Welcome to the family Bernard James Mahon IV

This is our last picture as a family with only 5 mouths to feed.

The boys all got presents for Qades Birthday!

Connor got a booster seat (he JUST reached 40lbs... whew whoo!)

Vale got an avengers hat and Shay got a skateboard.

I was origionally told that my c section would be at 1:30pm and my husband and I needed to be there at 11:30am.

I got a call at 7:30 from a nurse saying they could do the surgery early if I wanted so I told them we'd be there around 8:30.

My belly was huge!!  They did an ultra sound to check the baby, who was doing great (heart rate 148 and head down ready to deliver!)  As I was getting prepped in triage they came in and told me that if I wanted to I could try to labor since all looked good.  They could break my water in a delivery room and if it didn't work out they'd have the OR ready for me.  That was so very tempting but Jimmy and I had decided, when we had prayed about it, that we were going to do the c section so I didn't want to make an emotional decision but stick to what the Lord had given us peace about.  So with tears rolling down my face I told them I wanted the c section.

I had three concerns though:

1. I wanted sutures instead of staples.

2. I was concerned as to how my body would handle a spinal block.  It's different chemicals than an epidural and my body does very strange things sometimes with medicine and this was a new one.  I wanted to consult with the anesthesiologist before the procedure to see if it's possible to use an epidural.

3. If medically possible, I wanted immediate skin to skin when they pull the baby out.  I wanted him to stay in the room with me until I was done and sewn up.

1. They said that they use sutures on everyone at this hospital so #1 taken care of.

2. I talked with the anesthesiologist.  Although I was unsure (he was extremely arrogant) and he brushed off the fact that I react strongly to medication, I decided to go with the spinal block (basically I'll admit, I was bullied into it.  There were too many other things going on to fight it.)

3. The nurses did NOT like the fact I wanted immediate skin to skin.  It was definitely an eye roll and a 'you're so demanding' attitude from them.  They tried to tell me that it was better that they take the baby right away to the recovery area because then they could get all the stuff like weighing him out of the way while they were stitching me up and I'd be able to hold my baby longer then!  I stood my ground on this one and was like no, I'll hold my baby right away and you can do that while I'm in the room with him watching!  They weren't very happy with me.  The pediatric nurse who had to be in there for the baby was much more understanding about it though.

So they wheeled me to the OR at about 10:30 and a hour later, Qade was born (at 11:29am)!

Now when they gave me the spinal and with all the medications they were doping me with I started throwing up.  Worst feeling ever because my stomach muscles were basically paralyzed so I couldn't throw up and I was laying on my back and had to turn my head to the side and just let the puke run out.  I probably threw up 4 times during the procedure which was awful.  Shortly after the surgery started there was a little bit of a rustling and I heard voices saying things like, 'Do you have him?' 'Is that a leg?' 'He's really strong' 'I lost the leg, can you find him?'.  Then one of them got up on the table and started pushing on my stomach really hard.  My whole body was shaking and rocking back and forth.  The anesthesiologist grabbed my right hand and started another IV in the back of my hand and I wasn't sure why since I had a perfectly good one in my left hand.  It was hurting pretty badly at this point up by my rib cage and he also kept offering me pain drugs or to take something that would knock me out but I kept refusing.  

When they finally got him out, he wasn't crying.  I kept asking the nurse why he wasn't crying and she said, 'He's just really chill and taking everything in.' She lied.  His APGAR score was 2.  Because of that they were not able to put him immediately on my chest but had to go clear his airways and whatever else they do to a baby in distress.  A few minutes later I heard a muffled little cry which was amazing.  5 minutes after they pulled him out his score had gone up to a 9 which was wonderful. 

Jimmy of course went over to be with our new son right away and was with him for most of the rest of the time.

Soon they brought him over to me and let him lay on me for about 20 minutes as they finished everything up.  He nursed right away and was very sweet and snuggly. 

