Nora Jean

August 30, 2012. 7:38 am.

This is when we welcomed Nora Jean into our crazy world.

I was scheduled for a repeat c-section for 7:30. We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 after a pit stop for a donut for Joel and a dozen for the nurses. We stopped at registration, then up to the floor we went. They were ready for us and showed us to Room 404, our home for the next 3 days. I signed a bunch of paperwork, got changed into a gown, and walked to the c-section area. Joel decided to stay in our room for another hour or so while they drew blood,  an IV, and asked me a complete medical history.

At just shy of 7am, the anesthesiologist came in and I signed the paperwork for my spinal. Since I have a well documented history of nausea and vomiting during medication, I made sure to ask for an extra dose of anti-nausea medication and that they skip the morphine initially. They said no problem and they'd give me a PCA (pain pump) for meds after the c-section so I wasn't too bombarded during surgery.

Joel came back to the room at 7:10 and got dressed for surgery. I went into the room where they actually perform the surgery soon after and at about 7:20, they administered the spinal. I remember it hurting more last time and I was expecting the pain to be greater. Joel wasn't with me yet, so my doctor told me to squeeze his fingers as they inserted the needle (this will be the first of many "oh, I love my doctor" comments).  With the spinal in, I was ready to lay down and get going.

They started the juice and brought Joel in.  The catheter was placed, the dressing was laid, and we were rolling. They did a few test pricks to make sure I couldn't feel anything, and at 7:30 sharp, he made the incision. Joel and I both expected the surgery to take longer than it did, so we were both very surprised to hear, "Baby Girl, 7:38" followed by a newborn cry. Many people have asked me what my first thought was when I heard it was a girl (we were surprised with this one!) and honestly, my first thought was just sheer joy that she was crying. I was so happy to hear cries, something we didn't hear when Tessa was born.

Joel went to be with her and after a minute or two of them suctioning, she was brought to me. I got to say hi and give her kisses and then they took her off to complete some newborn screenings and Joel followed out of the room. I spent the next 30 minutes of the surgery chatting with the doctor and staff about random things. We talked about how bummed we were that the Yankees weren't doing well lately, how it was total crap that I had to do the employee wellness screening at 37 weeks pregnant and had very skewed results, and how the Cowboys are clearly superior to the Packers (that is still being debated between us).

By 8:10, I was in recovery and I immediately got to hold Nora Jean. One thing that was very important for me was the desire to try to breastfeed her right away. After I got to hold her and see her, I nursed her and was very happy that she latched right away with minimal effort. After a nursing session, the nurse took her back for a couple shots and by 8:45, we were heading back to our room!

Part 2 to follow. !