I must say, not knowing the gender or arrival date of either of our other two children, it’s VERY weird to know the gender, have a planned birth date, and have the name publicly known! New normal, right?

Today we met with our WONDERFUL OBGYN, Dr. Nancy Herta. We were SO glad to be able to transfer back to her care after our not-so-good experience with the OB at the perinatal office. She met with us for quite a while to answer questions and get the c-section date set, as well as some idle chatter. Not many doctors take that much time with patients so we know we’re in the right place with her. If I don’t go into labor before, we are scheduled for October 3rd, at 2:00 PM. This is also the birthday of a life-long friend of mine, Loren!

One of our biggest concerns about the c-section is Colten’s safety and not puncturing the sac. Colten is actually in the worst position possible right now – his back is up against my belly and he is butt-down. So right about the area where they need to do the c-section on me is where Colten’s sac is. And we really really really don’t want to mess with that. So we asked Dr. Herta to explain how this would be different from a “normal” c-section. (WARNING: If you are squeamish, you might want to skip the rest of this paragraph.) She said she’ll make the incision in the normal place on my stomach, but when she gets to the uterus, instead of just opening it up, she will have to score it gently with the knife and not cut through. Then she’ll need to actually work that layer open with her fingers to avoid putting a knife anywhere near the sac. Without breaking the bag of water, she’ll get her hands underneath Colten, by his belly and front hips and work him out back/butt first. This will keep him surrounded by water to help protect his back as he moves through the opening in me. Once that part of him has cleared me, she will then break my water and get the rest of him out.

Dr. Herta said she likes to position the bed (I believe they’re called isolates in this case – the enclosed clear plastic bed with two arm holes) up near the mom’s head so I may actually get to see them do some work on him. Richard will be in there of course and he’ll be taking pictures – again, those won’t be for the squeamish! After we (hopefully) get a few minutes of seeing him and some kisses, he’ll go straight to the RNICU and Richard can go with him. At that point, our Doula will come in with me so I’m not left alone.

So our upcoming schedule at this point looks like this…
– Last OBGYN appointment Monday
– Fetal echocardiogram on Tuesday
– C-section on Wednesday
Colten will then undergo some testing before surgery including hydrocephalus monitoring and a CAT scan. His surgery will take place Thursday or Friday depending on a variety of factors.

We are incredibly thankful that my parents will be taking care of the boys for us from Wednesday through Sunday. The boys will get appropriately spoiled with Grammy & Papa, and it will allow Richard and I to focus on Colten during the critical first few days.

We are looking forward to enjoying some quality time with our boys this weekend and are relieved to know a date (if we can hold off till then, that is!). Now it’s just a matter of waiting to welcome Colten…