Aidan's Arrival, Part 2

I am not one of those moms who planned every moment of their baby's arrival.  I didn't read "What to Expect When You're Expecting", I didn't write a birth plan, I didn't go to Lamaze class, and I didn't even watch a video on labor and delivery.  My entire birthing philosophy was, basically:, if cave people, teenagers, and women who end up on "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" can do this, so can I.  I've always found that experience is the best teacher anyway.

I did, however, have some expectations.  Or maybe they were just assumptions.  I figured I would go into labor, do the heavy breathing thing, a nurse would eventually tell me to push, I would grunt and pray for hormones and drugs to block out the blinding pain, and then there would be a baby.  There are a lot of details missing from this scenario, I know, but come on.  That's generally how it goes, right?!

Wrong.

All those assumptions went flying out the window as the doctors wheeled me into an operating room-ALONE-for my not-emergency-c-section.  Blake had to stay out of the room while they prepped.  I was paralyzed from the neck down thanks to the drugs, and my brain was pretty addled from the whole day.  That didn't stop me from being slightly terrified as they transferred me onto the surgery table.  All I could see was a very white room with very sterile stainless steel instruments everywhere.  Somewhere to my right was a woman counting-Blake told me later she was counting the instruments they were using.  You know, so none of them ended up somewhere they shouldn't, like-oh, say IN MY UTERUS.  My overriding thought was, "Oh my God, I'm in an episode of The X-Files.  This looks just like an alien autopsy room.  OMG I HOPE THEY DON'T THINK I'M AN ALIEN!!!"  It didn't help that when they strap you down you are on a very small table in the shape of a cross.  And when I say they strap you down, I'm not kidding.  And while the strapping in, counting, and sterilizing is going on, the nurses were having a casual conversation about the next Twilight movie and my anesthesiologist was playing Angry Birds on his iPhone.

So apparently the arrival of a new life on this planet isn't as momentous for some of us as it is for others.

When Blake was finally allowed in, I calmed a bit, although the meds were starting to really kick in and the room was spinning in that I'm-gonna-hurl-any-moment kind of way.  The doctor asked, "Can you feel this?"  My response was, "Um...."  He said, "Good answer" and suddenly everyone was rushing towards me.  I had my eyes closed trying to stop the room from spinning, and all I could hear was the anesthesiologist saying, "Oh.  My.  God."  And the doctor saying, "I thought he'd be about 9 pounds but I'll bet he's bigger than that!"  And I opened my eyes long enough to say to Blake, "Please get pictures!!!  I'm gonna close my eyes for awhile..."  And then I threw up.

There was a lot of cleaning up, stitching up, and sadly some more throwing up, but within moments of weighing my 10 pound 3 ounce pride and joy, Aidan was in my arms.  We were quickly moved to recovery, where Blake ended up taking the baby because my blood pressure was super low and I couldn't get rid of the shivers.  It was almost an hour before someone thought to say, Hey-isn't the family waiting?!  Our poor families were in the waiting room, waiting to find out if Aidan and I were okay.  Blake went down and gave them the good news, and soon after I was well enough to go to our room.

My recovery was a nightmare-I was sick all night from the drugs, I couldn't move on my own for 2 days, I couldn't even pick up Aidan on my own while the scar from the c-section healed.  It took about 2 weeks for the burning to subside enough to stop calling it "pain".  C-sections may be common these days, but it is still a pretty major surgery.  I still occasionally get pains in the region of my scar, although I think it's because I'm getting more feeling back in that area.  Oh yeah, my lower abdomen went numb after the surgery from having the nerves cut through.  Just another one of those lovely side effects of surgery.

In the end, though, what I mostly remember is this:

And that is how, on March 19, 2012, Aidan Patrick Miller entered this world.  The end.

Which is really just the beginning of everything else...