i got up early early that morning. the c section was scheduled for 7:00am so we had to be at the hospital at 5:00am. i wanted to take a nice, pamper myself type shower. it was so calm, but my heart was pounding - i was going into a major surgery (still scary, even though it was my third. you always think about all those "what ifs") AND i was hours away from holding our newest family member in my arms!
my parents had flown in a few days earlier and dad came with us to the hospital for documentation purposes. my mom would join us with the kids around 7:15 so that they would all be there by the time we made it back into my room. so, we get into our room in l&d. i meet the nurses and the anesthesiologist. they monitor baby and everything is looking good. then a nurse comes in around 6:45 with a catheter! i beg her to wait until i have received my spinal block, but she reassures me that my surgery is just minutes away and this is normal. you guys. i admit that i have some trauma when it comes to catheters because of rooney's delivery, but i do not think it is standard procedure to put anyone through the pain of a catheter if they are about to have a spinal block or epidural. let me know if i am wrong. anyway, i was mad at this nurse. i was in tears. i was so uncomfortable. it was awful. and i think i have a pretty good pain tolerance (remember that one time my fallopian tube burst and i hardly felt it?). they kept reassuring me that it was just for a little...
but then my doctor was an hour and a half late. yep. my 7:00 surgery didn't happen until after 8:30. tuesdays weren't her normal surgery day - she forgot that we had scheduled my c section for that morning. so. i felt that dang catheter for nearly two hours. i was so uncomfortable. and my mom and the kids had shown up which made things a little chaotic. they were planning to be there just in time for me and the baby to be rolled back into the room. instead, we had over an hour to kill with no new baby.
then the doctor showed up and things began to move. they had ashton hang back and they told him to put on the getup while they took me into the operating room. they had me climb out of the bed and onto the operating table (with the dang catheter ughhhh (last time i mention it, i promise)). the anesthesiologist gave me my block and laid me down. i was immediately nauseated and felt like there was an elephant on my chest, both things i hadn't experienced with my previous c sections. and as soon as i couldn't feel my legs, they were opening me up. you guys, ashton wasn't even in the room yet. i remember the anesthesiologist holding up a tin for me to throw up in and i was mumbling about ashton not being there! i got a cold compress put on my head and eventually ashton made it. he says that he walked in and i was already all opened up!
then i heard that beautiful cry & someone said, "it's a girl!" ashton's face was one of disbelief as he said, "no way!" he thought for sure we were having another boy.
***side story. i later found out that he had looked at the screen during our ultrasound and had seen the tabs along the top for all the different body parts. he saw one that said "it's a boy!" and assumed, that meant we were having a boy. makes sense right? he kept that secret from me for 4 whole months! & it contributed to his genuine shock that we had another girl! which is exactly what rooney had been praying for.***
they don't do, or hadn't heard of, gentle c-sections here which was really sad for me. they made sure to show me ramona's little face over the blue curtain before they wrapped all 7 pounds, 11 ounces, and 19 3/4 inches of her up. i don't really remember much after that. ashton took ramona to the waiting room to meet family, but they weren't there. they had taken the kids to the cafeteria for some snacks. i was taken to recovery and waited in an empty room for everyone to join me. ashton and ramona beat my parents and the kids. it is safe to say, we were all immediately smitten. she was and continues to be the cutest, sweetest, rolliest baby.
our stay at the hospital was short - they only let you stay for 48 hours after a c section. with rooney and gus, we always stayed three nights and had the option for a fourth. but that turned out ok because hospital stays here are nothing like they were in utah. the rooms and bathrooms are old - like i didn't want to even shower kind of old. there was no nursery, so i never got more than an hour of sleep at a time. she was born on tuesday and by lunch on thursday, we were home.
i also didn't get to recover like i was used to. i wasn't able to get up as quickly as i was used to and there wasn't much space to walk. but! i will say, that i had no bruising and my incision looks fantastic.
luckily, my parents stayed out until she was a week old and then ashton's parents came. amazingly enough, the smiths walked off the plane as my parents walked on to the same one. then ashton didn't take paternity leave until his parents went home, so we got him home all the way through christmas eve. it was perfect and i definitely needed all hands on deck that first month of three kids.
it wasn't my favorite birth (i think gus's will take that award) or the most emotional (reading rooney's birth story still makes me cry), but i am so glad that ramona is here safe and healthy. we cannot remember life before her - she just fits so wonderfully in our family.
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