Coralee Addison

My pregnancy with Coralee was..... well, most mothers could only dream of only throwing up a few times, and generally feeling great for 8 months, then having their water break (no questionable labor) at 37 weeks and getting to meet their baby girl three weeks early. Yes, I had that dream pregnancy. Feel free to hate, I understand.

It was NOT however my dream delivery.

Around 37 weeks I had an ultrasound to check on something they had seen back at the 20 week u/s, nothing that was a big deal, and it had cleared fine. We also learned that our precious little girl didn't like being upside down, she was breech, and while I knew there were things I could do to try and turn her, I could feel my dreams of an all natural birth slip slip slippin' away.

I immediately turned to spinningbabies.com I layed inverted on a slab of wood, I put ice packs on the top of my belly and warm packs on the bottom, I went swimming EVERY DAY, I did acupuncture, and an external version (OUCH!), and I had my first chiropractor appointment set up for the webster technique. I didn't make it to that appointment though (and I'll always wonder 'what if'), a few days before my last ditch effort to turn her, I woke up with some spotting, like any new mom that just crossed the full term mark, I was excited to meet my baby, and I was very hopeful this spotting would lead to labor. I knew that little Coralee could still turn while I was in labor so I wasn't too bummed about missing the chiropractor appointment (as long as she DID turn). Toward the end of the day however, it looked like I would make my appointment after all, despite two long walks, a little thumb sucking and TONS of fresh pineapple, I didn't feel one single contraction all day. Feeling totally defeated I decide to sit and give my Hindenburg swollen feet a break.

Not five minutes later did I feel the mighty mississippi take a detour right trough my legs!

wowza, if you have experienced this, you know it's the craziest, weird feeling ever!

After I got over the initial shock about what had just happened (after all labor only starts that way in movies, not real life.), the disappointment started to sink in. I was at a point where there was no longer any hope for a natural delivery, I was off to the hospital to have my first ever surgery.

Contractions picked up pretty quickly. At the time it had seemed logical to change into clean pants, but it proved to be less than logical, with each contraction the mighty tide rose, and by the time we reached the hospital I was once again soaked. At least there was no question as to whether or not my water had actually broke. I had eaten a small dinner, so the OB talked to me about waiting until about 2:00am on Sep. 20th to start the surgery, but just about an hour later he came back to say there were getting ready to head in now because I was progressing too fast.

A short time later I was getting wheeled back to meet my baby girl! By this time the disappointment of not getting a naturally delivery was long gone, all that mattered was that I was about to meet Coralee, and what could be better than that?

The first part of the surgery went great, the spinal block wasn't as bad as I had expected, laying on the cold table wasn't as scary as I had imagined...it was ok.

September 19th, 2007 at 11:20pm I meet my beautiful frog-legged girl, gave her a kiss, and sent John to follow her up to the nursery. This is when things got interesting. I felt like the 'stitch me up' part of things was taking longer than it should, but I had nothing to compare it to, so I just went along with it (now I know it WAS taking long). The lengthy time was making me anxious though, I was starting to have a hard time distracting myself, and searched frantically to read the warnings off of a box of latex gloves, I never did find one to read, and I was starting to feel like I was going to have a panic attack. That's about when I felt some MAJOR pressure up in my chest (pressure from the surgeon, not like a heart thing), it kind of hurt so naturally, I flinched. The next thing I heard, I'll remember to my death bed "oh, looks like her ab muscles are starting to fight back a little bit, we better hurry up and get her intestines back in" No JOKE! now my 'could be' panic attack it coming full force and I am ready to be zonked out! I start begging the anesthesiologist to give me more...lots more, I'm not sure if he did or not, but I don't remember much after that, I think they were done pretty shortly there after.

Recovery, I remember being really board in the recovery room, wondering why I had sit in there all by myself, while my baby was in another room without me. How long was I in there? I don't remember but it felt like forever, and the lack of stimulation had my mind already wondering to thoughts of a VBAC. Goodness, I hadn't even held my first child and I was already thinking about the second! I decided right then and there, that I WOULD have my next child naturally.

Finally, someone comes to take me to my room, where my baby awaits me! The nurse gets me settled in and warns me that I might feel a little nauseous. Like any good patient, I ignore her, and ask to hold Coralee. As soon as she is in my arms I feel my stomach churn a little....oh boy! I start to hand her back to John, when the feeling subsides. Ah, false alarm, I'll keep her, thank you very much! I snuggle her close, and ............ yep I puked on Coralee the first time I held her. We got cleaned up and continued to take our first steps together into the land of breastfeeding. She did great! I was so blessed to have relatively easy breastfeeding experience with all the drugs in my system, thank you God for that! Surgery recovery was also a blessing. I was up and walking around very quickly, my scar healed nicely and I was off all narcotics after just a few days.

Wow, what a ride that was, and it continues to be just as wild.