Atticus birth story part one.

We made it all the way to our c-section date! Atticus was able to grow & stay healthy enough to stay put until 39 weeks, which we are so grateful for!  The days leading up to our c-section he was VERY active & causing all sorts of contractions so pretty sure he was just as ready as I was to be done with pregnancy.  The night before our c-section we took Benson & went on a pre-baby-brother celebration pizza date as a family.  The whole night as we ate our dinner, gave him a bottle, tucked him into bed I was teary eyed feeling all of the emotions of having a new baby joining our family & knowing Benson is no longer my only baby & would be a big brother when he woke up in the morning!  So bittersweet but also so exciting to end one chapter of our lives & begin another!

We woke up bright & early at 4:30 a.m., got dressed & ready & arrived at the hospital 15 minutes late..in true Kuhle fashion. haha We were the first c-section scheduled! We got checked in & they began the process of prepping me for surgery!  I don't remember how long the process of prepping really is, it took them until 7:30 to get every last detail ready for me to go into surgery.  We were wide awake going into everything this time, even though we barely slept the night before (due to excitement!).  It was a lot more calm this time around, I just laid there & got poked & prodded & Kevin played with our camera trying to figure out the best settings for photographing the birth.  By 7:30 we were all ready to go!

Last bump picture! 39 weeks!

They wheeled me into the c-section room first & I hopped up on the table to get my epidural.  I was so nervous my entire body was shaking, but the poke wasn't even as bad as I had made it in my mind.  They laid me down on the table & scrubbed my belly & strapped me down to the table.  This was where I started to feel a little exposed haha I mean I was essentially butt naked on the table waiting for the Dr...which I was last time but this time I was wide awake just waiting it out.

They brought Kevin in after they got me all prepped, thank goodness he was able to comfort me & rub my hand while they started the procedure.

It went by so fast after this!  The Dr. came in & said "Let's have a birthday party!"  & within 10 minutes Atticus was out!

The plan was to bring him over & do skin to skin immediately but as soon as they pulled him out he wasn't sounding right so they started to look him over.  He was having a hard time breathing & wasn't crying very loud at all.  Everyone kept reassuring me that he was just fine, he was just fine.  Which..just made me think he wasn't fine.  They had a whole team of people surrounded around him so I couldn't really see him.  Although all of this was a good distraction from the whole "sewing me up" thing.

It felt like an eternity that they were over working on Atticus' breathing.  They had some of the NICU team come in to put him under an oxygen mask but decided he would do better in the NICU.  They let me see him for a couple of seconds, snap a few pictures, give him a quick kiss & then they took him.  Kevin went with them to watch over him while I was wheeled into my recovery room.

I didn't get to see Atticus for almost 3 hours while he was in the NICU working on his breathing.  We are so lucky that he just needed some extra oxygen & that was the extent of his problems.  They told us that it is more common for c-section babies to have problems with breathing at first since they aren't squished out of the womb so there is still fluid inside of them.  I spent the 3 hours waiting for him..throwing up from being on the epidural medicine.  I ended up throwing up for almost 6 hours,  I couldn't keep anything down & they finally realized I was having a reaction to the morphine  & took me off of it, then I was totally fine!

They wheeled me down to our room where we would be staying & not too long afterwards Kevin wheeled in Atticus for me to see him for the first time.