Reese and I started our Monday morning in a very typical fashion--we got ready for a trip to the park followed by a run to HEB. Around 9AM I walked out to my car to fetch my water bottle so I could take it to the park. As I walked to the car I felt a small gush of water in my pants....so, I did what I think most largely pregnant women do: feel embarrassed, assume I urinated on myself, and go change. Walking around 4cm dilated and 80%+ effaced, now I'm not sure this was the best idea, but at the time I was more focused on remembering to bring my reusable grocery bags and snacks for the park.
Once I changed, Reese and I headed to the park. While at the park,though, I continued to feel leaking. I called Kevin and let him know that I was going to call the nurse line to get some advice on what to do before running to the hospital. I specifically told him not to leave work since I was sure that this was a false alarm. The nurse listened attentively and told me to get to the hospital right away for an exam. Convincing Reese to leave the park was ultimately the most difficult part of this arrangement. She was NOT ready to leave. While dragging a screaming toddler out of the park, I was on the phone trying to arrange childcare for Reese with our neighbor--explaining that it, of course, may all be a false alarm.
Our neighbor, Wendy, met us at the house and I packed the car with our bags just in case I was admitted. Kevin called as I drove myself to the hospital and we got in an argument because he decided to leave work and meet me at the there. At the time, I was angry that he was leaving work only to be privy to the embarrassing idea that this was all a false alarm.
I got to the hospital at 11AM and waited to see the on-call doctor. Twenty minutes later Kevin arrived, the doctor announced my water HAD indeed broken, and I was on my way down to labor and delivery. The experience was very surreal since I had driven myself to the hospital, I wasn't having contractions yet, and I rode the elevator down to labor and delivery and checked myself in (no wheelchairs or nurses involved).
Within minutes of getting to my delivery room, I started having contractions and no less than four nurses were swarming me prepping me for the operating room. For some reason, I always imagined that if I gave birth on a weekday (unlike I did with Reese) my doctor would perform the birth. Apparently our baby chose the only day of the week my doctor wasn't working and I met my two doctors only moments before they cut me open.
Since I was much more lucid for this birth experience (I hadn't been laboring for 15hours etc), it seemed like ages before Kevin entered the room and they began the delivery. Since I was on my back with a strange view and Kevin walked in wearing his surgical garb, I didn't recognize him. I was mortified by the idea that they had brought the wrong husband to the operating room and I was about to tell the nurses, "That's not my husband" when I caught sight of his wedding ring and reconciled what I was seeing. They tell me it only took 9 minutes to deliver Paige, although it felt like an eternity. Unlike Reese, she started screaming right away. Her cry sounded oddly like a caterwauling Tom Cat and I couldn't help but laugh. The doctors thought I was crying hysterically (since apparently my abdomen was shaking) and stopped their work temporarily to check on me.
While she was almost 3 weeks early, I was still a little surprised by her weight--5lbs 3oz. Since I started dilating early I had redoubled my efforts to gain weight and beef her up in case of an early delivery.
Since her delivery, Paige Marie has been an angel (knock on wood). The hospital nurses adored her and created special hats and outfits for her daily. We had the same AMAZING night nurse all three nights of our hospital stay who fixed up a comfortable bed for Kevin, helped feed the baby, and kept me on top of my medications. When she walked in to our room on the third night (I was sure we'd have someone different) I actually started crying because I was so relieved to have her help again. (Kevin thought I had lost my mind.)
While we may have liked to leave the hospital earlier, Paige's "late pre-term baby" status kept us there longer. At birth her blood sugar levels were low (33) and they had to be continually monitored for the first two days. Many heel pricks later, her blood sugar stablized and has been great ever since. Due to her small size Paige also had to pass a two hour car seat test to ensure she could be safely transported home. The test involved sitting in the car seat for two hours with electrodes attached to make sure she could breath properly and that her vitals were stable. We dared not think what would happen if she failed the test--would we have to stay longer? Would she stay without us? Luckily we didn't have to find out the answers--after a few hours in the NICU for testing, they wheeled her in and proclaimed her safe to travel. After a run down of post-op care, we were released from the hospital on Thursday morning.
So far, Paige is feeding and sleeping well. Due to her small size, her feedings are a little intensive and require time on the breast, supplemental bottles, as well as breast pumping for mommy until her actual due date. Repeating this three-pronged feeding approach every 3 hours is a little tiresome, but her pedi appointment yesterday proved that it's working. While she's not back up to her birth weight yet, she had gained 2oz in about a day--only 4 more to go until she's back to her birth weight. I'm also glad that I've had experience breast feeding, bottle feeding, and pumping during Reese's infancy. I can't imagine how ovwhelemd a new parent would be to try and learn all three skills so soon, knowing that your sucess impacted your tiny baby's ability to gain weight.
I think we'll be in preemie diapers for a while, and she's got a lot of growing to do before she can fit her newborn clothes, but all-in-all, we ecstatic she's here and healthy.
** hospital pictures coming soon...as well as the tale of our first night home--it's a doozy.
No comments:
Post a Comment