V is already a week old – crazy to think that a day ago just last week, I was having One Last Meal before heading to the hospital to be induced. The twenty-seven hours of medical procedures that followed seem like nothing compared with the wonders and hiccups (okay – moments of what has felt like gut-wrenching terror, admittedly) that come with being solely and primarily responsible for a newborn baby.
Our pregnancy and birth story involved a number of close calls and experiences that I don’t mind discussing on the other side of things, such as a complete placenta previa (which resolved itself at 36 weeks), the feeling of having Pitocin-induced contractions spasming in your quadriceps, the relief of an epidural, and ultimately having a healthy baby by Caesarean. I’m glad for those friends who’ve spoken liberally and frankly about their birth experiences, so I knew that ours would be unique and to leave our expectations and a strict birth plan at the hospital door.
Since we had a C-section, we were granted an extra two days (96 hours versus 48 hours) in the hospital. I’m so glad that we had that extra time to become accustomed to being new parents, and it affirms what others have said critically about policies around childbirth and childcare in the U.S. The birth center staff at Seton Medical Center were fantastic about caring for us, answering all of our questions about breastfeeding, and showing us a million ways to swaddle V. I don’t think we could have anticipated our questions in advance of actually having a babe in arms, so those two days were so invaluable.
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