My C-section experience

Pandemics are hard enough by themselves. Curfews are put in place, stores close earlier and earlier, and everybody is under a lockdown.

Now, throw being pregnant into the mix. You have to undergo that entire journey, by yourself. Pregnancy should one of the most beautiful times in anyone's life, but instead, turn out to be one of the darkest because of the restrictions caused by Covid-19.

Me and my husband found out I was pregnant just before the pandemic hit the united states. My 19th birthday had just passed a few months before, I had gotten married, and my oldest daughter, who I'll remind y'all, isn't my husband's, had just turned 2.

At first, finding out about my pregnancy was mixed emotions. Times were hard, and in the coming year, we would have another child to take care of. And then we hear of a deadly virus coming our way.

Slowly, the businesses around us were either shutting down completely, or cutting their open hours and adding on a thick layer of restrictions.

Now, it took a while before I even got my insurance, so it wasn't till I was about 20 weeks that I was able to start seeing a Doctor. And when I did start seeing one, my husband wasn't allowed to come with. Patients only they said.

So, every single doctor's appointment, I went alone. Every time the heartbeat was played or they did an ultrasound, I had to record it on my phone just so my husband could because he wasn't allowed to come with me. At least he got pictures and videos, right?

Well, at one of the final ultrasounds, they said that was too much fluid around the baby, and that her heart was just a little slow. They had to do pelvic exams and then keep me strapped to monitors to monitor the baby’s heartbeat and my contraction rate. At one of the last appointments, my doctor scheduled an induction for the following week.

In the days following up to my induction, I made all the necessary arrangements. Gave my job notice of my Maternity leave, took care of few last details. While we were getting the last few things arranged, we were also preparing for a storm. Hurricane Laura was coming.

Well, it just so happened with my luck, that the day I was supposed to go to the hospital for my induction, Hurricane Laura was supposed to hit. So, around noon that day, my doctor calls me and tells me that hospital is closing, that he’s cancelling all of his inductions, and that I need to get to the hospital soon so that they can do an ultrasound and an NST, and if everything is ok, my induction will be cancelled, and they’ll send me home.

So, I call mine and my husband’s friend, who is also the baby’s godmother, and ask her to bring me to the hospital. So, we get to the hospital, and the NST is fine, but on the ultrasound, they say the baby is weighing at 9 pounds and 6 ounces. While I'm happy that my baby is at a good weight, I’m pissed that I’m fixing to give birth to a 9-pound baby.

Well, not too much later, my nurse comes back in with my doctor on the phone. He tells me that he doesn’t think it’ll be very safe for me to try and vaginally deliver a 9-pound baby. As he put it, “That is a big baby and you’re a small person.” So, he gave me the option of a c-section. I said Yes.

So, he says that the surgery will happen at 10 in the morning the next day. So. About an hour after that, they get me and my friend transferred to a different room, and for the rest of the night, we just chilled. Occasionally, a nurse would come in and check the baby's heartbeat and my contraction. I tried to sleep, but I was too nervous.

Around 6 a.m., they came into my room, and said my doctor had moved up the surgery, and that it was time to start getting ready. So, I got into the hospital gown, and we walk on over to O.R. While they brought me into the actual surgery room, they kept my friend outside so that they could prep her.

Now, getting the anesthetic was actually like getting an epidural. They gave me a shot in my back, a quick numbing agent. Then, they put the tube into my back, and pushed the medicine through the tube so that I would be numbed from the chest down. After I laid down on the operating, I was hit with overwhelming nausea. Oh my god, it was absolutely terrible. I asked the anesthesiologist about it, and he said it was normal. He shot me with something in my shoulder, and it went away. Not too much longer after that, my doctor came in and said hello to me and then they brought my friend in, and they began the surgery.

It really didn’t take long. I didn’t hurt, but I could feel my doctor rooting around inside me. It felt weird. My friend held my hand and told me when they got my baby out. And then I heard her cry and they brought her to the little warmer bed where they clean up the babies and measure and weigh them while my doctor began to stitch me up. They brought her to me, let me give her a kiss, before they took her away. My friend went with the nurses and the baby to our room.

After spending about 2 hours in our room, they transferred us to our new room. The rest of the day after the baby was born was ok. The nurses came and checked on us and did the usual testing. Of course, I couldn’t move. They put you on bedrest until the next day.

The next day, the let me get up. They took my catheter out and helped me walk around. I’m not going to lie, it was painful. ESPECIALLY when I had to pee. But eventually, I was ok. It was still painful to walk around, but the more I did it, the better I felt. And plus, I got to get real food. While you’re on bedrest, you only get liquids.

It was day three when they released us, about a normal hospital stay post-partum. The first 2-3 weeks are the worst, but that, it isn’t that bad. But for me, it was an experience I won’t forget.