FINALLY! Inspired by Kelly...I have started to write out my experience with Delivery and the day prior...

This is just the start..I will go further into my experience with my next post!

This is for Beth…
The day prior to delivering Porter, we went in to speak with Dr. Oldroyd about the news from the ultrasound and Porter’s measurements. He had been losing weight for the past couple of week; the max measurement he had reached was 37 weeks…and at 39 weeks he was measuring at 36. This appointment was scheduled last minute due to its urgency, so Deven couldn’t go with me because of work. Luckily my mom was there to here the big news with me. Once my mom and I had arrived, Dr. Oldroyd had told us that he was concerned with how Porter had been losing weight and had found that he had“inner uterine growth retardation” and needed to come out immediately. He said it wasn’t so urgent that we had to do it that day, but he needed to schedule a cesarean section with me tomorrow if I was comfortable with it. At this point, a day away from my due date…I was dilated to a 1 and Porter had not dropped yet, he was still pretty high up there. (Lucky me! I never felt the lower back pain!) Because of this, Dr. Oldroyd informed me that if I chose to deliver Porter vaginally, the delivery would last at LEAST 28 hours seeing how I was not dilated very far and Porter hasn’t dropped. He also told me that he wasn’t sure if Porter would make it with all the stress for that length of time.

Things were looking pretty scary at this point…I wasn’t planning on delivering by cesarean section, I was even EXCITED for the pain that ONLY WOMEN can go through and to have the experience of pushing through each contraction. Don’t ask me why this excites me, but it did. It’s like for 9 months I am working up to this big thing and then it’s suddenly not a possibility anymore. After weighing the pros and cons, it was clear that I was going to have to go through with the cesarean section. This was the safest option for me and Porter and I didn’t want any harm coming to him. Dr. Oldroyd told me that with a cesarean section, it would be very risky to ever have a vaginal birth with any future pregnancies and that I probably wouldn’t be able to have more than 3 or 4 children because it would be too hard on my uterus. Bummer! In the end, Dr. Oldroyd made me feel at ease with the decision I had made. I was actually starting to look forward to it after he had told me that the scar would be REALLY low and not seen with a bathing suit and from start to finish, the whole delivery would only take about 8-15 minutes. Before we left the appointment, Dr. Oldroyd stripped my membranes to get things going a bit. I haven’t experience any contractions up to that point and he thought we might as well and see where we get tomorrow. Still not sure what he expected to happen but what the heck right?!
After my appointment with Dr. Oldroyd, the only thing I was nervous about was becoming permanently paralyzed by the spinal. Although he tried to reassure me that this was possible but extremely rare, it was still something I couldn’t get off my mind. In the end, the only thing that calmed my mind about it was that it was the safest option for Porter for me to go along with the cesarean section. We scheduled it for 8:30 the next morning, Tuesday, January 5, 2010—Porter’s DUE DATE! Who would’ve known?!

Preparing for the hospital the morning of the cesarean section, I ended up wearing my Christmas Eeyore pajamas and a black Down East T-shirt. I was going for the comfort thing. ;) I’m pretty sure I woke up around 4:30 a.m. seeing how we were supposed to be there by 6:30 to prep for the c-section. I remember that morning Deven and I were SO excited! I just kept telling him, Deven! This is it! In 3 hours we’ll be holding little Porter in our arms! We packed the night before, getting extra clothing (which I ended up not needing because the gown was my only wardrobe the whole 3 days) and clothing for porter. We also packed a camera, and video camera and my laptop. In the car on the drive to the hospital I was finally starting to feel small contractions for the very first time. It was actually pretty exciting! A little uncomfortable but no pain so far…no nerves have kicked in yet, only excitement that I would soon be holding my little boy! And while getting ready that morning, I was ecstatic that I could look cute AFTER delivery! No sweat! My nurse would be doing all the pushing in this delivery…LITERALLY! She basically jumped on my stomach to get Porter down through the opening they had cut. :)