The Adventures of Brian & Staci: April 2014

Where do I even begin. This might be my longest post ever…..

All along I have felt what I knew to be either a head or a butt in my right side rib cage.

At my 34 week ultrasound, it proved to be a head…now most babies at this stage that would normally be a butt…even then most babies flip around by 37 weeks so no one seemed that concerned. So my 36 week appointment rolls around and guess what's still in my ribs…a head. With not a lot of time left before his arrival we had two options. Try and flip him through an ECV or inversion or just schedule a c-section. Obviously we wanted to try the inversion. If you are not familiar with ECV is a process where the doc pushes and shoves on your stomach to try and manually turn the baby. Yes it hurts…like really hurts…and sometimes it works…but not this time. My doc even said he had done two others that week that flipped. Apparently Rustin wanted to come out his own way. So after all that we had to schedule a c-section. The doc suggested Friday the 11th of my 39th week, but since we were picking the day we thought it would be fun to have the birthday of 4-14-14.

I had come to grips with having a c-section at this point, as long as he came out healthy I didn't care anymore how he came. However, the thought of having a scheduled c-section wasn't very fun, because there's no fun birth story or suspense to the whole thing.

This leads us up to Friday the 11th, I have a pre-op appointment in Wenatchee to go over paperwork and do some bloodwork in the afternoon. When I was getting ready to head to the appointment, I started having a few small contractions. Brian came home and decided to go with me. On the way and while we were there I had a few more. So we decided to pop into my doctors office and ask him to check. So they put me on the monitors for about an hour and I wasn't dilated. At this point my contractions were about 17 minutes part and weren't really intense. Doc said I looked good and could head home and he would see me Monday morning bright and early. He said just don't come back with toes dangling…

So we headed to see mom at the horse show just down the road, went to McGlinn's for our favorite BBQ chicken pizza, and then home. All the while my contractions where getting a little closer and a little stronger. Yes we sat through dinner while Brian timed a few of them. We made it home around 8 pm, watched a little TV to try and relax, they were more like 10 minutes at this point. So I decided to take a bath to try and relax and we thought we might call the on-call doc to see what they thought. With us being an hour away and knowing we needed a c-section they suggested we come in. I didn't want to be that person that goes to the hospital and they send you home and roll their eyes at you…so I protested to Brian. After the bath I suggested I go to sleep and maybe they would go away. So I slept for about 20 minutes and woke up every 5 minutes to a contraction….OK OK I admit it's time to go to the hospital. We arrived there about 11:15 and they were ready for us. The on call doctor checked me and said…"yeah, I feel toes and your dilated to about a 5, I think it's time"

WHOA that was fast!! At this point our doc had shown up to do the c-section for us, and was making jokes about if we hurried we could get him here on the 11th. They wheeled me away, gave me the spinal tap, everything went numb, and the next thing I know at 12:13 am Rustin Hunter Faw had arrived at 7 lbs 7 oz and 19 inches long. Surreal. It was just perfect that he came on his own timing, I got to experience contractions, there was suspense, and we had a little surprise for the grandparents to call the next morning. Our friends Seth and Carrie pointed out to use that even though he did not arrive on 4-14-14, he did arrive on 4-12-14, a palindrome date (it's backward as the same as forward), which is a rare occasion, in itself.

Having never had a major surgery I did not know what to expect, especially for recovery…those drugs they give you, they made me ITCH like nobodies business and I do NOT do well with being itchy, so the next 24 hours following the c section were not as fun, but we made it.

Recovery is going really well, I feel great.

Last pregnant photo (right after I had a contraction)