On the sunny side of the womb (Cody’s Birth Story, Part III)

I’ll admit it, when I got to the OR, I was scared. It felt good to walk there (instead of being wheeled in), but my old fears started coming back, so I tried to get back to what was actually happening. The room was different, the circumstances were different. Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” played on the radio, and my mind jumped back in time to the British camp counselor who first introduced me to Tracy Chapman in the summer before 8th grade.

As I sat on the operating table while the anesthesiologist prepped my back for the spinal block, I watched the nurses prepare the room for surgery. I found the choreography of their work soothing: the methodical unpacking of supplies, the calling out of items on a checklist to make sure everything was in order before moving forward, it all calmed me. They know what they’re doing. Everything will be okay.

Finally we were ready. Josh came in and said, “I’ve had a vision. We’re having a girl and we’re going to name her Violet.” Erm, okayyyyy. . .

Josh stroked my hair and I took deep cleansing breaths. I eavesdropped on the small talk of the doctors that distracted me from the fact that my body was being cut open. I felt some tugging, and then he (thank goodness, because I was NOT down with Violet Henig) was here. While Cody doesn’t get his name from Wild Bill Cody and Jesse James, he came out gun ablaze. “He’s peeing!” Josh cried, and I felt so happy that he was here and he was safe.

Cody was in the OP (Occiput Posterior), or “Sunny Side Up” position, which is a more difficult way of delivery, and could have presented some complications. He also had the cord wrapped around his neck. Twice. Evidently in the 10 days since my last ultrasound (when his head was facing towards my back in the optimal birth position), he’d flipped. My theory is that mystery pain that I had a few weeks ago was Cody changing position. Silly monkey baby! Anyway, if labor had progressed, the cord would have wrapped tighter around his neck as he moved down the birth canal, and let’s just say that I was very grateful that labor stalled and we chose C-Section.

They brought him back and I was happy to see him, and happy to be feeling at all. This was the opposite of the numbness that I felt during Jacob’s delivery, the distraction of medication and shivering and nausea leaving me emotionless. I was awake and sitting up in the recovery room, not passed out, not feverish. I could even call my family, nurse Cody within a half hour of his birth.

So different. So good. No regrets.