I just had my second baby! I’m still kind of processing it. It has been a whirlwind few days and I’ve had a whole lot of emotions introducing this new tiny human to my first tiny human.

I wanted to share my second c-section experience, because it’s pretty wild how much was the same, and how much was different from my first! Before reading further in this post, I recommend reading my first blog post about how my first c-section went.

Content warning: I’m gonna be talking about surgery, babies, bodies, fluids, shots, the works. If you get queasy reading such things, you should probably stop reading now.

Prepping for the day of, and the procedure itself

Pretty much all of the prep that I had to do (bloodwork, eating, etc) was the same as my first one. The timing was almost the same too, in that I had my procedure at 7:30 on Friday morning, and had to arrive at the hospital at 5:30am to get things started.

They asked nearly all of the same questions as they had before, about my home life and how the baby’s movement had been. It felt like déjà vu, just how similar it all was to before, which made it easier, I think. They kept asking me if I was nervous, and I really wasn’t. I just kept being like “nah… I’m just ready to not be pregnant anymore, and I know this is going to suck, so bring it on,” and I think that set the tone for the day.

Side note: why did I get ANOTHER c-section?

My first c-section was because my baby was breech, which means she was upside down and I couldn’t deliver her normally.

This time around, I had the option for a VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean). Some folks really push to get to a VBAC (pun!), because it’s more natural and the recovery is (often) easier, and some stick with what they’re familiar with. I admit… I didn’t know what I wanted to do here. I asked advice from everyone I could, and anyone I could find with experience, in addition to my own doctor.

The factors that led to me going for a c-section again:

• My baby was pretty big. I was open to a VBAC if he came somewhat early (to prevent my needing to push out a boulder), but he was very much not coming early. I found out later that if we made it to full term, he’d probably be more than 9lbs, and I’m grateful I didn’t have to push that out.
• Some of my immediate family members had pretty rough natural birth experiences that led to tearing, injuries, and emergency c-sections. Being in a big-headed family and married to a fellow big-headed fellow, I got very scared.
• Familiarity with how recovery would be was a nice-to-have.
• Scheduling a c-section meant that I could also schedule childcare for my toddler and coordinate with my family to get everything planned out well.

So anyway, I scheduled a c-section for week 39!

The c-section

Once again, leading up to the procedure was wildly similar to my first one. I got initial meds, I got the anti-nausea shot of gross juice to make sure I didn’t puke on the table, and then it was epidural time.

This time around, there was a resident being trained by an attending physician, so the epidural took longer than it probably should have, which was not comfy. But I gotta say… being very mentally prepared for the surgery this time was a game-changer. After the epidural, it proceeded just like before, but I was way less panicked. Instead of my nervously wondering “what is that poking feeling??” or “when will I feel the cut??” I was mostly gabbing with the doctors about the show Severance. When they brought my husband Joe in (who was armed with animal facts to distract me), he joined in and we truly just… chatted. It was night and day compared to my first one!

Now, because I was relatively chill for this one, including during the heavy pressure point (I talked about it in my previous post, basically it just gets VERY heavy on your chest for a couple minutes as they get the baby out, and it’s pretty intense), they let me stay awake after our baby was out! I got to see him right away and as they were stitching me up and Joe was holding him next to me.

Being awake was cool for that, but also the “stitching back up” experience was super draining. There was a point where my left shoulder and chest were so strained that I asked one of the doctors why they hurt so bad, and it turns out the nerves in your uterus are attached to your left shoulder (who knew?) and that was causing the strain. It felt like I was mid-bench press, but just on my left side. But, the moment my uterus was back together, the strain was gone. So weird!

After about a half hour of stitching me back together, they sent Joe to the recovery room with our new baby, and wrapped me kinda like a mummy to hoist me onto a different bed with wheels to get me out of the operating room. It felt weird that I couldn’t help them move me in any way, because I truly couldn’t feel anything with the epidural (plus I was exhausted), so I was just… watching (and apologizing, ha) while they moved me. Very out-of-body experience.

The aftermath

And then… our baby was here! I was wheeled into the recovery room, and we were there until Monday afternoon (the baby was born on Friday, and keen eyes might notice that we went home a day “early” compared to last time).

Most other things were pretty much the same as last time. Lots of vitals checks for me and baby, not a lot of sleep at all.

BUT, this time around, I have physically healed WAY faster than before. I do think that my being stronger (because I chase and carry a toddler daily) helps, but I also learned that you do just recover faster the second time around. I was able to pee on my own relatively quickly after getting the catheter out, poop while in the hospital, and shuffle a bit around the room before we left.

One thing that was different pain-wise this time was my right shoulder. Yet another thing I didn’t know about: when you don’t fart, your right shoulder hurts? My shoulders were really weirdly full of issues this time around, I tell ya. But anyway, I did have some gas problems this time compared to last time, and my right shoulder was wildly painful to the point of me crying and putting multiple heat pads on it to calm it down. I didn’t listen to my past self and prep with stool softeners or anything for the week leading up to the surgery and I should have.

In terms of breastfeeding, I decided not to do it this time (both because it hurts and because I think it impacted my postpartum depression the first time around). I didn’t actually produce anything for the first couple days post-birth and thought I was going to be “in the clear” without any need to pump, but alas, my milk came in full force on day 3. The lactation consultants in the hospital gave me some good tips on how to dry it up (while still giving our baby what I did produce), and I’m almost done with that, a couple weeks later.

All this being said, we’re on day 12 of our new lives as a family of four! The c-section the second time around went as well as it could have, and we’re in the trenches of figuring out sleeping, eating, handling emotions (from everyone, including me), and all that jazz.

I hope this is a helpful resource to anyone out there! Let me know if I can answer any questions you might have.