Friday, May 25, 2012

My Dream C-section

I better start this by being honest, I never really wanted a natural delivery…  I’ve wanted to write this post for the last 9 months but kept chickening out.  I know there are a lot of women out there who think natural birth is the cat’s meow, but I’m not one of them.  I respect those who feel that way but I just don’t.  Since I can remember I’ve had an all consuming fear of permanent damage to my lady bits from pushing out a baby, specifically loss of bowel control.  I need to be clear that I was never scared of the actual pain (if anything that would be the one reason I would want a natural delivery, to brag that I did it pain med free) just the long term damage.  I feel like infertility took away a lot of my dignity and I just wasn’t ready to lose control of my bodily functions to top it off. 

I wasn’t necessarily planning to do an elective C-section but I definitely rejoiced every time they found another reason why it was medically indicated.   So now that I’ve clued you in to my state of mind pre-C I can go on to tell you that I am SO glad I had one! 
I detailed the C section in my birthstory post, so I won’t go into detail on that except to say it was smooth and baby and I were both healthy.  The recovery part is where it gets good so I’ll start there.
I was a little surprised by how much pain I was in while in post OP, they had to give me a few doses of pain meds and one nice big one of Tor.odol, my favorite anti-inflammatory.  After a short while of warming up and time for the meds to kick in I was doing good.
The C-section was at 7:30 am on Wednesday, I rolled in to snuggle my little man just before 10 am feeling totally refreshed.  There is something to be said for getting a great night’s sleep before delivering!  We made our first attempt at breast feeding as soon as I got to hold him and he latched right on (I had been worried that 2 hours after delivery was too long to wait so it made me really happy to know it wasn’t.)
By 2 pm I was out of bed and walked to the bathroom on my own,  around 6 pm Blue and I went for a walk around the maternity ward.  I think it helped to push myself to be mobile right away.  We kept up with our walks several times a day until we went home and each time they got easier and longer.  We left the hospital at 4 pm Friday. 
Here are just a few post C-section milestones that I think are awesome!
·         3 days post – Last narcotic pain med (stayed on ibuprofen for 1 week)
·         4 days post – First walk around the neighborhood and post pregnancy sushi dinner out with Marek
·         6 days post – First hike
·         7 days post – down 25 lbs and could button my pre-pregnancy jeans over my scar
·         9 days post – Walked a 6k fundraiser walk for MS
·         2 weeks post – Barely remember I had a C-section

The whole family on our first hike, can you see the tiny white hat peaking out of Blue's wrap?
I realize my C-section isn’t exactly standard and I think a big part of why I recovered so fast was due to the fact that I didn’t labor at all before surgery but here are a few things that I think that helped…
·         Positivity!  I was totally OK with the C-section so I didn’t have any depression over not experiencing natural labor.  I know this can’t happen for everyone, but I would say try not to get too attached to your birth plan and focus more on the delivery of a happy healthy baby.
·         I slept the night before!  I took an am.bien that my doctor gave me so I could get a really good night’s sleep and be well rested to enjoy spending time with Marek.
·         I pushed to get mobile right away.  My OB told me the best way to avoid scar tissue build up is good blood flow to the incision site, so I got up and got moving ASAP.
So moral of the story, if you don’t relish the idea of pushing a human out of your lady parts you’re not alone and you don’t have to dread the horrible C-section recovery everyone tells you you’ll have. 

7 comments:

  1. While I am one of those that can't imagine ever wanting anything other than a natural birth I respect every woman's decision to give birth how SHE wants to and to that end I'm glad you got the C-section you wanted ;-)

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  2. That is so awesome!! You go girl! What a beautiful family :-) You look great!

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  3. Finally! Someone else who doesn't care for a natural birth. I feel exactly the same way as you do and plan on having a c-section when the time comes. I hope I recover as well as you did! That's fantastic!

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  4. Thank you so very much for sharing this!!! I badly want a natural, med free birth, but it doesn't look like it is in the cards for me. So seeing your success story and your ability to get back to life quickly is making me feel good about accepting my fate. Very very happy for you!!!

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  5. Great post. I'm so glad everything went smoothly for you.

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  6. I love this post! I'm so glad you recovered well and the c-section didn't seem to have any long-term negative effects! I'm so happy for you!

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  7. This is the kind of post I have been wanting to see on a blog. I feel a similar way and have always wanted to see another perspective on this as im not pregnant yet and haven't made my final decision. Everyone is entitled to the birth that they want - for some that is a planned c-section - thank you.

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