checked my blood pressure, and who knows what else. I was still shaking uncontrollably and trying SO HARD to calm down and stop shaking, but I couldn't. They put on an oxygen mask and Austin had come in by this time. He came and stood by my head and tried to rub my arms to stop me from shaking. I was still pretty calm but didn't look like it. Then when I could feel they were starting the surgery, I started to freak out in my head. This wasn't how I imagined it to be and it was scary! Austin and the anesthesiologist were there helping me calm down. I felt them moving stuff around and there was pulling and pressure but no pain. After only a couple minutes, they told Austin to look up over the sheet and right after that it felt like a suction cup released in my belly and our baby was born! I just started sobbing as I heard his sweet little cry and seeing Austin's face as he saw our baby for the first time was so sweet. Austin went with the nurses as they cleaned him up a little bit and then came back and told me, "He has such a cute face!" Then the nurse brought him over and put his cute face next to mine. Before they brought him over, he had a hard time breathing...then after he was right by me he started to breathe normally. He knew his mommy :)
Being able to somewhat hold him and have him next to me was a perfect distraction while they stitched me back up. I only got to hold him for a minute and then they took him back to go finish measuring, weighing and all that stuff. Austin went with him to make sure everything was good. So I was then left alone in the freezing room while they finished up. I remember feeling so weird at this time. Everything had happened so fast. From the time they wheeled me in until he was born was only about 10 mins. I just felt super out of it and incredibly cold and shaky, and still crying. The anesthesiologist was seriously the best. He stayed by my head the whole time from when I got in there from when I left and seriously kept me calm. After Austin had left he kept telling me what a great job I did and told me it was the smoothest c-section he's seen. Since Austin couldn't be with me the whole time, I was so grateful for him...I don't think I could've done it without him cheering me on the whole time before and after. They put a blanket over me as they wheeled me out but I still couldn't stop shaking, and it was worse than it was before. When we got back to our room, the nurse put a warm blanket over me, then charted a whole bunch of stuff as I sat there shaking. I finally asked her if this was normal and she said it was and usually lasted a couple hours after. I just laid there thinking about how weird it was that I just had a baby and neither he or Austin were with me. But he finally came back and wheeled our cute boy in with him. We just sat and enjoyed some time together. Austin held him most of the time since I was still shaking. At around 2 am, Austin's family came to see him and by 4 am we were in a new room and we spent the next few hours sort of sleeping/watching his chest to make sure he was breathing ;) He was perfect and we couldn't believe he was really ours!
The next few days were full of visitors, little sleep, lots of pain pills and cuddles. He was eating like a champ and I was recovering. I had no idea what the recovery for a c-section was like, but um, wow. It is super painful and frustrating because there's very little you can do on your own for a while. It's been a month now and I feel almost back to normal, but still have incision pain occasionally. Even though everyone thinks there is an ideal way to have a baby, I think it's amazing no matter how they get here. I'm just so glad that even though, in the words of my Dr, "some uteruses just don't work," I was still able to get Ben here safely. And bonus, he has a perfect shaped head because he didn't have to go through any trauma. :)
Little Ben had tons of visitors!
The last month has gone by so fast. For the first 2 weeks, I got lucky and was able to have Austin here with me the whole time. He actually got a different job (not in Alabama) and his first day was 2 weeks after we left the hospital. I'm pretty sure that was a little miracle because I couldn't have survived without him. He cooked, cleaned, made sure I took my medication, listened to us cry and was pretty much at our beck and call 24/7. He's the bomb. We're also both so grateful for all the help we've received from everyone with meals and everything. We have the best family, friends and neighbors who have helped us so much.
We love our little buddy and are so excited he's part of our family!
