So far, I’ve only had the chance to introduce my older daughters, L & R. Baby V joined the clan in December at 10:16 in the morning, weighing 8lbs 3oz and measuring 21 inches long. Now, as you’ll soon find out, I am not usually the kind of mom to remember all these details; however, I wasn’t nearly as drugged up for this c-section as I was last time, so I remembered A LOT more. I kept asking the nurses and my doc, “Are you sure we did this last time? I don’t remember this at all.” To be honest, I lost several hours of time with the first c-section, but I remember almost all of this one.
I have to say, the c-section this time was way better. (I did get one snarky nurse immediately after surgery, which is an anomaly at Los Robles. Every other nurse I’ve ever met there was amazing.) However, I was slightly concerned initially because my anesthesiologist walked into my pre-op room “to meet me.” He did not make eye contact with me once; he tried to leave the room before I even got my first question out, and I think he tried to make a joke to my husband as he was leaving that neither of us understood.
But let me tell you, what he lacked in social skills, he more than made up for in the operating room. He was amazing; he not only allowed my husband to be in the room with me for the spinal block (which very few do), but he had a magical touch with the anesthesia. My body gradually relaxed into the table until I felt nothing from the lower half of my body. For those of you who have read my 1st c-section story, it went much differently. I immediately started vomiting once I was laid down on the operating table, and I was basically threatening the anesthesiologist to just knock me out. This time I was fine, and I kept repeating, “Oh my gosh. I’m ok. Oh my gosh. I’m doing great.”
I proceeded to chit chat with my doctors and the nurses throughout surgery, with my eyes closed of course. I may have made great strides with my blood-injection-injury phobia, but I wasn’t taking any chances; the smell of plastic and sterility was overpowering enough. So I was feeling pretty great with whatever meds my anesthesiologist gave me (probably a mix of opiates and anxiolytics). Like I said, he was great. But I was drugged up just enough to periodically call out, “Dr. —, Are you still with us? You haven’t made a peep!” Now he never deigned to respond to me himself. A nurse (trying not to laugh) would say something like, “Yes Jacque. He’s right behind you.” To which I would respond something like, “That’s odd. I haven’t heard from him in over an hour…” And then we would continue chit chatting.
Not only was surgery better, but the recovery was better too. I didn’t really need pain meds to help with my incision. You’ll never guess what made me break and call for the opiates. Literally just sitting on my butt! My back and bum hurt so much, just from sitting in the hospital bed. I remember calling the nurse, “So um. I can’t believe this is why I’m calling you, but um my butt and back are literally killing me. Any chance those pain meds will restore order to my backside?” Luckily they did.
Everything went great from a medical perspective. My favorite part of my hospital stay (aside from the poached salmon at Los Robles. OMG. YES, they actually have great salmon) was spending time with baby V. It was great right from the very beginning! I remember enjoying myself for the first time with the twins at the one year mark, and I thought, “Oh cool. This is actually fun now!” Well let me tell you, my little angel was a blast right from the beginning. I am so thankful I was able to join the singleton experience!
Jacqueline Pinchuk 