Ivy-Jane's Birth

Ivy-Jane Ann Sheets was born on December 6, 2010 at 5:45 pm. She weighed 8 lbs 9 ozs and was 20" long. She has a full head of dark hair, like Juliet's, and I can't tell if her eyes are going to be blue or green or hazel or brown yet. She has a dimple in each cheek and one in her chin. She's absolutely perfect.

Her birth wasn't so great, though. In fact, it was my worst experience ever. The week before she was born I was super sick with a sinus infection, which landed me overnight in the hospital because all the coughing and sneezing was causing contractions. After going home, I spent the entire week in bed, sick and exhausted and worrying about the amniocentesis the doctor was insisting on doing before the scheduled c-section.

On Monday morning, the day of Ivy-Jane's birth, Rob and I drove an hour and a half to get to the hospital. My amnio was scheduled at 10:30, and I was incredibly nervous. I have to say it wasn't as bad as I expected, but it isn't something I'm willing to do ever again. I still don't understand the need for it, as I was 38 weeks and 4 days at the time. We went to the bookstore where we waited for the results. Finally, about 15 minutes before we were supposed to check into the hospital, the nurse called me to let me know the lungs were mature and the c-section would proceed as scheduled.

The c-section itself was horrific, more so than usual. It started going bad when the nurse insisted on putting the iv into my right hand instead of somewhere on my left arm when I wanted. The epidural was a nightmare, as always, but the anesthesiologist was horrible. After giving the epidural time to take effect, they scraped my belly with somthing and asked if I could feel it. I could. They modified the question: "Does it feel sharp?" It didn't, but I thought it was a bad sign that I could feel it at all, and I was still able to move my feet. No matter--they proceeded with the surgery as the anesthesiologist was talking on his cell phone making plans for the evening. He soon hung up, telling his friend that he was in the middle of a c-section, and began texting instead. At the beginning of the surgery, I could feel more than I should have, but as it continued, it began to really *hurt,* but nobody believed me because I was just the patient. What did I know? After they pulled Ivy-Jane out, the doctor asked the anesthesiologist to knock me out completely because I wouldn't stop screaming every time they touched me. How considerate. The anesthesiologist tore himself away from his texts long enough to knock me out.

I woke up right before they wheeled me into recovery, where I stayed for about two hours, and, for no good reason that I could tell, Ivy-Jane wasn't allowed in. This made no sense to me, either, because with all 7 of my other c-sections, I nursed the baby during recovery. After the two hours was up, I was taken into my room and Ivy-Jane was brought in. Rob, my dad, and Zoe and Eve were there, too. Zoe and Eve wanted to be there when she was born, and they got to spend the time I was in recovery watching her through the nursery window. My dad was busy cooing over the wrong baby in the nursery. Apparently he mistook a baby boy who was half black for Ivy-Jane. The girls said the baby's daddy kept giving Papa strange looks, wondering who that man was admiring his son.

The first thing I asked for in the recovery room was to have the iv moved from my right hand to my left arm, but that didn't happen for many hours. In my room, it was very difficult for me to hold Ivy-Jane, because whenever I moved my right hand, the iv pushed in deeper and was awfully painful. My nurse, who had no bedside manner whatsoever, didn't like the position I was using to nurse Ivy-Jane and kept trying to reposition her. I finally got irritated enough to tell her that I had successfully nursed nine other babies, and I thought I could handle this without her interference. She didn't like me much after that. After Rob and my dad and the girls were gone, she took Ivy-Jane to the nursery to get her temperature taken and whatever else had to be done, and said she'd have her back in twenty minutes. After half an hour I called to ask for her back, and she snapped and me and told me she'd bring her in when she could. I called again after another half hour had passed: same response. I called several more times, and finally, after two hours, another nurse brought me my baby. Rob came in about twenty minutes later, and the nurse told him that she had "traded me" for another nurse's patient. It was another hour before my new nurse came in, but she was much better, and she moved my iv for me.

All in all, it wasn't a good birth experience for me, and there's no way I'd have another baby at that hospital. But Ivy-Jane is a little miracle, so it was worth it, anyway.