Our sweet darling boy has a name!
"Matty" as a name came to us his second day here. It took us a few more days to decide that Matthew would be his full name.
Gerald, named for "mon oncle" who is a truly special person in both of our lives.
Forest comes from my great grandmothers side of the family - initially Forester before they came across the pond.
Matthew is a lovely baby and we are so blessed to have him!
Birth Story:
We arrived at the hospital Monday morning (Nov 10) for our scheduled cesarean delivery because baby was still breech. Mom, Bob and I met our midwife, Leslie there and were checked into our room. The nurses hooked me up to IV and went over the procedures. This prep time also included unbraiding my blessing braid and giving my labour beads to Bob for his pockets so they could be with me at the birth. Thanks all for your support!
Bob and I right before going to the OR.
At the OR there were a few delays sorting out the cord blood collection and our request to have the baby on my skin in the OR before going to the nursery. My recovery nurse (Allison) helped us talk about all these things and made it possible for us to have baby back in my room where I would recover from OR as soon as possible - something we wanted but didn't think could happen.
Once all of this was sorted out I was wheeled into the OR and given the spinal. I was pretty nervous about this. Luckily it went fine, and as promised, the local freezing hurt more than the spinal!
I was prepped and draped and in came Bob and Leslie. Bob was great at staying with me and explaining things, keeping me focused on our baby and how excited we were. There was one very nervous moment for me as I felt awful and Bob was right on it with the anesthetist - my blood pressure was down and they brought it back up to normal.
It was taking quite a while because Matty was breech and was VERY stuck. Leslie said that it took more than the usual work to get baby out! Bob got to peek twice and saw our little one emerging... "It's a boy!" I think we were both teary at this point. Baby was crying his heart out as they did the initial assessments. All was well! They wrapped him up and laid him on my chest so Bob and I could look at him and talk to him and hold him. What a miracle!
Then Bob and Matty went off to the nursery while I got stitched up. I was very glad that Leslie got to stay with me. I don't really remember being wheeled back up to my room, I just wanted to see my baby! Bob got to do some skin on skin time to warm baby up (much more effective for baby and great for connection with dad!) in the nursery.
It took a little while, which I learned later was because he was having some trouble with his wet lungs and they gave him some time under a heat lamp with pulse oximetry monitoring in the nursery. Babies that aren't squeezed through the birth canal can have some mucous and/or wet lung issues. Nothing major, but it delayed them coming back to my room. Finally, Bob and Matty arrived! I was still frozen (spinal froze from my toes to my collar bones!!) but recovering well.
We stayed in the hospital until Friday. We could have left Wed, but I was having trouble with pain. Go figure! Major abdominal surgery is not fun!
I am still not up and about as much as I would like to be. I guess it is a 6 week recovery for a reason.
Bob and I are having a great time with Matthew bonding as a family.
Anna, Bob and Matthew