They stayed in the room with me and only had to leave a couple minutes before I did so they could transfer me off the table and move me to the recovery room.

He was 9lbs 4oz and 20 3/4 in long.

We decided to name him Bernard James Mahon IV after his daddy (Jimmy), his grandfather (Jim) and his great-grandfather (Bernie).  He's the fourth boy in our family and the fourth generation, we thought it was fitting.  We ran into the dilemma of what to call him though.  I have a brother named James so most of the nick names already were taken.  We looked into something that was short for the IV part of his name and found that the Latin and Gaelic term for 'fourth born' is Quade.   I wasn't super fond of the american way of pronouncing that word (which is more like kwade) so I looked up on line the Gaelic pronunciation and it sounded more like Kade but still spelled with the Qu.  After looking up the definition of the names Kade and Cade and finding those had different meanings if you spelled them with the C or the K, we decided to just spell it will the Q and no u since a Q by itself is pronounced like a K. So that's how we got the nickname Qade.  I know it's a bit unusual but so far it's worked pretty well. :)

As I was recovering, several things came to light about the procedure.

First of all, as soon as they broke my water, my sweet little baby turned sideways (transverse) and retreated up into my rib cage.  As all of my amniotic fluid drained out, my very displaced organs (because of all the extra fluid) were now lose and collapsed the center of my uterus causing the baby to be sideways up under my ribs, my incision open down by my pelvic bone and in-between filled with floating organs! They were having a hard time figuring out what was baby and what was part of mama.

* (update: when I went to my 6 week postpartum appointment I had them read me the doctors transcripts from the surgery and what REALLY happened is that my rib cage had been expanded by the massive amount of fluid and when they broke my water and Qade went transverse, his head and feet got stuck as my rib cage collapse back down to normal size.  He was stuck pretty good and without oxygen for 3 minutes :(.  Had that happened in a delivery room, he would have died by the time they were able to extract him.)

I had several nurses tell me that they heard I'd had a rough c section and that they'd had to rearrange my insides. :-o

He was apparently trapped up inside there with no fluid or oxygen and lots of pressure of the umbilical cord for about a minute which is what contributed to his low APGAR score.  I had visible bruises just under my rib cage where they pushed so hard to help get him out and a tearing on the left side of my incision because there were several peoples arms up in there at one time trying to find him.  

The Lord was so gracious to us because had I tried to labor, they would have broken my water.  If he did the same thing in a delivery room as in the OR (turned and retreated) they would of had to rush me in for an emergency section and who knows how long he would have been without the vitals that he needed to sustain himself.  Ugh!  That makes me queasy to even think about.  Also, had my water broken at the house and he'd turned, he probably would have died. :(

God was so good to grant wisdom that we did not know the gravity of at the time. I am continually in awe by His sweet care for us.

The boys came that day to meet their brother and were instantly smitten!  I love my Mahon men!

My recovery has been a little rough.  I lost a lot of blood during the procedure and there was a lot of bruising in my upper abdomen as well as the actual incision site.  They gave me an intravenous pain drug called Toradol and it was amazing!  I felt no pain and felt completely normal... but I wasn't allowed to be on it for more than 24 hours (which even then I had to petition a doctor for it every 6 hours).  They really wanted me to ween off of that and start taking a narcotic in pill form so I'd be able to go home and take those at home (which I never did).  I told them I don't do well with those kinds of medication but of course, they don't listen to a word I say. Sigh. 

They gave me oxycodone which made me immediately sick to my stomach and did nothing for the pain, in fact it heightened my awareness of it.  Then they gave me norco which was even worse.  I only took one round of each other those then told them I was done with prescription pain meds period and just took tylenol and motrin.  I really wish they would have let me continue to take the toradol while I was in the hospital, I think it would have helped my recovery.

I went home on a rainy Friday afternoon to a crazy house full of loud and dirty boys but there's nowhere else I'd rather be.  I missed their noise while I was in the quiet hospital room.  Our family is now complete. :)