Remi's Birth

So here is Remi's birth story in a little more detail. Last Friday we went to another ultrasound appointment (weekly after 40 weeks) and saw that little man was still quite happy in his breech position. He went from Frank Breech, which would still allow me to have the natural birth I had planned (minus the water birth portion), to a Footling Breech, which gets a lot trickier to deliver naturally, to a Complete Breech that the midwives told me would be an AMA natural birth. So, as much as I was excited about my birth plan, it became obvious that unless he moved, I was gearing up for a c-section. Not my first choice obviously but a healthy baby is all that matters in the end. So, baby was still breech at 41 weeks and 1 day. We discussed waiting until labor started naturally and then going to the hospital, but that could be weeks still as I had no signs of impending labor. Added to that my parents were leaving town that next Monday for my mom's hip replacement in Florida and they wouldn't be back for two weeks. I just knew it would kill them to not see him when he was brand new. So with that in mind we scheduled the c-section for the next day, Saturday the 6th. That was to be Remi's birthday. We went grocery shopping, got some movies, came home and started watching The Matrix. Just as the movie was heating up I felt like I was sitting in a puddle so I waddled to the bathroom and low and behold my water had broken. NOT like it happens in the movies either. This was a slow leak that lasted for HOURS. Anyway, I went upstairs, took a shower, took 5 minutes to meditate a little and then climbed in the packed car. Despite my water breaking I never had a single contraction.

July 5th about an hour before my water broke

Once we got to the hospital, I was checked into Triage where I hung out from around 7pm until I was wheeled back to the OR at a little past 11pm. We had a great anesthesiologist who stayed on past his shift to give me the epidural (because apparently the guy coming on next he didn't find super competent...he didn't say this but my friend who was also pregnant and checked in that night had the guy and he messed up her epidural). Hubs, me and our doula Paige hung out waiting to go back and then it was finally time. At this point I was numb from below my chest down and I was freezing from my chest up and shivering like crazy.

Sleepy baby loves his minky

One thing I love about this midwife practice and Dr. Bootstaylor, the perinatologist they work with, is that they do Family Centered C-Sections. That means hubs and doula were both with me the whole time after I was prepped and I actually got to watch Remi be born after they had his little feet out. After he was born was the scary part. His head was really wedged in there and when they finally got him out he wasn't breathing or moving. They had 40 seconds to get a reaction or NICU nurses take him away. When it was clear he wasn't moving, hubs called out Remi's name and told him to wake up. He moved right away and it was enough to keep him in the room to be worked on. He had to have his lungs pumped several times to get out all the extra fluid but 15 minutes later he was given to me for skin to skin while I was stitched up. He snuggled up to me and even nursed a little.

Size 3 month + swimmy hat was all we had for some outside time in the sun

We spent that night and Saturday night in the hospital but were able to go home by Sunday afternoon after his circumcision. He has a little jaundice, which is lingering because he is still only getting colostrum (almost day 7 and my milk still hasn't come in...awesome c-section side effect) but since we started supplementing an ounce here and there with the supplemental feeding system (no bottle feeding formula which is good because I don't want to have to deal with nipple confusion) he is doing great. Now we are all just settling in to our new routine and spending time together as a new family :)

Hanging out with daddy

Trying out the Moby Wrap yesterday. He loved it!