He's heeeeeere!

Mason Peter Lawless

7lbs 10oz 20in

6/24/11 2:01pm

As planned, Mason joined us via a scheduled C-Section on Fri June 24.

We were surprised however to discover that he was breech and the joke in the OR was that he literally came into the world ass-first. No kidding, he was pulled out ass-first, and once he was brought to the baby table to be cleaned up he peed all over everyone.

 Twice.

 Atta boy!



All went well and the only complication ended up being that I developed a Spinal Headache, which is caused when the needle they use to give the spinal block punctures the dura containing the spinal fluid and causes a small leak of spinal fluid. The loss of volume in your spinal fluid is what causes the headaches and man what a  headache they are.

I have never had a headache so bad in my life.

I finally realized something was wrong on Sunday when I had a headache that just wouldn't go away, even with all the pain meds I was on. Ryan figured out what it was and called his buddies in anesthesia and one of them came to see me. He said the conservative treatment is copious amounts of caffeine and lots and lots of fluids, all while laying flat because the higher up you sit, the faster the fluid leaks out. In fact, laying down almost completely rid me of the headache!

He also said that if that didn't work they can do a procedure called a "blood patch" where they take 20cc's of blood from your arm and inject it into the spine, filling in the space of CSF volume that is missing while the leak heals itself. He said that it's an instant relief once the volume is back to normal.

So I went home on Monday am, and by Monday night I was  experiencing a headache so excruciating I couldn't stop crying, and it was frustrating because I was finally home with my new baby and not only did I have C-section pain, but now I had the mother of all headaches and can't even get off the couch. Talk about feeling like a shitty mother. Thank God my Dad was still here for one more night and was able to deal with diaper changes for 2, yes 2 babies, and a whiny toddler while I wanted to die on the couch. 

Ryan had gone to Philly that night to pick up his Mom at the bus station and when he got home I was practically begging for a blood patch. He called his anesthesia friends again and they said they were short-handed overnight but they would drop what they were doing if Ry wanted to bring me in then and there. We opted to wait it out overnight and go in the morning.

When I woke in the morning I felt better, but still had a headache if I was on my feet for more than a few miutes so we called anesthesia again they said that if it got reallly bad again to just come in and they would do the procedure. To avoid that I had a steady stream of caffeine in my system and laid on my back allllll day. Each day the headache has gotten better and today is the first day I haven't had to lay on the couch at all!! Woo hoo!!!

Things around here are starting to get slightly more back to normal now that I can get up and walk around...Aidan can't quite get away with as much now that I can get up and yell at him haha. I still can't pick him up or lift anything heavier than Mason because of the C-Section, but everyone is helping out and helping to make my life a little bit easier during this crazy transition!

Aidan loves, loves, loves Mason and is always very interested in helping me. He likes to feed him, tell him he loves him, hold him and today he even asked to burp him haha. He even likes to share his toys and when he walks into the room and sees the baby he says all cheerfully:
"oh hi, Mason!"

It still hasn't quite sunk in that we are a family of four now.....