Our Cesarean Birth Story

Everly was born into this world on May 5th, 2021 at 7:39 am. She weighed 6 lbs 8 oz and was 19.5 inches long. Everyone is healthy and I am slowly recovering from the C-Section (Cesarean) Procedure. She is perfect in every way, and we are obsessed with her.

We had planned to have a vaginal birth from day one. The thought of a c-section had not even crossed my mind as an option. I have always been terrified of surgery and the only surgery I have ever had was my wisdom teeth.

At my 32-week doctor’s appointment, the doctor had said that she thought the baby had moved head down and was preparing for the big day. She mentioned that she might be a little small and they may want to do another ultrasound to check on her. Two weeks had past and when I went into my 34-week appointment, baby had moved and was laying transversely (sideways), and my belly was measuring small because of that. I had asked the doctor about the previously mentioned ultrasound. She said that it may be a good idea to schedule one just to make sure she is going okay and that she is in the correct position. If I had not asked, they would not have brought this up again. I am thankful that I had asked so that we could plan as much as possible for the potential of her being breech. So at our 36-week appointment, we had an ultrasound performed that revealed that our baby was indeed breech.

When a baby is breech, it makes for a risky vaginal delivery. Since the baby’s head is the biggest part of their body, it needs to be the first thing out of the body to make sure that the baby does not get stuck in the birth canal. The doctors mentioned that if she did not turn in the next couple weeks we had two options, have a procedure done called an EC Version, or just plan to have a C-Section. After the 36-week mark, the chances of baby turning after the 36-week mark are 1 in 8, or about a 12% chance.

An EC Version is when the Doctors go in and try to manually move the baby by pushing her into the correct position on top of your belly. I asked the Doctor if there was anything I could do to try to get the baby to turn by herself. He said no there was not, and that I should NOT look things up on the internet. He said that we would wait until next week to see where she was. Hearing this news frightened me. I was nervous and anxious about the potential of having a C-section. However, I did not follow the doctor’s orders to stay off of the internet. A few hours after our appointment, I started googling what I could do to turn my baby. I figured if I could do some simple things that were not going to hurt the baby, it was worth a shot.

Things I tried:

• Drinking extra water
• Going for walks
• Easy pregnancy yoga
• Laying with my hips elevated
• Sleeping on my left side

After a week of trying not to freak out about having a c-section, and trying everything I could to get her to turn on her own, she still had not turned. However, what the doctors did not mention was the if we wanted to do an EC Version, it would have to be done before 38 weeks. My 37-week appointment was on a Friday and I was technically already 37 +2, and by Monday I would be 37+5. This did not give us much time to decide if we would like to do the EC version or not, especially because the doctor’s office was closed all weekend. After a quick discussion with my husband in the car, we decided that we were going to try the EC Version. We called the doctor right away and told her to schedule it. Our procedure was scheduled for that Tuesday at 7:30 am. After scheduling the appointment I spoke to 2 labor and delivery nurses that I knew who helped answer any questions that we had and made me feel more comfortable about the procedure. Since the doctors did not give me much information about the procedure, I decided to talk to some friends who were in the field who deal with these things on a daily basis as opposed to looking up information on google that was not necessarily trustworthy.

The EC Version

We arrived at the hospital at 7:30 am. They got me hooked up to the IV, screened me for COVID, and prepped me for surgery in case I needed to have an emergency c-section. The Doctor came in about an hour later to begin the process. She got on top of the bed and started to try to turn the baby using her hands and arms. The procedure was extremely uncomfortable, but I would not say that it was painful. I do, however, have an extremely high pain tolerance. They monitored the baby’s heart rate the entire time and had an ultrasound machine next to them in case they needed it. The first time they tried, the baby’s heart rate dropped for what felt like an eternity but was really on about 10 seconds. Thoughts were racing through my mind, wondering if we made a mistake and preparing myself to be put under right then and there and to meet our baby. I prayed to God to guide the doctor to do what is best for our baby and asked for strength to follow the Doctor’s suggested plan of action.

