Written March 28, 2020 - Christopher Patrick is 5 days old.
We woke up early on March 23, 2020 so that we could arrive at West Penn Hospital by 5:30am for our 7:30am scheduled c-section. Although hospital security was tightened down due to Coronavirus precautions, we were able to proceed to the hospital's labor and delivery wing following a quick bag inspection and after answering a few questions regarding any fevers, coughs, or recent travels. Nurses immediately began prepping Danielle for surgery, and we met with all of the doctors who would be assisting with the delivery. Right on schedule, doctors took Danielle back to the surgery room at 7:30, and Ben put on his scrubs so that he could observe the operation.
Prior to surgery, doctors determined that the baby was properly positioned for smooth extraction. However, once the initial incisions were made, baby boy quickly spun into a transverse position with one hand and one foot protruding out of the incision while Danielle's uterus tightened around the rest of his body. This provided some additional challenge for the doctor, and it required her to make an additional incision - but at 8:13am Christopher Patrick Niebel, our beautiful baby boy, was born.
Looking back on Elizabeth's birth story, we have often commented about how very little went according to our carefully drafted-out birth plan. For Christopher, it was a relief for almost everything (from our perspective) to go as planned. Other than some nausea following the birth, Danielle felt strong and she healed well. It was much nicer to have Christopher's c-section scheduled for first thing in the morning, without hours of labor beforehand.
Our stay in the hospital proved to be much different than our stay with Elizabeth. Although we spent the 2.5 days on the same floor of the same hospital, we couldn't have visitors to our room due to COVID-19 precautions. Even Ben's ability to enter the hospital was limited to the hours of 7am-7pm. The nursery was closed, so nearly all tests and procedures were performed in our room, which was nice for us to be able to observe.
Since Christopher passed all of his infant examinations and Danielle was healing well, we were able to return home just after noon on Wednesday, March 25. Christopher's grandparents and big sister, Elizabeth were eagerly waiting to welcome us home.
During the past several days, Elizabeth has been a good big sister who has been happy to share her toys and food that he is too young to appreciate. She gets anxious when Christopher cries during his diaper changes ("too loud") or whenever he takes too much of mom's or Patty's attention ("Daddy hold baby brother"). We look forward to lots of family time together (in quarantine) over the upcoming weeks, and we really look forward to when we can take a family trip to the zoo, a museum, or to visit out-of-town family!
