U2Girl416
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Congrats (belated!)!!!!
From 'Much Ado About Nothing' by William Shakespeare
DON PEDRO
...To be merry best
becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in
a merry hour.
BEATRICE
No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there
was a star danced, and under that was I born.
Cousins, God give you joy!
Thank you all so much for the congrats and well wishes! I know I haven't been around here much lately, but I know I can always count on you all for a round of support and good cheer
Here's the details in a nutshell: last Thursday I went into labor but was progressing slowly so I spent that night at home - then Friday night was admitted to the hospital (Along with several other moms-to-be; we were in the middle of some severe weather/thunderstorms and for some reason that seems to trigger a chain reaction! The doctor delivered a bunch of babies throughout the weekend!)
I told them I would eventually want an epidural for pain relief, when the contractions got stronger so they drew blood for blood tests and it's a good thing they did because my white count was elevated and I had a fever - something I had not even noticed because of the excitement of being in labor. I was started on IV antibiotics immediately.
Saturday morning they told me it was finally time to push - and push, and PUSH! There was some speculation about the epidural I had interfering with my ability to push, but the Dr and nurses were all of different opinions about whether that was a genuine issue or not. Anyway, after the LONGEST three and a half hours of my life Mercy's heart rate jumped up to an unsafe level and the doctor intervened with forceps.
She was finally delivered, but she had evacuated her bowels during the hard delivery and swallowed a lot of the nastiness. If a baby breathes that stuff into her lungs it can be very dangerous and cause aspiration pneumonia, and her breathing was shallow so I only got to hold her for a minute before the staff took her away to the special care nursery. After the doctor had taken care of my needs and I had a chance to try and rest (Not an easy thing to do without her there!) and the pediatrician saw to her, I was wheeled down to the nursery to see her. I'll never forget seeing her like that - oxygen tubing, IV, monitors stuck to her little chest. It was not the way anyone expects to see their newborn. Still, she was the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on.
Luckily, she did NOT breathe in the fluid, although quite a lot of it had been suctioned out of her stomach. Her breathing was getting better, she was receiving antibiotics for the infection/fever which she also had, and all there was to do after that was to wait.
I spent most of that night in my room recuperating impatiently. The next morning I was greatly relieved when the doctor told me she could soon join me in my room and I could finally feed her. The oxygen tubing was gone, though she was still tethered to her little bed because of the IV and monitors.
Breastfeeding was difficult – partly because of all the wires, and partly because of the delay. She had not eaten yet and she was nearly 20 hours old. It took her a few days to figure out really how to eat, and then it was only out of a bottle instead of being breastfed. The IV supplied what she needed, and so she had no drive to eat. When they took the IV out she still had a hard time learning and her blood sugar had to be checked before every feeding. I hated watching them poke her poor little feet to get blood – it was awful; but I am glad that they were thorough and watching out for her carefully. It was late Tuesday evening when the doctor made a special trip back to the hospital after office hours to check on her and finally release us to come home. Once we got home she started to eat – and eat and eat! She’s making up for lost time, I think. We had a visit to the Drs office today and she’s doing great.
It’s been a long week, but as trying as the physical pain was and as frightening as moments were I’ve truly never been happier. The entire world changed the moment she was born – and I’ve never been happier in my life.
Hope you're both doing well
And where's our photos