Birth Story

We had our c-section scheduled for Thursday March 10 at 8:30 am. I went to the doctor on Tuesday March 8 (our actual due date) for my 40 week appointment to make sure the baby was still breech. Our doctor has been awesome and we were really excited that she was going to be doing my surgery. Once we got through Tuesday, I actually thought we would make it to Thursday. Silly me..........

Justin and I went to bed around 10:30 on Tuesday night. I woke up around 12:00 am feeling extremely nauseous. All the sudden I felt a sharp pain in my lower abdomen. I was pretty sure this was a contraction, but decided to wait before waking Justin up. I grabbed my phone because Justin had downloaded an app that would time my contractions. I walked around the house with contractions that lasted 35-45 seconds every 10 minutes for the next hour and a half. I decided that I was in labor and woke Justin up. We took our time to shower, finish packing, get Justin some breakfast, and notify the proper people that we were not going to be at work/school on Wednesday. We headed for the hospital around 4:30 am. Before getting into the car we looked back and talked about how it would never be this quiet again, and how excited we were to bring our first child home.

When we arrived at the hospital they strapped me to the monitors and checked my cervix. I was only dilated 1 finger (I was prepared for a measurement in cm!). They came back an hour later and checked again. This time I was dilated 2 fingers was 90% effaced. After reporting to the labor and delivery nurse they were told to "bring that breech girl up."

When we got upstairs it was 7:30 am and my contractions were getting increasingly longer and more intense. The charge nurse came in 15 minutes later and told us that we were going to have the c-section at 8:30. Justin rushed to call our parents and got ready to go into the OR:)

Things moved really quickly from there and before I knew it I was on the operating table getting a spinal block. Justin was able to watch the entire surgery and even took pictures of the baby being pulled through the incision (which he was not supposed to do). I could feel a lot of pulling and tugging and was so excited to hear the first cry. Typically c-section babies have more fluid in their lungs but our little guy had great color, let out the cutest cries, and was given APGAR scores of 9 and 9! Caden Michael Smutz was born at 8:58 am weighing 7 lbs. 10 oz.

Caden was able to stay in the OR while I was getting stitched back together. Justin held him near my head so the three of us were able to spend some time together. I love this pic because it shows how our little breech bundle wouldn't lay flat, and how he loves Daddy's finger:) 

We were wheeled into recovery where our parents and siblings were able to meet us and Caden for the first time. Daddy changed out of his blue suit and hung with Caden while they checked him out.

I spent the rest of the day recovering and holding little Caden. For some reason my body doesn't take pain medicine very well (vicodin and percocet are a nightmare). It took a little while, but they finally got me something that didn't make me vomit and I was feeling much better. The nurses and doctors at St. Joseph's were amazing. We had such an incredible experience and we can't thank them enough for all of the knowledge and care that they gave us throughout our stay!

We stayed in the hospital for two nights and then were offered the choice to go home on Friday or stay until Saturday. We wanted to get home to sleep in our own bed and not be disturbed every half hour so we packed up, put Caden in his coming home outfit that Justin picked, and headed out for our first car ride as a family of three. Caden wasn't too into getting dressed up - I love his face in this picture!