Reese Madeline Terlisner

When I got pregnant this time around, it was  abig surprise to both me and Mitch because we had had to workso hard for it last time.  I had two main goals: make it to term and deliver vaginally.  My doctor and I were beyond excited as each week over 28 passed, and my BP was still looking good as was Reese.  Doctor Seliman decided to deliver me at 39 weeks because he wanted to make sure that he was the doctor delivering rather than an on-call doctor.  I believe this was because of the risks of having a v-bac.

At 7pm when I had made some progress in my dilation, the doctor gave me until 8 to make more progress.  At 8, I had not moved at all.  Since we were working with a uteris that was held partly together with scar tissue from my c-section with Witten, we ad to be really careful to make sure that I didn't rupture it in labor.  I asked for one more hour to make progess, an he agreed.  At 9pm, not only had I not made any more progress, but the walls of my cervix had actually gotten thicker instead of thinner.  This coupled with some blood and some stress showing on Reese's head, and the doctor decided it was time to go to Plan B and have a c-section.

This was upsetting to me on multiple levels.  First of all, I remembered how much it hurt for so long after the surgery, and how much trouble it was to care for the scar.  I also wanted to be able to do the whole pregnancy the "right" way.  I know that there's nothing wrong with getting a c-section, but it's just not what I had pictured since I was little. 

There were a lot of tears when the doctor told me that we would once again have to do a c-section. I understood his reasons, and he gave me more.  First of all, there was blood in my urine which indicated that there could be a problem.  Also, she was starting to get a funny shape to her head because she wasn't fitting properly.  The biggest reason though was because I had been in hard labor for 12 hours, and since I had had a previous c-section, my uteris was weaker than most peoples'.  This meant that a ruture was a greater risk, and we could lose Reese.  I trusted the doctor's decisions, but it didn't make it any easier.  He stood in there and talked with me for a while about my concerns.  I explained that I had really just wanted it all to go perfectly this time, and I was disappointed that I couldn't do it.  He told me that it was not a failure and that I would still get a baby girl out of it.  He also talked to me about the recovery, and how my recovery last time seemed to be harder than most, so he would be takig extra precautions to make sure that it was easier this time around.

Even with the epidural, I was starting to regain feeling, so I check to make sure that they were planning on giving me something a litte stronger.  He assured me that I would be nice and numb, and the nurse said that they would check me three times with some instrument that has teeth on it to make sure.  Right before they let Mitch come in the room, I threw up.  That was gross as well as surprising because it had been more than 24 hours since I had had anything to eat or drink.

I told them NO play by play, closed my eyes, and opened them again when the doctor dangled Reese upside down by her feet for us to see. The second I heard her cry for the first time, I started crying, and all of a sudden, I remembered back to when Witten was born and how I had done the same thing with him.  She was very white from all of the afterbirth. After I had seen her, I closed my eyes again while Mitch went to watch them clean her off; then he got to hold her and show her to me.

 
Reese was born at 9:56pm, weighs 7lbs 5oz, and is 19" long.

We thought she was going to the room with us for an hour before going to the nursery because that had been then plan what she was going to come vaginally.  Unfortnately, they took her and Mitch off while I was still on the table. 

Because they used the epidural instead of the spinal, I started getting some feeling back before they had even started stapling me up.  In fact, they hadn't even finished putting eveything back in where it went, and I could feel a lot of really gross tugging.  The anesthesiologist quickly gave me another dose of whatever he was using, and things were ok again.  I did feel a lot more staples going in this time that last time, so I'm a little nervous about having them removed.  I'm sure I'll survive though. 

The doctor took a lot longer on the surgery this time than the other doctor took last time.  He said that he was taking a bunch of extra precautions to help make my recovery as painless as possible.  When I finally got back to my room around 10:30, and Mitch had already been waiting for 10-15 minutes.  They said that we could see Reese again once we were moved up to post-pardom.  I can't wait to hold her!