I am happy to tell this super uneventful story.  We scheduled a C-section for January 11, 2011 back in November.  The only wild card in the whole plan was whether or not she would decide to come early.  Alison measured a few weeks big for her age at almost every sonogram, so an early appearance was always a possibility.  I wanted her to wait as long as possible because everyday she stayed inside was another day away from Christmas for her birthday.

The morning of 1/11/11 we woke up, packed up the truck and dropped Reed off at day care just like it was any other day.  Only this day we drove to the hospital, checked in for our 11am surgery and went straight to pre-op. The only eventful part was the anesthesia…

When I delivered Reed I had an epidural.  Zero pain, zero problems.  For whatever reason this doctor likes to do a spinal tap for ‘elective’ c-sections.  I was not prepared for this, which is probably a good thing.  Have any of you ever had a spinal tap?  I had no idea I could be in that much pain.  Seriously.  Horrible.  It only took a few minutes to get the medicine into my spine, but the whole time I was in horrible pain, plus I was terrified that the doctor was going to mess up and leave me paralyzed.  If you are ever given the choice…go with an epidural.  Seriously.  The only good part about it is that I could feel my legs as soon as I was in recovery.  That was nice, but I would still prefer the epidural.

So I get the spinal tap and lay down.  Immediately my chest starts burning like the way that I imagine it feels (from Twilight) to be turned into a vampire.  My heart is literally on fire like I have never felt before.  Not to be too dramatic, but I was afraid something was very wrong.  The anesthesiologist assured me my vitals looked good and that everything was fine…but that didn’t take the pain away.  I heard one other scary thing when Dr. Vanover (my OB) asked for the vacuum.  Yikes!!  Turns out I was right about how low she had been.  They had to use the vacuum on her little head because she was so lodged into my pelvis that Dr. Vanover couldn’t get a good grip on her to pull her out.  Finally I heard what I had been waiting for…’she so chunky!’  I love Dr. Vanover.

Alison was a little chunk, but almost the exact measurements as Reed.  She was 8 pounds, 2 ounces and 20 inches long.  Reed was 8 pounds 3 ounces and 19.5 inches long.  Not to mention she looked JUST like him when she was born.  It was like going back in time and seeing Reed’s little face for the first time.