Plan C

We're referring to the Baby Croc as "Plan C" now, as well. Here's why:

We'd originally hoped to have a natural birth. We took birthing classes through the maternity center and learned all kinds of fascinating things about the insanity of head size vs. pelvis size, breathing techniques, etc. Then, 36 weeks into the pregnancy (pregnancies go to 40 weeks), we found out that Plan C was VERY breached. The traditional breach is when a baby is head-up in the uterus instead of head-down; Plan C was in this crazy made-up position jamming her head into B's side, with her back arched against B's ribcage.

We tried a few different interventions to get her to turn, including acupuncture (which, statistically, does work in a lot of cases) and an external version, in which a doctor pushed and shoved on Plan C while B gritted her teeth and proved once again that she has the highest pain tolerance in the universe. Nothing worked. So, instead of a natural birth, we found ourselves staring down the barrel of a cesarean.

Long story short, the maternity center was amazing and we had one of the best OB surgeons in the country to do the c-section. Everything went well. One thing that is very difficult with cesarean babies, however, is that their hormone reaction and the hormone reaction of their mothers do not "activate" in the same way as they would with a vaginal birth. It's harder to initiate breast-feeding as a result. B was a champ with it, working with the lactation consultants and nurses and spending the first 24 hours with Baby Croc in skin-to-skin contact, which helps fire up the hormones.

That all said, she just wasn't eating enough. Yesterday, after four days in the hospital, the pediatrician insisted that we start supplementing with formula. We were both ragged and beat-up with sleep dep and stress and it was one of the hardest days either of us have ever had. That said, within a few hours C was responding and started keeping on weight. We were discharged last night and got to come home.

So here we are, home with a baby. She's still struggling to figure out that boobs contain milk, which is good stuff, but we've developed a kind of routine that works (although it takes, like, forever), which we follow up with a nice big shot of formula. She's doing well now, but it's been a bumpy ride. I wanted to write this just to let everyone know where we're at and to give our account of this crazy business of baby-having.

Now I'm going to go stare at her sleeping for a while.