Buster Hobson - the birth story

It's 5.45am on Monday, 16 November 2009. We've been asked to be at the hospital by 6.00am in preparation for the c-section scheduled for 8.00am. I finish packing my bag and sneak into Henry and Milly's room to give them a kiss. My mum has stayed the night to take care of getting Henry to preschool and entertaining Milly for the day. As we get in the car and pull out of the driveway it suddenly hits me we are about to have our third baby, all the emotions that I've put aside come alive and I cry all the way to the hospital. Michael is my rock and reassures me it will all be ok.

We check into the hospital and two midwives show us to our room. The 'usual questions' are asked and answered: "Is this your first baby?", "No, third"; "What do you have already?", "A boy and a girl"; "How old are they?", "Four and half, and two and a half"; "Do you know the sex of this baby?", "No". I then have a shower and put on my hospital gown that ties up at the back. I'm weighed and the scales show a gain of 25.5kg. We sit and wait in our room and I'm getting more and more nervous as the time passes. At 7.50am a different midwive enters our room and introduces herself as Laurel, the midwife who will be with us during the operation. She lets us know they are ready to move us to the operating rooms. An orderly arrives and he and Laurel wheel me out and down the hall to the lifts. I start to cry again but am glad Michael is right by my side. I'm sure he's nervous too. Laurel and I go through the 'usual questions'.

I'm wheeled to the pre-op room and Michael is taken away to get dressed in his surgical gear. When he gets back we take a moment to reflect on what is about to happen and I start crying again. Gary, my anesthetist, arrives and we talk through the spinal block procedures, post-op pain relief, and I air my spinal block anxieties from my previous experience when having Milly. Gary is great, doesn't dismiss my concerns in any way, and I start to relax a bit. We then go through the 'usual questions' as he inserts a catheter in my left hand. The 'usual questions' are then asked and answered again when the assistant surgeon comes in to introduce herself. It is now after 8.00am and we are just waiting on my obstetrician to arrive.

Michael realising a third child means we will be outnumbered.

A nervous smile waiting in pre-op.

Finally Oliver, my obstetrician strolls in and it's showtime. I'm wheeled into the operating room and am sitting up, slouched over a pillow on the operating table. Gary is talking us through the spinal block as he goes. I'm trying not to listen and do my yoga breathing to keep me still and relaxed as he completes the injections. Next I'm lying down on the operating table and the warm sensation of numbness creeps from my toes slowly up to my waist. A urinary catheter is inserted. I'm swabbed. The blue separation sheet is put up. Gary is checking with me how I'm doing and we're having a chat when I feel some tugging on my tummy. "Oh, has it already started?", I ask. Yes, it had.

At 8.45am the blue sheet is lowered and a baby is pulled from my tummy - it's a boy. Michael and I are totally shocked as we were convinced it was going to be a girl. We all laugh as our new baby does a wee all over me or is that in me, as I haven't been stitched up yet. Laurel takes the baby over to a table to clean him up, Michael cuts the cord and baby is weighed (3050gms/6lb 12ozs) and measured (50.5cm). I can't believe how tiny he is. Henry weighed 4080gms/9lb when he was born. Given how big I got during the pregnancy, I was expecting a bigger baby.

I'm stitched up and we are taken to the recovery room where I am monitored for an hour. I'm so pleased Michael and baby can be with me in recovery. Michael is nursing baby and we start to discuss names. We have two boys names picked (Archie and Buster) but can't decide between them. I'm feeling very out of it on the morphine and am doing all I can to focus on the new baby. Choosing a name is the last thing on my mind.

We are finally taken back upstairs to our room in the maternity ward and I can feed baby for the first time and have a proper cuddle. It is love at first sight. We spend the next hours adoring our new little boy and calling family with the news. Michael leaves to pick up Henry and Milly and my mum comes in to meet her new grandson. When Michael returns with Henry and Milly they are excited. We tell them they have a brother. "Does he have a doodle?", asks Henry. "Yes", we reply. Henry starts jumping up and down and says "Hooray, he has a doodle. It's a boy!". Michael and I still can't decide on a name so agree to sleep on it overnight.

I have a good night at the hospital. Baby has spent it in the nursery and slept from 10.00pm through to 6.00am. I missed him not being in the room with me and didn't sleep that well. During the night the name Buster kept popping up my mind. When Michael comes in the next morning he tells me he can't stop thinking of having Buster as the name. So Buster it is. Bryan John are picked as middle names, which is my dad's name and middle name.