February 22, 2000 Tuesday.     We're having a baby today.  I am due at the hospital at 6am.  By about 8:30 am I should have the baby...

Well we got up and got ready and headed to the hospital.   We arrived at 6am on the dot.  They directed me to the C-section recovery room and told me to strip down to nothing and put the gown on.  They then hooked me up to the monitor to watch the uterus and baby's heartbeat and proceeded to put the IV in.  The gal who did the IV did a terrible job and it hurt.  Invariably over the next couple of days it would quit working and they would have to flush it with saline which hurt.  She put it too low and was right at my wrist, made using my wrist difficult.  I couldn't eat or drink anything from
midnight on - but was more nervous than hungry anyhow.  About 7:30 I heard that Dr. Irene was here and things would be rolling soon.  Just before heading into the surgery room they gave me a shot of some citric liquid that is suppose to neutralize the acid in my stomach - tasted terrible.  Then I walked down to surgery.  I sat on the edge of the table and then leaned forward onto a nurse while the anesthesiologist put a needle into my back and gave me a spinal tap.  I was very cold in the room - they keep it like 50 degrees to keep bacteria from growing in there.   All of a sudden my feet started warming up and my legs.  They lifted my legs onto the table and put up little arm tables for my arms to lay on.  They laid a warm blanket across my arms to keep me warm.  The nurse then moved my legs and put a catheter in my bladder, so I wouldn't need to pee for 24 hours.  They started prepping my stomach with cleaning stuff and laying down sheets of absorbency sheets.   

I was getting nervous that they wouldn't put up a sheet so I wouldn't have to watch - but eventually they did.  I could see Kris outside the surgery room waiting for the OK to come in and be with me.  Pretty soon he got to come in and stand/sit at my right shoulder.  He stood and watched the whole surgery.  He told me only the stuff I needed to know, like "oh there's a leg, and another leg...oh it's definitely a boy..."  Then he told me when AJ was completely out of me but he still wasn't crying.  They rushed him over to the baby center thing and started doing their thing, Dr Ed Stein was in charge of the baby.  Pretty soon I heard him crying - so things were fine.  But it was all so emotional that I couldn't help but cry neither could Kris.  

While they were working on the baby - they were sewing me up.  That took the longest part.  Kris stayed with me until the baby was ready and he brought the baby to me, but I was sooo shakin up that I couldn't do much.  Kris left with the baby and went to the nursery.  I was sewed completely up and then they transferred me to a regular bed and wheeled me down the hall to my room.  They hooked me up to some monitors and of course gave me some drugs that made me very sleepy.  I couldn't see Kris for awhile while the recovery nurse did her thing.  I kept falling asleep and waking up for probably an hour.  Then Kris finally came in with the baby.  He gave me the baby and I didn't know if I should try to feed him or what...but decided to wait - he was just sleeping anyways.  I didn't get to eat anything solid today at all.  Kris called our parents at around 10 and gave everyone the news.  By afternoon I was feeling pretty well.  I had lots of visitors and it didn't bother me much at all.  It did take 2 hours between the surgery and the time that the drug in my IV would kick in - so they had to give me extra drugs during that 2 hour period.  Anyways AJ weighed in at 7lbs 4 oz and 19 inches long.  He was born at 8:12am.

At about 9pm we decided it was time for me to try walking.  So 2 nurses came in and helped me out of bed and into the bathroom to clean up.  Put on some undies and maxipad.  I brushed my teeth and combed my hair.  I actually felt pretty good.  So we decided to walk the loop around the maternity ward.  Then we went into the nursery with AJ and watched him get his first bath.  There was another couple, the Westphals, from Lamaze in there with their baby too.  We chatted for awhile.  Then back to our room.  We had AJ with us.  Kris was really good and did all the diaper changes and burping.  AJ kept burping up this dark fluid like amniotic fluid and starting to choke on it.  It was kinda freakin' us out so we decided to let him sleep in the nursery with the nurses tonight.  Kris slept on the little foldout chair bed.  They didn't bring AJ to me until the morning, apparently he wasn't too hungry.

Debbie