The Doctor then piped up that she was very happy with how the baby handled it and that she would like to try again if it was okay with me. I was slightly reluctant to try again because it was very scary to hear your baby’s heartbeat drop. Since the Doctor felt comfortable proceeding with trying again, Garrett and I decided to give it one more shot. Everly responded really well to the second try, however, the Doctor realized that the baby was not going to budge. She offered to try again if we wanted her to. We decided that we would take her word for it and call it quits.

Yes, the procedure was extremely stressful, but I do not regret trying it, it is part of our birth story. I do not think I would have this procedure done again if we had another breech baby. But if you hope to have a vaginal delivery, my thoughts were that it did not hurt to try. The risks of the procedure are small, and the odds of being successful are about half. I wish that my doctors would have made this option available to me sooner. I wonder if we had tried earlier if we would have been successful. Either way, God had a plan, and Everly was supposed to be born via C-section.

Immediately after the version was unsuccessful, the nurses began to schedule me for a c-section. They said that they would like to get it scheduled for the 39-week mark. That put Everly’s birthdate at May 5th, 2021. There was a chance I could go into labor before our scheduled date. I continued to have non-painful contractions that were pretty inconsistent, but it kept us on our toes.

COVID -19 Scare

The Wednesday before our surgery, my husband came home complaining about his allergies being sooo bad. He had been complaining about them for a few days, but really wouldn’t let up on Wednesday. I didn’t think anything of it because I have bad allergies myself. I told him to just take an allergy pill and get over it. The next day, he came home from work still complaining about his “allergies”, except he kept asking me if the house was too cold. At first, I thought maybe I was just hot because I was 9 months pregnant. But as I went upstairs to go to bed I was sweating and looked at the thermostat, which was set to 75 degrees. I found my husband wrapped up in blankets shivering in bed. I immediately grabbed the thermometer and checked his temperature. He had a low-grade fever of 101.2. I grabbed all of my things from the bedroom and moved to the guest bedroom. There was no way I was going to get sick days before I was going to give birth.

I woke up the next day to go to my scheduled doctor’s appointment, where I was being tested for COVID again before the surgery. This time it would be a send-off test, not a rapid test. It didn’t cross my mind that my husband could have COVID until I was sitting there getting tested for it. I would not get my test results back for a few days. I asked the nurse, ” If I have COVID, what would my hospital visit look like”. She told me that if I had tested positive for COVID, only I would be allowed to be in the hospital. My husband would not be allowed to be present for the birth, and I would not have any visitors after the procedure. I would be quarantined in the recovery room with my baby.

Hearing this new sent me into a panic, and my nervous system was a wreck. I could not give birth to our baby by myself, I needed and wanted my husband to be there with me. I could not imagine my husband missing this milestone in our life. Balling my eyes out, I called my husband right away and ordered him to get a rapid COVID test immediately. I spent the day at work worrying about something I could not control. I must have prayed 1000 times that everything would be okay. My Husband quarantined himself in his room to keep me and the baby safe until he was able to get tested. Unfortunately, he was unable to get tested until the next day later in the afternoon. We spent all day and night on facetime. He tried to comfort me as I balled my eyes out. I did not want him to have to miss the birth of our baby girl for anything. All of this stress and worry kept me up at night. I was spending the last few days of pregnancy completely by myself.

The Test Results

Garrett had his test in the afternoon on Saturday, May 1st. I had still not received my results back but figured if he had it, then so did I. Anxiously, I waited next to the phone for him to call me with his results. I had never been so happy than when he called to let me know he was negative. About an hour later, I received my test results, also negative. God had heard my prayers and answered them.

However, Garrett was still sick, and he did not want me to get sick before the baby came. So the last few days of pregnancy, we spent separated. He stayed away from me, locked upstairs in our bedroom.

