Arrival Day

September 10, 2009.
Today is Rileys arrival day. I spent the night in hospital in preparation for todays c/s, so all the usual ctg and blood pressure stuff. But for lots of reasons I wish I had of just stayed home and been able to go to peri-op on the day because it is tough being alone the night before you know your baby is going to arrival, all I wanted was to be near Allan.
So I was given an approx time of going to theatre of 11-11.30am. For some reason I took this and thought it would be true. Somewhere along the line I obviously wasn’t thinking of Ethans arrival and as the hours ticked along it was starting to feel more and more like the day he arrived.
Around lunch time one of the FMU Dr’s popped his head in and couldn’t believe I still hadn’t been called. He had already spoken to theatres several times telling them to get a wriggle on...finally his last call sunk in and around 1pm they called to say they were ready for me.
So off to theatres we went, nervous as anything. It is like the first time you go you are nervous of the unknown then the second time it is ok because you have been there before but the third time OMG I was probably more nervous than before the first c/s.
Went into the theatre, hopped onto the bed in readiness for the spinal/epidural. All went well with that until everyone realised that the spinal did not work. Not one little bit, thankfully they had done a combined block with an epidural in ready to use. So they put a dose of that in....nothing! Put another lot in.....nothing! They tried a final dose...I was in tears because no one wants to be asleep for their c/s if they can avoid it and I know the anaesthetist felt bad for me too. So they put in the third lot and said they would just give it a bit of time to work...and YAY finally my legs were going tingly and numb. Tested it out several times with ice and I couldn’t feel a thing. So they went ahead....
Not sure how long it all took, Allan said it took them almost an hour to just do the spinal/epidural. But then suddenly there was all that pushing which you know mean baby is almost here and the next thing we heard that little tiny cry....bliss!!!
They were cleaning Riley up and then took Allan over for some photos etc. He was also able to cut the cord and one of my friends who works in NICU was able to come down and help too, so I knew she was in great hands. They whipped this tiny little baby over to me...she was so cute and seemed so small. Then back to their area she went. The next thing the Dr pops back to tell me that she stopped breathing but it is ok because that is a thing that 33-34 weekers will do. They gave her some breaths and she was doing well. They stabilised her and took her off to NICU, Allan followed along. I was stitched up and taken to recovery. Funnily enough it seems that my spinal finally kicked in right at the end and it took ages for me to be cleared out of recovery due to the level of the block!
Riley went right to level 3 and bed 1 in NICU. They put her on CPAP right away. I can’t remember the numbers but I know at some stage it was at 30%. She also got a cannula and a UV and a UA line just in case she needed an exchange transfusion. She weighed in at 2305g, 42cm long and a head circ of 32.5. I have no idea of her APGAR scores or anything like that.
I was taken up later on in my bed to see her, have never felt more in the way in my life! But she was looking ok and I really think I just needed to see that for myself. When I got to see her she was having a blood transfusion because she was anaemic again but her SBR was good and that is what I was really worried about.
I am sure that there is heaps I have missed and will remember further down the track...probably doesn’t help trying to write this being surrounded by babies who cry all night long!