Over the weekend Cameron and I decided to make a quick trip down to my sister's house for their Baby Blessing (similar to a Christening)/2nd Birthday party combo. They were blessing their new baby girl in church and then having a friends and family potluck (NOT illegal in New Mexico, unlike AZ apparently) in celebration of the baby blessing and to celebrate Sharli (their oldest daughter) for her 2nd birthday. We loved being around some of the friends and family we love and miss so much! We ate way way way too much, laughed hard, slept little, and visited long. Everyone there was surprised to see us as my due date was starting to approach, but we figured we weren't too far away and there was still a month left until the due date arrived. No worries! Monday we drove home, visiting more family along the way.
Monday night, 3 hours after getting home, I was sitting on the couch making our new budget, filling out my bullet journal page for Tuesday, and writing me "Things to get done before the Baby comes" list when "adventure" struck. My water was breaking. At 12:30 in the morning. At 35 weeks.
I laugh that one of my first thoughts, after thinking "This baby needs a little more time!" was, "No! This can't happen now! The house is a disaster and people will see it!"
Cameron likes to tell people that when I woke him up (I've been sleeping on the couch as it is more comfortable while I'm pregnant. Those memory foam mattresses just hurt my pregnant hips!) that he calmly got out of bed and gathered things up without panicking. I tell it a little different, but we'll let him have his moment. We grabbed my wallet and a towel, pulled Darrow out of bed, and headed out. My cousins (who have already saved our bacon so many times!) were so gracious to take Darrow at a quarter to one in the morning. I felt so bad, Darrow knew something was up and was bawling as we handed him off in the dark and drove off.
To make a long story short (and very not gory, don't worry!!) after the Winslow hospital confirmed that yes indeed my water had prematurely ruptured, they made arrangements to get me to the Flagstaff hospital, as they cannot deliver babies before 36 weeks. So I got to ride in a helicopter for the first time. I think it would have been more fun had I not been strapped to a board, flat on my back, in a space about the size of a metal driveway culvert. It's definitely way more fun to say I rode in a chopper than the actual chopper ride was.
Flagstaff got and started me on Pitocin at 8am to get contractions going. Since my water had broke, they couldn't delay labor without risking extra infection and problems. So this baby was coming early. Full labor hit around 9am, and at 12:37pm on Tuesday the 16th (that was only yesterday?!) we became a family of four. Baby Girl (finalizing the name decision today!) was born with the cord wrapped around her neck twice and quite purple, but started crying and working to breathe as soon as they got her untangled.
After making sure she was okay, getting her initial measurements (5lbs 7 oz, and 18 inches long) they let me hold her for a minute or two, but then took her down to the ICU to get her on some oxygen (she was breathing but having to work extra hard at it and wanted to get her completely stable as soon as they could) and to give her a full check to see how everything was functioning. With the cause of the premature water rupture unknown, and with the fever I ran through labor, they also wanted to get She-Who-Shall-Soon-Be-Named on 48 hours of IV antibiotics to counter act any infection that might have been in our systems.
We have full access to her "cubby" in the ICU and can spend whatever time we want down there, day or night.
The nurses have all taken such good care of us and have been so sweet. We are sure grateful for the good care we have received! I was down with her last night just before I went to bed and while holding her she started throwing up and choking, dropping her heart rate and oxygen low. They worked fast (and so calm!) and got her airway cleared and stomach pumped and she quickly stabilized again. For a newborn who's supposed to have a marble sized stomach, she had a TON of amniotic fluid in her stomach. The doctors were even surprised.
Once they had her pumped and breathing well on her own again she perked up more than she had yet, looked around for a while, and started showing the first hunger cues. Up until then she'd shown no interest in eating and didn't respond when offered anything (so they were giving her some nutrition in her IV as well), but after getting her stomach all cleared out and waking up she was starting to act like maybe eating could be a good thing. They were going to watch her for a little bit more that night and then try feeding her a bottle and bathing her. After only 36 hours of being awake, I was literally falling asleep in the rocking chair next to her bed, so I took myself back up to my room rather than staying for the feeding and bathing. I'll have plenty more chances to do that and few chances for a good nights sleep in the near future. Here in just a minute I'll get up, get showered, and head down to the ICU to see how everything went through the night and to hold this sweet little girl.
We're feeling so very blessed that everything has gone as well as it has. So much more could have happened that didn't and we are so grateful for that! We're grateful we made it back home before my water broke, grateful for my cousins and their sweetness in taking Darrow on the spot, grateful for my Mom who packed up and drove up 7 hours upon getting the news, grateful for technology, grateful for such amazing delivery nurses, grateful for this baby to be as healthy as she is, and grateful for all the love, prayers, well wishes, thoughts, messages, texts, comments, and kindnesses that have been sent our way already. I feel overwhelmed with gratitude to God and to everyone who has in some shape or from sent us their love and support.
Later today I get to introduce my Mom and Darrow to this sweet girl and I can't wait to see Darrow's reaction. I don't know that he'll get it fully, but this boy is smart...he may surprise me!
So this made me laugh a little. Yesterday was reveal day for Iron Craft Challenge #3, "G is for...". For my project, I made a Girl. I totally think that counts. ;) (I did make a Green and white hat on Monday to count as my project, but I'm totally using Girl as my project instead!)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.