one week ago was little scotti's first birthday. i'm not sure where the last 53 weeks went, but they went! everyone tells you it goes fast & it does, but with baby #2 it goes by twice as fast. i was just able to re-read georgina's birth story {
here} and i got so emotional. #momlife. i shared her birth story right around her first birthday so i figured today was the perfect day to share prescott's birth story! hope you enjoy.
to begin the story we need to go back to January 2016, three months before he was born. this is when i was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. at first i though, no big deal. chad, my husband, is type one diabetic so we eat a low carb, limited sugar diet anyway; i don't buy lots of snack food or desserts because it's way to tempting for him to binge, especially after years of denying yourself. so i really thought there wouldn't need to be too much adjusting to my diet. however after a few days of constantly testing my blood, recording my blood sugar levels, and reporting back to my doctor/dietitian/and assigned nurse who would monitor me for the duration of my pregnancy I realized what a bitch this whole gestational diabetes was going to be :( in addition to watching everything i ate, i now had to go to the hospital and do non-stress tests twice a week & meet with the above team of doctors/nurses/dietitian. thankfully i was able to schedule those testes/appointments on the days my daughter was at daycare! after three weeks of all the above listed steps I was unable to get my fasting/overnight blood levels within the accepted window of where they should be . . . so we moved onto medication. thankfully i only needed it before bed & in the end it helped regulate my sugar levels enough that i never needed a prescription for insulin. seriously after just those three months i have a totally new respect for my husband who has to live with this disease for the rest of his life {love you babe!}
alright now we can fast forward to March 2016 aka due date month! as my due date approached there was lots of talk about having the baby early, which is common for women with gestational diabetes. with gestational diabetes the big worry is the baby can become too big! at this point i also needed to decide if i wanted to be induced to try and have a vbac or schedule a c-section. i had had a c-section with georgina due to some complications with her heart rate/oxygen levels during labor but after talking with my doctor my chances of needing another c-section were only 50%, this was based on my age/previous complications with birth/weight/size of my stomach, and where i was measuring on the growth chart . . . etc. after much discussion and weighing the risks of needing a c-section but not scheduling one, I decided to proceed with a scheduled c-section. with no family close by, read 900 miles away, it was a nice peace of mind to be able to plan what to do with georgi & our dog while i was in the hospital. it also felt "safe" to have a c-section. it put my anxious mind at ease because it's what i knew as far as labor went & it also eliminated the worst scenario; going into labor and trying to have a vbac birth but in the end still needing a c-section.
as soon as I had made a final decision and signed the paper work for scheduling a c-section my doctor called down to the labor & delivery wing of the hospital to figure out a day. it's pretty surreal to pick a birthday for your child! for us the operating room schedule & georgi's daycare schedule dictated the date. it happened to work out that March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, was the only available day for the week leading up to my due date that lined up with georgi's day care schedule. i thought it was a lucky sign so we snatched the day up before it got booked by another couple!
the morning of March 17th we woke up, got georgi off to daycare, which is at the hospital ironically, and then we went to check into L&D. my surgery wasn't scheduled until 1 pm which meant there was time to just relax, watch some TV, talk nervously, text with family members that were back in the midwest, and get me all hooked up to my necessary IVs. it also gave me time to take another shower at the hospital, which was necessary because they try and keep the operating room as sterile as possible. it was all so calm and peaceful, which was a stark contrast to my experience with georgina. since it wasn't the middle of the night and i wasn't actually in any pain or having contractions. a few hours passed and as we approached one o'clock a bunch of nurses & the doctor who would be performing the surgery came into my room and walked me verbally through what would happen in the next hour. at this point chad was getting in his scrubs and they were monitoring me & the baby to be sure we were ready to go. roughly around 1 p.m. my nurse & i walked down to the operating room and got me all set up to meet with anesthesiologist. just like last time chad needed to wait in my room until i was all set up and ready for surgery.
as soon as i walked into the operating room all the nurses & doctors went around the room and introduced themselves to me to make sure i felt safe and secure. ironically as soon as the anesthesiologist introduced herself, i turned to her, and said, "i went to grade school with you!" turns out we're from the same small town in indiana and had both moved 900 miles away from home! it was a bizarre coincident which made the sterile operating room much more homey. soon i was "numb" from the waist down & just like with georgina as soon as i was numbed my adrenaline started pumping which means i began to shake . . . aka they strapped my arms & upper body down to the table. soon chad was brought in and he immediately started stroking my hair which helped calm me down. the surgery moved along efficiently and before i knew it i felt a huge amount of pressure as they prepared to take scotti out of me. as soon as they lifted him out, it felt like a big gush of wind had been pushed right through me. then, they held him up over the curtain and the first thought i had was, "he has soooo much DARK hair!" the nurses took him over to be weighed and measured; and of course being a boy he immediately pee'd on the them :) after wrapping him up they handed little prescott over to chad. he was so calm and peaceful which is still how he is, love our little prescott gregory. now for a few never before published pictures! for more current pictures check out his instagram account
allthingsprescott
so guys there you have it. hope you enjoyed. not super exciting but that's exactly how you want a birth to be! the most exciting part should be the baby, right?!?!?!?
we'll "see" you guys next week.
have a great weekend!
x&o.
cake & valley (and little scotti!)
