Baby is Here!

Well our baby is here.  Actually as of today she is 2 weeks old but this is the first chance I’ve had to actually sit down and try to write out the post announcing her arrival. Miss F arrived on September 18th at 6:43am by emergency c-section.  So I’m not sure if she came out screaming or not, but all is well, she is healthy and even with everything had apgar scores of 8/9.  We are very happy she is here completing our “set” of middle names.  I am doing well, recovering better from this unexpected c-section than I did the one eight years ago with Angela but I still find myself getting frustrated easily by what I can and often cannot do as of yet.

The story is a bit long but if you’d like to read it, you can below her picture.  Otherwise, enjoy the picture of “Mini Michael #4”.  🙂  As soon as I can I’ll be completing my one scrapbook page which shows each of the girls pictures right after they were born, where they all really do look alike.

Miss F’s Birth Story…

We went to the doctor on September 16th for my amnio to check for the baby’s lung maturity.  By now I have been seeing the doctor in Syracuse for over a month weekly, each time they were noting my fluid levels which continued to remain high.  Fortunately I never showed any other problems, but I was getting very uncomfortable.  My fluid levels that day were 32.  More than a bit high.  Michael managed to stay with me while the actual amnio was done but as soon as it was complete, he had to leave for Utica to be able to teach.  Leaving me at the doctor’s office until he could return for me that afternoon.

The biggest advantage was my split appointment, amnio in morning and everything else in the afternoon, got changed.  They managed to get me in for everything else before lunch.  So we just waited on the test results from the amnio to return.  They had already been talking that if the lungs were mature, he wanted me to take the first available slot to get the inducing going.  Shortly after 1?  I think?  They brought me back.  Lung maturity was there.  Even on the short test.  So there was no longer any concern about when the baby came.  They brought me back to talk.  There was an open spot for inducing that evening.  And they wanted me to take it.

So talking with Michael while he’s trying to finish his work for the day, okay we guess we’re doing it.  He drives in from Utica, picks me up, we go get groceries for his parents and the girls, pick up some things so we have an “actual hospital bag” and back we go to “check-in” that night.

We started pitocin that night.  I wasn’t really dilated at all, maybe 1cm.  22 hours later, I was about the same.  So after letting me eat, shower, and take a walk around we tried a dose of another medicine, cervidil, just around midnight on the 18th.  One hour later, I was calling the nurse telling them they had to take it out.  I was having contractions  lasting a minute and a half, one right after another.  Out it came.  Fluids, medicine to try and slow the contractions.  Back labor started to try and kick in, so poor Michael is up and rubbing my back.

Just before 4am, it seemed like everything was slowing down and we might get some sleep…  Nope.  My body kicked in by 4:30am and decided it was time to have a baby.  So off we go.  My brain goes into labor land but for the next hour and a little more my body does like it’s supposed to.  Then just after 6:15, I told Michael my water broke.  Called the nurse.  Explained the tug and pop sound and that my water had broken.  They started to move me around so the resident could check me.  Trying to get a fetal heart rate and that was not working.  But the more they moved me around the more fluid came out.  So we weren’t concerned yet.  The resident decided to check to see if she could get a monitor on the baby’s head.  Up she reaches and says I’m 4cm and she can’t put the monitor on and then calls “code-C”…  She jumps up on the bed with me and pushes as the nurse starts pulling chords out of the equipment and the wall.  Michael doesn’t know what’s going on but he starts to help.  I’m being told not to push even though I can tell my body is in full on labor mode and it wouldn’t be too long before I’d be ready to have the baby.  Then they are whisking me down the hall…  All I could do was clench my hands and pray that someone was telling Michael what was going on as I was being told not to push and to keep my hands in the bed.

Code-C is for a prolapsed chord.  The fluid that was gushing out pushed the baby’s umbilical chord out first.  So the resident was holding the baby’s head up off of the chord to keep the baby’s oxygen supply from being cut off as they raced me down the hall to the OR for an emergency c-section.  I remember them asking questions about prior surgeries as they were trying to put the mask on me, I spouted off very quickly also making to sure to tell them of the mesh in me from the previous c-section hernia repair before I was out under general anesthesia.  We found out there was only 12 minutes between the time that they called the code to the time that Miss F was born.  Her hands and feet were apparently a little purple/blue but otherwise she was fine.

We were in the right place.  God was with us.  He was watching over us to make sure that everything was going to be okay.

And really other than the unplanned c-section, everything has been.  I’m a little sore.  Adhesions from previous surgeries apparently made things interesting for them when they were trying to sew me back up. I managed to get up the second time we tried.  Still within the first day, unlike c-section number 1 where it was day 2 before I managed to get up.  Miss F only spent a few minutes in the NICU where she got an adorable hat, before she was brought down to recovery with me.  And then on to my room.  The same room we had after Miss L was born.

We left the hospital right on time.  Stayed down in Utica for the rest of the week and have family (from both sides) now helping us up here during the week.  We got to let Angela’s neonatologist play general pediatrician and see Miss F for her first appointment since we couldn’t make it back up here for that in the middle of the week.

Michael has spent his first full week doing as we planned this whole split household thing would work out. It’s going to work, just going to be interesting.  The girls miss him.  Miss C actually expresses it that way, Miss L is pushing at every possible opportunity which I think is a lot of her missing her Daddy and our whole routine having been completely messed up.  So we are trying to get into a routine, but know that it will change as well later when family is not up here to help.  But since I can’t lift anything more than Miss F (or am not supposed to) until my 6 week appointment, we need the help.  We’ll deal with the “new” routine after that help is gone then.  God willing a full time position will show up sooner than later so we can be together again.

I’d much rather have more pictures like this one showing Michael here with Miss F as she is growing up.  And I know he’d rather be here to be in them.  Or us be with him down there.  I have a job to apply for down there too.  On the docket for tomorrow.  So we will see….

Miss F is just waking up now, yes I know it’s late.  But why go to bed when you know the baby is going to be up within a half hour?  Besides, I wanted to get this out there for anyone who has been wondering what is going on.

God is good.  And I have my angels, both in heaven and on earth to prove it. I love all my girls … Angela Faith, Cayli Grace, Lia Hope and now Fiona Joy…