She’s now about a week and a half old, so I figured it was time to post about her birth. For some reason I’ve been too tired to do it before now.

Selene was born on January 30 by C-section. I had an OB appointment that morning, and my doctor did a dilation check on me. 3 cm dilated at that point, but she realized she was feeling something soft and round at my cervix, rather than hard and round.

Yes, breech.

Fortunately, unlike her big brother, she had plenty of fluid around her. That kept things from needing to be done in too much of a rush. On the other hand, 3 cm dilated meant I could go into full labor at any time.

My OB asked when I had last eaten, and scheduled me for a 7:30 p.m. C-section that evening. Got a warning to not eat or drink anything until then. Ugh! I’d only had a small breakfast.

She told me to go in one hour early, and to do some exercises to try to turn the baby. Only trouble is that most take days to work, and we had hours. But we tried our best in the hopes of having a VBAC rather than C-section. We sent the kids to my mother’s

No such luck. Another ultrasound was done at the hospital and she was still breech. But since I’d rather baby and I be safe than go with a particular birth plan, I went with the C-section. Aren’t many doctors willing to do a breech delivery these days and I would want someone experienced in that if I were to risk it.

Almost forgot. We got a call from the hospital at 5:30, asking where we were. Seems the OB got the schedule wrong. She delivers at 3 hospitals in the area, so I can see how that would happen. They wanted me in two hours early, not one. Good thing the kids had already been sent off to my mother’s house!

Still, everything went smoothly at the hospital and I was ready for surgery on time, much to the relief of the various employees. My husband and I did get a smile out of being told that our anesthesiologist would be Dr. Who (actually spelled Hu, but when you hear it and need a little humor, the other sounds better).

Now this next part may gross some people out, but I found it fascinating. Due to the positioning of one of the lights, I could see a reflection of everything that was going on. I didn’t watch the whole thing, and made sure to not tell the doctors so they wouldn’t move the light. That way I got to see Selene being born. The epidural allowed me to treat the rest of what I could see as more abstract, but getting that immediate glimpse of my daughter was worth it to me.

Didn’t pay much attention to the reflection the rest of the time. Blood doesn’t bother me that much, but I didn’t feel a need to see all that once I had seen my new daughter.

Selene was very small at birth for a full term baby. As my OB put it the next day, if she just would have flipped, she practically would have fallen out. My first daughter was 8 lb 10 oz, after all, while Selene was a mere 5 lb 9.7 oz. Just barely above what is considered to be a low birth weight baby. She was 18.5 inches long.

For all that she’s small, she is one alert baby! Took to nursing right off the bat and aware of the world around her.

She’s also my first good sleeper. Up just once a night most nights. With my other two I had to wait until they were 6 months or even a year old for that.

She’s very healthy too. Before her first week was up she had regained most of her birth weight despite losing nearly 10% at first. What can I say except she and I work well together?

Yes, I’m still tired. Still having some pain from the C-section despite wonderful help from family members. I’ve rarely been alone this entire time, and when I have been alone, it’s been because someone took the older kids off for an activity so I could just be with Selene and rest.

I’m starting to work a bit more now, but trying to take it easy yet these first few weeks. I’ll get back to normal as I heal, but since I’d like to get things right the first time and not have long term issues, I won’t be overdoing.

Can you believe Selene slept through this entire blog post? Me neither! I figured I would end up holding her at some point as I typed this!

With a month or thereabouts to go, it’s really starting to hit me. This baby is coming soon. The only question is how soon, and how close to my son’s birthday near the end of next month.

By my calculations, if she goes two weeks over, they could be within a week of each other. Not so bad for future years, but for this year? Ugh! Double ugh if I get stuck with another C-section. That would absolutely delay things if it were close to my son’s birthday.

Thank goodness for 3, soon to be 4 year olds. He doesn’t know enough about calendars to really care when his birthday is celebrated. I just have to make sure his older sister doesn’t spoil it by doing a countdown, as she is all too fond of doing.

But there’s only so much we want to delay things, so we’re starting to think things through now. If baby comes soon enough, I’ll be kind of tired still, but no real need to delay things.

Thank goodness for retired, local grandparents! I don’t have to handle things completely alone!

We always keep things simple anyhow. Some friends for the kids, cake, and let them run around the back yard if weather permits. At that age it’s a great formula for a party.

Still, there are parents to warn, so we can figure out who is likely to be able to attend. I don’t like to invite kids at this age unless I know they can probably come. So disappointing to both my son and the other kids if someone can’t come.

This year’s key will definitely be simplicity. No matter how you count it, baby is likely to be no more than a month old when we do this. I’ll be tired; she’ll be little.

But it’s so important to my son to have his party. Having an older sister means he knows quite well about birthdays and parties. We can get away with some things, but not others. He’s already worried about what happens when baby comes, so this party will be in part a reassurance to him that he still gets the fun times.

And yes, Mommy will be resting during a lot of this. Daddy gets to worry about the details for once!