A scheduled c/s that turned out to be memorable...
I was diagnosed with a low lying placenta at the very beginning of the pg, not that unusual, but was monitored and at 32 wks an u/s showed it was still within 2 cm of the cervix. My ob completely understood my preference to have a natural delivery and gave me the best possible chance by scheduling a final u/s for 37 wks, which is about as late as you can hope to have the placenta move. We were quite hopeful when bubby was able to engage 3-4/5 around 35 wks, but unfortunately the final u/s showed only a couple of mms movement from the placenta.
Several reasons are probable - I'm only small so my uterus didn't grow very much and the baby is small as well. The placenta was posterior and they move less than anterior, and all in all, just unlucky. First one that is really only 'marginal' placenta praevia (Grade II or III) that my ob hadn't seen 'move' in almost a decade.
So I had to be scheduled in for a c/s 2 days shy of 39 weeks. Baby also gave up on exiting downstairs in the meantime and turned posterior and moved upwards a bit.
Although I was disappointed, I decided that since it was a medical necessity I wouldn't dwell on the delivery and would focus on all the things I wanted to do afterwards. My ob was also disappointed for me, which made a difference. I discussed the procedure in detail with him, and he described how it would go and I was happy with his way of doing things.
The c/s went very well and my beautiful, beautiful ob made the whole thing a wonderful and memorable experience by his caring attitude and his absolute attention to me throughout the whole thing, from holding my hand while they gave me all the injections, drips, etc and having me lean against him and resting his forehead against mine while they did the (first) spinal (I needed two...). The atmosphere was light-hearted and we were quite chatty, although I was nervous and shaking (from the cold as well). During this time my DP had to wait outside so the extra attention from my ob was very much needed. I also asked if I could wear my contact lenses so I could see during the op (I'm almost blind without them and can't wear glasses to correct) and both the anaesthetist and ob were fine with that. (For anyone in this situation - the midwives had told me to take them out and when I pushed them on the issue said they guessed I could take them along and ask the anaesthetist when we got there. Thankfully because we were delayed so long I got fed up with being unable to see properly and put them back in anyway. It would have been a pain to have to do that up at theatre.)
DP came in after I was all ready to go and my ob made sure I could see Lucy being delivered by dropping the screen and asking several times if I could see well enough. The midwife gave her to Anthony as soon as she had a blanket wrapped around her. I would have been able to hold her except it was freezing cold and I had four blankets on me!! So Anthony laid her next to me so our faces were touching and we had some lovely photos taken.
She fell asleep almost straight after delivery, which was probably an indication of her easy-going personality! DP went with her for her weigh-in, etc and was left alone with her in a delivery room while they waited for me to get back. I think the time he spent with her was just as important as my time.
She was back in my room after I spent half an hour in recovery and we breastfed straight away. Although she had to go to the nursery until my legs were backthey brought her in to feed every time she cried and nobody rushed her out. The midwives also left me alone with her once it was obvious she was latching and sucking well and I really appreciated the chance to get the hang of things on our own.
I recovered from the c/s very quickly (kicked the PCA IV drugs within 8 hours and I only pressed the thing about 6 times in total) and would have been perfect except for a spinal fluid leak from the epidural, which was fixed with a 'blood patch' procedure on Monday night that involved another epidural without the anaesthetic. Much better when I didn't feel like my head was going to explode! I didn't have any stitches that needed removing and my ob's hands-off way of doing things (no internals throughout my pg for one!) continued. I had a drawstring thingy that had the ends snipped on day 4 and it fixes itself. Very weird!
Lucy is a perfect baby, quite small at 2560 gms (5 lbs 10 oz), but since she didn't lose very much weight and feeds like a trooper she was back to within 25 gms of her birth weight at our discharge. Doesn't complain much, eats when she's hungry, which is anywhere between 3 to 5 hourly (I know, can you believe that - I'm actually not very tired at all!) and settles really easily.
So far being a Mum has been the most fantastic experience of my life and so much better than I could have ever imagined. I can't wait to do this again, and my ob is already on board for a vbac! Might just give it a few years though...
