Piya's Perspective

I suck. Not one post about my pregnancy, the birth or his first four weeks. No post about Caitlyn suddenly expecting a girl when we told her she would be a big sister or Simeon wanting to name him Simeon when he found out. No post about year two at Montessori or our summer vacation involving a cruise and then a trip to New York for my cousin’s bar mitzvah.

One of my resolutions this year is to get better about posting. Even if it’s in the middle of the night. It isn’t that I don’t think about it, but that I think too much and my drafts remain incomplete. So…starting simple….

This past December, on 12/20/2012 Rhen Bradley Pernick became the newest addition to our family. He was 7 lbs 4 Oz and 17.75″ long.

Because I had C-sections before, I opted for another one. With Caitlyn, even though we had the date planned, she didn’t want to wait and came 3 days earlier than we expected. While Rhen waited for his planned date, he definitely knew that this was his birthday. Not long after arriving at the hospital I was feeling some contractions and wound up on oxygen because his heart rate kept decelerating.

I did learn this time that I get panic attacks when getting an IV. Though I don’t remember having an issue with Caitlyn, I had a hard time with Simeon and Rhen to the point that I went white and had trouble breathing. No matter that I told myself it was easy and not a problem, my body just reacted horribly. Once I got past that part of it though, everything else went just fine…including the anesthesia.

Eventually I was wheeled into the OR where my doctor, an assisting doctor and the anesthesiologist were all in the room – as well as a nurse for each of them. Although I couldn’t feel a thing and the curtain was up, I could see a bit of what was going on reflected in the lamps above me. I didn’t look too long at any one time but there was definitely a bit of a train wreck sort of feel to peeking…can’t be me since I don’t feel anything and as disgusting as it looked my curiosity got the better of me.

At 9:34am Rhen was lifted up and let out a beautiful wail. Then, as all three nurses took to cleaning him off, he promptly peed on all of them 😊.

As I somewhat expected based on my recovery with Caitlyn, I spent the day feeling sick to my stomach as the anesthetic wore off. With Caitlyn I remember getting sick multiple times over the course of the night. This time, while I was queasy all day, I only got physically ill once…of course it was as my nurse was coming to say her shift was over…what a nice going away gift I gave her.

I was feeling a little better by the time my dad showed up with Simeon and Caitlyn. Caitlyn was quite shy and while she was curious about Rhen, I think seeing me in a hospital bed looking sick and tired was a bit much and she was afraid to get too close in case I broke. Simeon handled it much better and they were both happy to get snacks and watch some tv.

After a couple nights in the hospital it was time to go home. With winter break underway and a ton of family in town, I was able to spend two full weeks planting myself in a chair and feeding Rhen. No feeling the need to be anywhere. No need to drive a car. Plenty of people willing to entertain the older kids. Just sit and recover. By the time everybody was gone, I felt myself again. And I’m already back to my normal clothes!

And now it is four weeks later. Kids are back to school. Rhen was 8 pounds and over 20″ at his last weighing. And we are getting back to normalcy…just with an extra Pernick around the house.