Birth Story of Phoenix Jeffrey Blade

Well I got up at 6am Friday June 2, 2006 after a very restless sleep. Did the required shower and teeth brushing, got dressed and headed to the hospital. We met my mother and my other mother (basically raised me since I was a teenager) there and got up to my room. To my surprise and HUGE delight I was granted a private room (this is a truly lucky thing as the hospital right now only has TWO private rooms and there were four c-sections scheduled for Friday!) When I asked why I got so lucky… I got a wink and the nurse said that the night nurses the day before were big fans of mine (I am a LLL leader and had been coming two times weekly for non stress tests) Hey… whatever pull I have I am happy to use it!

I was supposed to be having my surgery at 9:30 but I got bumped for an emergency section. I finally got in the OR at about 10:45 but then they couldn’t get the spinal in! 12 (yes 12) tried later… and two doctors later… they finally got it in. The surgery started and I was comfortable. My hubby was holding my hand and my team of surgeons were awesome. All women. All the most empathetic people who kept me updated and only focused on me… and not their golf games as had previous dr’s while doing my other c-sections… nice huh?

Finally at 11:42 wee baby Phoenix came into the world! He cried instantly and per my instructions they didn’t deep suction him. He was looked over quickly and then Jeff brought him to me. He stopped crying the second he heard my voice He had a ton of vernix, long fingernails and he has sparse medium brown hair. Eventually Jeff and the nurse took him upstairs where they weighed him. No vitamin K shot and no eye ointment. Daddy rubbed in as much of his vernix as he could. He weighed in at 7 lbs 7 oz. A full pound lighter than Maddy and almost two pounds lighter than Olivia! He is 20.25 inches long. He is beautiful. Daddy calls him his “little dude” and I’ve taken to calling him my “wee man.” Lol!

They recovered me in post op and I FINALLY got to go up and see him a full 2.5 hours AFTER he was born. That’s a sore spot for me. Though Jeff held him the ENTIRE time and didn’t let anyone else hold him until I got to. He rocks. He insisted that I be the second one and I was.

He had no interest in nursing until about 10 that night. He’d lick the breast, nuzzle it, kiss it… and open his mouth just a teeeeeny bit. He finally took his first meal and made it a good ½ hour one. He was very sleepy (and still is) but after about 24 hours he was nursing pretty well and he is having more alert periods. He’s nursing often, lots of wet diapers, poopy ones are starting to come more frequently. My milk came in Sunday morning about about 6 am. So about 42 hours after surgery. It’s still coming in and engorgement is manageable at this point but I know it’s going to get far worse My FF boobs are increasing in size by the hour! My husband (and baby!) are in heaven!

He’s sleeping well when he’s not nursing and I am getting an amazing amount of sleep for having a little person in the house. We wake, nurse and both fall back asleep. He’s been out of my arms very little and in fact he’s napping in the fleece pouch as we speak.

My incision is looking good and feeling ok. I’m taking my pain meds religiously as I was trying to play the martyr yesterday and just take enough to get by… yah not so good of an idea. As long as my pain is controlled I am able to get around well enough.

So that’s it… we got home after 49 hours (I whined and got sprung early) and we’re adjusting to being a family of 5. The girls are IN LOVE with him and Maddy especially wants to be with him all the time. Olivia could really care less as long as her needs are met. Our first morning together as a family this morning, both girls climbed into bed with Jeff, Phoenix and I and we snuggled and cuddled for about a ½ hour. They know they are loved. Sigh… I am just so happy he’s here and he’s okay and I’m okay and I’m so in love with my wee man.

Jeff’s going to post some pics to our website tonight and I’ll pop in later with the url for you all.