The Birth Story: Marilyn's Viewpoint

We knew Hannah was breach (feet first), but there is a procedure to try and turn a baby head-down before labor begins. Unfortunately for that, Hannah decided not to wait and I went into labor the day before the procedure was scheduled. Once you go into labor, they do not try to turn a baby, so we had to have an emergency C-section.

I had been in labor for about 12 hours when we got to the hospital, but we were only dilated to a 4. This means that the contractions, while happening every 7 minutes like clockwork, had not been severe. The reason we went to the hospital was that my water broke on the way out the door to church. Fortunately for us, our OB/GYN was the doctor on call for the weekend and everything went quite smoothly once we got to the hospital.

We checked in at about 12:15pm on Sunday July 6. They immediately did the normal vital signs checks for mom and baby and put in the epidural, which needed an hour to take effect. The surgery was scheduled for 1:30pm, which was exactly when they wheeled me into the operating room. I have discovered that operating rooms are really COLD! I was shaking really badly, but the anesthesiologist got some warm towels and after a few minutes I was fine.

I don't remember much of the surgery. Ryan laughs now and says the anesthesiologist told me he was going to give me a drug that would dull my short term memory. I really don't remember that. What I do remember was the doctor kept saying "You little character!" to the baby, as he tried to get her arms, which were above her head, and then the uterus began post-birth contractions as they tried to get her head out. Ryan says it was about as tense a situation as he had seen in a "normal" procedure. They finally were able to extract the head, and Hannah Marie Smith was born at 1:59pm.


Her initial vital signs were not good, she had a faint heartbeat and that was all. But after five minutes she was recovering from her traumatic entrance to the world. They immediately whisked her to the NICU (without even showing me the baby!) and put her on a machine to help her get more oxygen because she wasn't breathing well.


After a short stay in recovery for me, and a little longer stay in NICU for her, we were reunited and from there she's been absolutely fine in every way.


(Please note that I look like I just had a wisdom teeth extraction, not a baby. My swelling was extreme, and I was swollen EVERYWHERE!)

On Thursday afternoon, after a wonderful four days of expert care, they helped us buckle her into her car seat and we checked out of the hospital. I was swollen, sore, and exhausted but the happy mother of a beautiful, intelligent little girl. She sleeps and eats and sleeps some more, never crying unless hungry or cold. In other words, she's perfect! We are so thrilled.