The delivery

After taking weeks of child birth classes and mentally getting prepared for the delivery, we found out 4 weeks prior to our due date that Mason was breech. The ultrasound also revealed a big baby in the 70-90th percentile and a head in the 90th percentile!

Breech + 90th percentile head + narrow pelvis = scheduled c-section

As the doctor described the c-section to us, it sounded better than all the alternatives we learned in the child birth classes. We scheduled the c-section for the week before my due date to lower the chances I would go into labor. Anxieties of not knowing when I would go into labor, where I would be, who would I be with and how would labor progress were replaced by a count down to the delivery date - June 27th at 8 am.

We were at the hospital at 6 am on Wednesday morning, and nurses and doctors prepared quickly through paper work, medical history, and explaining the procedure. I started feeling very nervous about 10 minutes before going into the OR. I wanted to slow everything down. I was still feeling nervous in the OR as the anesthesia was being placed. I remember asking the doctor a few minutes later, "when are we starting?" and she said "we started about 2 minutes ago". At that point, I relaxed since it was out of my control.

About 10 minutes later, I heard the doctor say "even his butt is big!". Mason was out another minute later at 8:07am. Mason came into this world peeing on the doctor, and then the nurses that were cleaning him up. Bill took him to the nursery where they gave him a bath and he peed again when he was being weighed. Yes, the 8 lbs 11 oz was recorded after he emptied him bladder. He measured 21.5 inches in length.

Looking back, I must say that the c-section was the right choice! I recovered very quickly from it, I was walking 12 hours after and didn't feel much pain at all. I only needed 600 mg of ibuprofen twice a day for 2 days after the c-section, and never used the Percoset I was prescribed. I can't imagine that I could have recovered any faster with a vaginal delivery of a 8lbs 11oz baby.