We went to the University of Utah Hospital early on the morning of June 2, 2008. I'm not a morning person but I'm pretty sure that I didn't sleep much the night before and that I was ready to go. Carlos and I went up straight to the hospital while Mom and Dad got the boys ready and then dropped them of at Amber's before joining us in the pre-op room. I was so nervous. I hate new situations and places and it just made me that more anxious. The staff was wonderful and did everything they could to help me feel comfortable. They had to do several tests and blood work. The did an ultrasound to check the baby's position and confirmed what the doctor had told me a couple of weeks before (I didn't really believe him!), that he was breach. The medical team decided that because he was breach and because of his spina bifida, they would need to do a vertical incision on my uterus. This would reduce the risk of further damage to his the sack on his back and his spinal cord. They told me that I would never be able to labor at all in future pregancies and they didn't tell me that recovery would be a lot harder. At least it was for me compared to my previous c-sections. In the end, the surgery was put off for a couple of hours which made me even more nervous, not to mention the fact that I was starving!
They finally took Carlos and me back to the operating room and after more things that I wasn't prepared for, only because they were different from previous experiences, they started the c-section.
When Zachary was born he was passed immediately into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and neither Carlos or I got to see him. The had to wrap his back with gauze and plastic wrap to prevent an infection entering in through the sack, something that could be very dangerous. The nurses did come in and tell us that his lungs were healthy because he was in there screaming. They also told us that he was beautiful.
Once we were taken to recovery, Dad and Carlos got to go into the NICU to see him. They gave Zachary a blessing. They also took pictures and a video. Then Mom got to go in. I didn't get to see him until the transport team came to take him over to Primary Children's Medical Center. I did get to see this video.
They brought him to me in an isolette. I didn't get to touch him but I was able to see a little bit of him and see that he was beautiful. I fell in love with him. He was only there for a couple of minutes and then Carlos and Dad accompanied the team over to Primary Children's.
When moms have babies that can't be with them, the UofU sends them to a different part of the hospital than the mother and baby wing. They go to the wing with the cystic fibrosis patients. The staff was so caring and helpful, they helped to make a difficult stay for a claustrophobic, panicky patient much better.
As soon as I was feeling better, someone (Mom? Carlos? Dad? I don't remember...) wheeled me over to Primary Children's to go and see Zachy. The two hospitals are connected which made going back and forth easy. I finally got to go in and see my beautiful Zachary. I'm afraid that I was never strong enough or prepared enough to look at the sack on his back. I just couldn't do it. I wish now that we had a picture of it so that I could have seen it later. Perhaps I just didn't want to see that his little body was not as "perfect" as I saw it.
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