The Surgery

We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 am. Neither of us had slept a wink because we were so excited to meet our little girl. I had been so nervous about this surgery that I had not been sleeping much leading up to this day either. For some reason, this day was different. I felt a calmness come over me. My nerves had almost disappeared. I had come to terms that this surgery was going to happen no matter what, so it did not help for me to be nervous. The nurses who prepped me for surgery were great, and our anesthesiologist  was fantastic. They comforted me so much. When it was time for the surgery, they gave Garrett a pair of scrubs and told him to put them on our side of the OR while they get me ready for the operation. The nurse and the anesthesiologist held my hand and comforted me until my husband was allowed back in. They held my hand and rubbed my head to ease the nerves. The medicine they gave me made me very shaky on top of the nerves I had already felt.

Seconds after Garrett walked into the room and settled into the chair next to me behind the curtain, they started the operation. about 10 minutes into it, Everly was born. She was 6 lbs 8 oz and so beautiful. They let Garrett watch as they pulled her out. They immediately took her over to the warming table and examined her to make sure she was doing okay.

I was disappointed that they did not let me see her right away but knew it was best for her. Laying there waiting to see her felt like an eternity, and I felt just about every emotion possible. I kept asking if she was okay, and wondering when they would bring her over. Everyone was preoccupied with the baby so I felt like I was talking to no one.

After about 5 minutes, they brought her over to me and laid her on my chest. Her head was laying on the left side of my chest. This was unfortunate because I cannot see out of my left eye, so I still had not seen my baby. But it didn’t matter, because holding her I knew everything was okay and that she was perfect.

They took her away after about 10 minutes back to the recovery room. My husband got to go with her. I had to lay on the table while they stitched me back up. Back in the recovery room, I finally got to hold and see my baby. She was indeed perfect. I had never felt so much love for anything in my life. Every day my love for her grows more and more.

Recovery

After 2 hours in the recovery room, they moved us to our Mother-Baby room, where we would be for the rest of our hospital stay. Thankfully, the hospitals starting lifting their COVID restrictions, and we were able to have 1 visitor at a time. My mom and sister came to the hospital to see her which was nice.

I will not lie, recovery was rough. I had a reaction to the anesthesia and my skin was itchy all over, and I was extremely nauseous.

The whole day I kept asking my husband if he wanted to hold Everly. He kept telling me that he was okay and that he would hold her later. However, he had no choice when I started to get sick. I starting yelling at Garrett to ” TAKE THE BABY AND GRAB A BUCKET”. He looked at me like a deer in headlights. I kept yelling at him those words. Finally, he grabbed the baby and handed me a bucket just in time. He had no idea how to hold her. She only had a diaper on, and he just had her held out at arm’s length. After a few seconds, he figured it out. I kept hitting the button to call the nurses back in the room to help him. I continued to get sick, and they gave me something to get rid of the nausea. Thankfully the sickness subsided later that evening

That night, the nurses came in to help me get out of bed, try to walk, and use the bathroom. I am not going to lie, this was extremely difficult for me to do. I had to use my arms to push the back of my legs to get them to move forward. What seemed like such an easy task almost seemed impossible. It took me about 30 minutes to get out of bed, walk 10 steps to the bathroom and come back. Every time I had to get up I wanted to cry because I was so frustrated that my body could not do such an easy task.

I had to heavily rely on my husband for pretty much everything. I could not even get up to get the baby out of the bassinet to feed her. However, the nurses were pleased with my recovery and how the baby was doing, that they let us go home after 2 days in the hospital.

Because I could not go up the stairs very easily, or get into our high bed, my husband brought everything I needed down to the main floor and we slept on the couch for 3 nights.

He brought the bassinet downstairs, the stuff to change her, her sound machine, and clothes for both of us. My husband is a clean freak, so having all of these things out of where he thought they should be stressed him out.

Even after these three days, it still took me forever to get to the bathroom and back. Walking still was difficult but was becoming easier. I kept pushing myself to feel better, trying to do everyday activities like going up and down the stair and showering made me feel like a normal human being and drove me to continue to feel better.

I am almost 4 weeks postpartum and almost feel back to normal. Although the c-section was not what I had planned for, we are so thankful for our healthy baby. I would do it again in a heartbeat if I had to. I do hope for a vaginal birth if we have another baby, but I am okay if that does not happen. But until then we will live happily as a family of 3 with our perfect daughter Everly.