Pre-Op in the OB

Today was my pre-op appointment in the OB department at our hospital. After my surgery consult, I was a little leery of how well this appointment would go (or not go), but after receiving a phone call last Friday, I was pretty excited for today.

This morning I met with one of the head nurses of OB for an hour. We discussed everything that is going to be happening next week Monday... next Monday! Five days from now! All of my paperwork is filled out, signed, and all we need is a baby and a name! Yay!

My surgery is scheduled for 7:30 am on Monday, and Adam and I are to be at the hospital at 6:00 am. We had worked out previously with our daycare lady that she would take Julia Sunday night overnight and keep her all day Monday to help alleviate with the transition that is Becoming a Big Sister. :) While I will miss little Julia overnight Sunday, I am also glad for her that we don't have to wake her up at the butt-crack of dawn to drop her off somewhere and start her day off hairier than normal.

After getting to the hospital, we'll finish going through the rest of the pre-op stuff and then... off to surgery! :)

(And, before you think to remind me, realize that I DO realize that I could go into labor BEFORE Monday and this baby could still show up whenever it wants to...!)

I also received a tour of OB again; I remembered it well as I have been there before and less than two years ago, but it was nice to see things again, and they also have two "overflow" rooms where they like to put their C-section patients so that they don't have to move them halfway through their stay. The bonus...? These rooms are much nicer and LARGER than the normal C-section recovery rooms... so cool! She asked if it would be okay if we were put there? Of course! Sign me up! I'll just be a hop and a skip away from the OB department, the baby will still be with me, and they won't "forget" that I'm over there. Sounds like an excellent idea to me. :) (Oh, and Adam, no worries... these rooms don't cause extra just 'cause they're bigger... ha, I made sure to check into that!)

Many of you are on the "call" list... so expect to hear from us sometime Monday later in the morning. We also will be texting and... it seems now that OB also has internet available in it, so we will be emailing folks as soon as we are "recovered" and able.

So... that leads me to my first request... don't call us... we'll call you! Please, I know you might be anxious to know about the baby coming and what we had and the name and all that, but I would ask that you please wait to hear from us and not be calling Adam or me when you think you "should have heard by now". Ha! As we learned last time around, the unexpected can easily occur and we will wait to call people until I am out of recovery and we know everything is good with the baby.

My second request... please no visitors without calling or texting first. Possibly I would take visitors Monday night... definitely Tuesday... I don't know for sure.

I have two main reasons for this...

One... Julia will not be meeting the baby for the first time until Monday evening (she will remain at daycare all day Monday until Daddy picks her up at 5 pm). I would really like her to have a chance to meet her new brother or sister without other people being around; it feels like it should be a special moment for our family, if that makes sense.

Also... I tend to be a pretty private person. If you or your wife has had a C-section before, you know that the first day is full of... well, recovery. And yuck. And not so much of wanting to see a lot of people seeing me looking and feeling gross (even if you are just there to see the baby, I will still be firmly attached to the room in all of my post-op glory). If I recall from when I had Julia, it was early afternoon before I could feel my legs again and it was early evening before I was even up out of bed and walking around.

So... if you want to visit, please call or text first. I should be in the hospital until mid-day on Thursday. I think OB visiting hours are 10:30 am - 8:30 pm... even Julia has to adhere to these "rules", I found out today (since she is 'young')!

I am beyond excited! The anxiousness dissipated after the visit at OB today. I was hoping that being there would make things more "real"... like I would FINALLY accept that YES, I am having a baby!, but nope, not yet... not even after seeing some SERIOUSLY CUTE NEWBORN BABIES today! However, I am anxious to get my hands on one here soon... ;) We hope you are excited for us too and are looking forward to meeting the newest addition to our family!

love,
erin