A funny thing happens to you when you’re pregnant with you’re first child and you only have a few weeks left in your third trimester--all patience goes out the window.
You think anything that happens to your body means you’re in labor. If you sneeze, that might mean you’ll go to the hospital that night. If you have gas, that means you’re having a contraction. If you fart, you look down to see if you have a baby.
The truth is - with the exception of a planned C-section - you never know when it may happen. Your grandmother will tell you that you’ll be early because all six of her kids were early, while your mom swears up and down you’ll be late like she was with you. No one knows. If they did, they’d be millionaires who’d travel the world to tell pregnant women exactly when they would have their babies.
Take me for instance: I was due September 19. Which was really special for us. Not only was it my father’s birthday, but it was also our fifth wedding anniversary. So we were really rooting for #Babyologie to get here ON TIME. You know how they say, “We make plans and God laughs”? Babies laugh at our plans, too. At least mine did. She laughed six days later when she decided to finally get here.
Oh, another thing: you know how in the movies when the pregnant lady goes into labor her water breaks and gushes everywhere and she + her posse frantically make their way to the hospital and she has her baby what seems like immediately? Totally doesn’t happen like that in real life.
My contractions lasted all day but finally became five minutes apart around 11:00 at night. When I arrived to the hospital, I didn’t see the doctor until an hour later because my contractions hadn’t gotten closer together. Finally when I did see her, my ultrasound revealed that my child was transverse. TRANSVERSE?! Yep. Instead of head down, she was laying sideways. Then my water finally broke. Only to find out that there was meconium leaking out with it, too. Long story short, my delivery had now become an emergency C-section.
Like any first mother who hopes for the best, I had skimmed over all the C-section parts in all the pregnancy books and blogs I read. Because I wasn’t gonna need a C-section. Nope. Not me. But actually, yes me. And I was terrified. I had never had any type of surgery or even broken a bone for that matter. So as I was in the most excruciating pain in my life, I was also scared like never before having to get prepped and pep talked by the doctor about what was going to occur during this C-section. But once I wiped away the tears and put my fears aside (thank goodness for morphine!) I had to put on my game face because I was leaving this hospital with my baby.
Twenty-two minutes into surgery, my baby girl was born. Her daddy saw her first because I was laying down and couldn’t see past the surgery curtain. But once I heard her cry, I cried, because my fear of having a C-section wilted in comparison to the love I have for her. Just hearing her paralyzed me with overwhelming emotion. And just like that, 41 weeks of pregnancy became more than worth it.
Because I had thee rather large fibroids, putting me “back together” took about 90 minutes. But I must say: I didn’t feel a thing - not even pressure - and my incision was non invasive and beautiful. (Thumbs up for Dermabond!)
As a first time mom, your delivery will never be what you expect. There’s no amount of reading or listening you can do to prepare you. Expect the unexpected and remember that the overall goal of your delivery - be it 37 weeks or 41 weeks - is that you’re healthy and more importantly, you get a healthy baby to take home with you.
The post #Babyologie: She’s Here! 41 Weeks Later… appeared first on MommyNoire.