The introduction (to a scheduled c-section)

Sleep did not come easily on Sunday night (Sunday, April 4th), the night before my surgery. At this point, I was heading to the bathroom several times in the night, but thankfully on most nights, I was able to get back to sleep fairly easily. Not the case this time. I was consumed by the thoughts of surgery and knowing our baby's arrival was within a few short hours. I had already been doing the countown all week...at this time next week, we'll have a newborn baby...at this time next week, we'll be home with a new baby, etc. Now the countown to his or her birth was in an hourly measure. It was crazy! I did relatively well with falling back asleep after the first few bathroom breaks that night until around 3:30am. I could not get back into my sweet slumber. There was too much to think about. With every minute I was awake that passed, the frustration set in further. My alarm was set for 5:20 AM and I needed this sleep. Still, too many thoughts to allow for that until I awoke to my alarm which made me believe I had at least gotten a few more minutes of shut eye. I was grateful. I hit snooze a couple times, even though I knew no more sleep would come.

We hustled to get ready so we could get ourselves out the door and Mirabella to daycare with enough time for our commute. Mirabella cooperated fully and slept until the very last minute, so we had only ourselves to contend with that morning. She finished her last bottle as an only child, we quickly got her dressed and out we headed.


We were still late getting out the door, about ten minutes behind, go figure. We gave Mirabella a ton of kisses as we both walked her up to the daycare door knowing she had no idea her world was about to change along with ours in just a few hours. The thought chokes me up as I type.

Traffic was heavy. Surgery was scheduled for 9:30 AM and we were asked to be there by 7:30 AM. Not looking good. With my track record of tardiness, I was feeling decent about our degree of lateness, about 20 minutes behind when we got to Abbott. "We were wondering if you were going to make it; usually people are early!" one of the nurses in the maternal assessment center said, fortunately with a smile. We were there and our nerves about being late calmed which allowed for the nerves of what was to come to surface. Oh my gosh, we were going to meet our child, and soon! I was scared for the surgery, but so excited for this long awaited day. How could we love someone so much we hadn't even met yet? Having gone through this process before with Mirabella, we knew it was possible.