Birthing recount

Tuesday morning:  Luke and I spent the morning over at Shae's house, playing and distracting ourselves from the fact that there was no baby yet.  I had tried once again that morning to get ahold of my doctor to schedule the induction, but she didn't come in until that afternoon.  Foiled at every turn!  I left a message and hoped for the best.  While we were over at Shae's the doctor called back....the hospital was booked for Thursday, the intended induction date.  But they had an opening for the next day- Wednesday!  Even better!  We went home for nap time and I spent the rest of the day trying to come up with things to do to get ready for what was about to happen, but I'd truly been ready for so long there was nothing to do.  I took Luke on one final Mommy/Boy date and then over to Mom and Dad's to spend the night since I had to be at the hospital at 5:30 in the morning.  Yep.  You read that right.

Wednesday morning:  It's baby day!  I didn't really sleep that night, between the discomfort of pregnancy and the racing thoughts of what was to come, I only clocked a few hours of sleep.  By 4 I knew I just couldn't lay there any more so I got up to take a long shower and make sure everything was as it should be to bring home a new baby in a couple of days.  Cody drove me to the hospital, I got checked in, and by 6 the pitocine was dripping.  I really thought that things would move faster than they did, but by 10:30 my contractions were nice and regular and strong but not really doing anything, so I went ahead and got my epidural so I could nap some.  Nap in a hospital while in labor?  Yeah right.  My doctor came in at noon to break my water, and I was only a 5.  Breaking my water put things on such a speedy track that by 1:45 she got me prepped to push and 3 pushes later, at 2:02 in the afternoon, out came my beautiful little girl.  Unfortunately they had to really get her out on that last push because they discovered that the cord was around her neck.  Talk about a scary few minutes.  She wasn't crying.  They got the cord off but had to bag her to get her oxygen.  I was so stunned that all I could do was stare.  Finally they got her stabilized and everything calmed down, but she still didn't cry.  Just layed there and looked around.  Then they layed her on my chest and I got to hold my sweet girl.  What a great moment.  Because she was so big, they decided that her blood sugar levels needed to be monitored closely. 

It took awhile, but eventually I made it up to our post pardum room.  We had a stream of visitors by the end of the day I was exhausted.  Luke got to see her twice, but both times he basically ignored her.  Exactly what I was expecting from him! I made it to bed by 11, only to be woken up several times throughout the night.  Unfortunately my girl was having trouble with her blood sugar levels.  By 2 AM she was dangerously low and was immediately admitted to the NICU.  She had to be put on an IV and antibiotics.  More scary moments. I didn't really  know what was going on until I was able to go see her the next morning.  This morning I got up and ventured out, not even sure where the NICU was.  I found it, scrubbed in, and found my girl.  They were feeding her a bottle already, so all I could do at that point was hold her for a while.  At 11 was her next feeding, and they let me nurse her before supplementing with a bottle, but she didn't want the bottle and by her 2:00 feeding she was low again which pushed back her estimated return time.  It was funny, when Luke came up to see me this morning the first thing he said was "Where Baby Evan?"  Talk about shocking!  I hated having to tell him that Sister was not feeling well and had to be in her own special room. Thankfully at 2 she took a bottle (they wouldn't let me nurse again) and her numbers went up.  Then by 5 her numbers were up even higher and she took her biggest bottle yet.  Praise Jesus by 8 her numbers were high enough that she was able to come back upstairs with me when I finished feeding her. Luke was still here with Mom and Dad and Ashley, so Evan was able to finally "give" him the present she had bought for him.  And he had a present for her too!  He "bought" her (with Nana) her very own pink puppy, since he loves his own puppy so much.   I had visitors in and out all day, and it was so helpful to keep my mind off the little body that was missing from next to me, and the fact that my friends came to see me anyway- knowing that they wouldn't get to see her.

So, it's not been quite the birth experience that I was expecting.  It seems my little lady wants to give me a run for my money and she's only been here 32 hours!  I can't wait to continue this journey with her, to see what other kinds of adventures she gets us into.  Of course I can't wait to see how Luke continues to interact with Evan.  I've hated having to be so brief with him as I've had to leave the room to attend to Evan, but I know it's only temporary.  Soon enough I'll be home with both my babies, wondering how I will ever juggle them both!