On October 5 I gave birth to my son Max via an emergency c-section. I had checked into the hospital the night before to prepare to have labor induced as we were a week past the due date. After a long sleepless night hooked up to monitors and two rounds of the drugs to induce I began to have contractions. A nurse came into the room quickly to check the monitors. Another nurse arrived, then another, then two more, then four more, until there were 8 nurses and then the doctor. Within seconds I was wheeled down the hall and within 20 minutes Max was uttering his first cry. The umbilical cord had wrapped around Max’s shoulder and his heartbeat had dropped by half with each contraction. Their speedy action saved him from harm.
I panicked at first, but the second I hear his first cry I was beaming. Max was, and is perfect.
After Max was born I was sent to the recovery area where I had a complication of hemorrhaging. It took a couple hours to get it under control, but I did not need a transfusion. With the inducing of labor and the complications I had a tough recovery including excessive swelling. That complicated breast feeding as the swelling was choking my milk supply and prevented Max from being able to latch on. Later when the swelling subsided we found my shape was not conducive to Max latching on so I continue to work with a lactation consultant. In the meantime I am using a breast pump 6-8 times a day to produces as much milk for Max (we then supplement with formula.) I’m fighting to keep up with his rate of growth.
The first week Max lost too much weight, so we had to supplement with formula. The second week he caught up and we actually overfed him, so we had to adjust, and by the third and fourth week we found the right pace. He’s thriving. By his first month check-up he was a couple inches longer and a couple pounds heavier.
Max is perfect. Every issue we’ve had has to do with me, as it should be – I’ll take the complications any day over him. Once the swelling subsided I was feeling ready to do more, but found that the incision from the c-section was not healing properly. Instead of healing, a pocket of fluid had developed, but we caught it before there was an infection. I’ve had to work with the wound care center at the hospital and we’ve tried a few treatments. The wound is healing slowly and should heal in another 4-6 weeks. I had to wear a “wound vac” that applied negative pressure to the wound to keep it from forming more liquid, and that worked well but impacted the surrounding skin (irritation due to all the tape.) We had to switch to something that would use less tape, so the doctor altered the wound so I can take care of it myself.
I’m not in pain, and just slowed down a bit. I’ve been staying with my parents, which have been a tremendous help. Thankfully that is offset by the pure joy they experience having Max around. Max is a dream - - he’s perfect, lovely, and a joy to be around – all the bad goes away just by looking at him.
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