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So, here's my third baby's birth story... very different from each of the others...... We went in to the hospital on July 7, 2005 and had to sit in the waiting room for about an hour. Finally, they came and got us and I was taken to a small triage room to be monitored and asked the necessary hundred questions. The nurse asked what I had decided about my platelets. I didn't know what she was talking about. She said someone should have called me because my platelets were too low for me to be able to have a spinal! She went and got my doctor and the anesthesiologist, and they explained that my platelets were 89,000. The anesth. said that he prefers to do spinals b/w 110,000 and 150,000, but will do them as low as 100,000, but not 89,000. He said that any slight bleeding in the spinal area can be, "devastating." So, I was going to be asleep under general anesthesia for this birth. It was a bit shocking! Also shocking, because we then found out that dh wasn't allowed in the OR, either! (He gave the nurse our digital camera and she took tone of pictures). So, the time came and I was wheeled to OR. There were about a million ppl in there. Nurses for me, nurses for the baby, the anesthesiologist, my doctor, a NICU team, etc. A catheter was inserted and oxygen put on my face and I was asked a few question and given some instructions for afterwards (as I was going to have a breathing tube put down my throat). Soon, I was told to start counting backward from 100 and I was out! I woke up in the OR, just for a few seconds, in agonizing pain. I think they were rolling me from side to side, as I remember them doing this after my other C's. Then I was out again... this time I woke up in recovery in AGONY!! I was in sort of a lala state and couldn't ask for pain meds and this was definitely the worst part of any of my c-sections!! Finally, I came to enough to ask for something and was given morphine and also a wet lollipop songe to suck on (for dry mouth). After recovery I was taken to my room and put on pitocin to shrink my uterus quicker because my baby was big- 10 lbs. 6 oz. 22 3/4"!!! Ow- where's the postpartum epidural?? Then I was able to start taking Percocet, which helped the pain. I was very loopy for hours- doing things like throwing jello cups and trying to drink, but not being able to move the cup up to my mouth- or so my dh says- I was out of it and have no recollection of several hours!!! Finally, around 9pm I had been "with it" for long enough that I was allowed to see and hold my son. He took right to nursing, it was soo nice. The recovery was one of ups and downs painwise, probably because I hit the ground running once I got home. I had help in the evenings, but everyone works days and dh didn't have any days off, so I was back to doing everything for a 5 yo, 17 month old and a newborn right away!! I tried to keep up with pain meds, but would forget until the pain was really bad. Not a good way to recover from surgery! I filled a prescription for Percocet for at home, which I had never done before- before I just took Motrin at home- but this time I needed to be able to have as much pain as possible taken away from me in order to keep up!! It was about a 4 week recovery period!