The perinatologists said I was measuring big!!! So after a follow up appointment with my Ob/Gyn on May 1st, it was decided that I should have a C-section at 39 weeks. The swore the baby would be approaching 10 lbs and felt it was safer. Our delivery day was May 9th. I called my mom, and let her know. Mitch called his family and we started counting down the days.
On May 8th I had to go to the hospital and do all the pre-admission paperwork and blood work. That night Mitch took me out to dinner. We wanted one last night to celebrate the journey we were about to take. We were still talking about names and it was probably around 11 PM that night when we officially decided she would be Leah Carol Schultz. That night neither one of us could sleep. How can anyone possibly get any sleep when you know the next morning your life is going to change forever. It was surreal. Somehow, we managed to get a little rest, and our alarm clock went off around 5:45 that morning. I showered and made sure that I had everything in my hospital bag one last time and we hit the road. We were living in East Windsor, NJ and the hospital was in Freehold (The home of Bruce Springsteen) and it was about a 20 minute drive. About halfway there, a song came on the radio that really caught my attention..."It's the end of the world as we know it" by REM... and I remember thinking "Ain't that the truth" and I actually teared up a bit. I was super excited but nervous at the same time.
After we arrived at Centrastate Hospital, things moved very slowly. They started IV's made me sign paper after paper. They put me on monitors and then we had to wait. Our C-section was supposed to be at 8:30, but we got bumped because a more urgent case had to go ahead of us. While we were waiting I gave Mitch a card I had stashed in my hospital bag. Just telling him how much I loved him, how excited I was to be there with HIM and what an amazing dad I knew he was going to be. Shortly before 10 they said it was time. They took me into the Operating Room and told Mitch he had to wait in the hall for a minute. The room was FREEZING, they told me why but I can't remember. They gave me my spinal and checked to make sure I was numb and strapped me to the table. Weird, then they let Mitch in. After a few minutes of tugging and pressure they said she was here. But I didn't get to see her. She was grunting and struggling to breathe so they took her out of the room, and Mitch went with her as they finished up. I started shaking badly, a side effect of the drugs. After about 10 minutes more, they got me ready to go see my baby girl. I started moving my legs before I was out of the OR and was in a lot of pain so they ended up giving me morphine. I don't know why but pain medication never works for me! A minute later they brought her over to me, she was laying in an open isolette. They wouldn't let me hold her. Something about her temperature needed to regulate.
After about 30 minutes of just looking at her, and knowing that she was the tiniest thing I would ever put my whole heart into I couldn't stand it anymore. We had texted and talked to quite a bit of our family by then...the nurse actually came over and told us to put our phones away so I could rest...Yeah, right!!! I asked when I could hold her, she said they were taking her away for a bath and would bring her right back. They actually worked pretty quickly. And about 45 minutes after she was born we were finally allowed to hold her for the first time. It was amazing! All 8 lbs, 5 oz of her was absolutely perfect. I was so grateful to have a beautiful, healthy baby girl...she looked so much like me and I couldn't get over all that hair. Her daddy was smitten with her from the get go. It took her all of 30 seconds to have him wrapped around her finger. I had never seen him smile so big or so much. He was in heaven. He had a daddy's girl for sure. About 2 hours after her arrival they got us settled in our post-partum room. We were a family, and we were happy. Now, I just needed my mom.
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