but I'd rather just talk about this beautiful little baby girl instead ;) So here's our story so far ...
Night before the scheduled section I didnt' get a lot of sleep. Went to bed about 10 and woke up at 2:00 AM and that was it. I was just too anxious. Not really about surgery, just about having a healthy baby. I guess now that she is here, I can admit out loud to worrying every single day about having a healthy baby. It was a struggle on a day to day basis to convince myself that her birth day was ever going to get here. And as the day got closer, it actually got harder. I didn't want to get my hopes up I guess. We have waited a long time for her. And are so happy she is here. She truly is our little mircle. Anyway, so, didn't get a lot of sleep monday night. Arrived at hospital bright and early - 5:30 AM. We had to be there 2 hours before surgery. At that point, they start IVs, put baby on monitor (yeah!), draw some blood, mostly just wait around. 7:30 finally rolls around and things start moving. They take me back to the OR to get my epidural/spinal - wade has to wait until they place this before they will let him come back with me.
Let's just say the placing of the epidural was not good. With Keira, I had no problems, or I should say the anestesiologist had no problem. This time, ugh, they stuck me 5, yes 5, different times. I am not exaggerating. After the 4th time, I said, I don't think I can do this. I was ready to say, we are not having a baby today, I can't let you do this to me again. I was in tears. It hurt, badly. I had an episode of dizziness and came close to passing out. Had this been my first experience, we may not have had more kids - seriously, it hurt that bad. They finally called someone else and he got it in on his first shot. You should check out the bruise I have on my back from it - it's fairly nasty! So, they finally get it placed and Wade gets to come back. He of course has been freaking out because he has been out there by himself for this long not having any idea of what is going on in the OR. I was very glad to see him, even if he did look funny in his scrubs.
After the epidural issue though, everything else went super smooth. It is an amazingly quick procedure - she was out about 10 minutes after Wade got back in the room. We heard her cry before we saw her and boy does she have a set of lungs on her. She screamed for a good 15 minutes. Through all her weights and measurements and such - screamed. But believe me, that was music to my ears. Apgars were 8,9, and 9. There were lots of tears of joy in that OR. Wade got to hold her while the finished stitching me up. She has LOTS of hair. I thought Keira had a lot of hair ... but she's got nothing on this kid!
They get me stiched up and then send us back to recovery. The plan is to be there for 2 hours. They monitor all my vitals, etc and watch baby closely too. Mallory is doing perfect. At this point, I have some blood pressure and heart rate issues. Blood pressure is way too low and heart rate is way too high. I feel fine, no light headedness or anything like that, but nurses/docs not liking it anyway. They have to finally give me some meds to bring the blood pressure up which they are hoping will bring the heart rate down. It works for a period of time, but then it sorta goes back to where it was. Finally, at close to the 2 hour mark, the vitals get close enough to normal that they are trasfering us to our permanent room. The great thing at this point is that Mallory has not left our side. I was nervous that this one would have NICU time like Keira did, so it was such a relief to keep her with us the whole time.
The rest of the hospital stay was uneventful really. Still had some residual hr/bp issues, but after 24 hours they seemed to go back to normal. Mom and Mark brought Keira up and she immediately loved her baby sister. It was funny because she saw Mallory, hugged her, and then came over to me and asked me if the baby was out of my tummy! It was cute. Keira did really well at the hospital until it was time to leave and that did not go so well. She didn't want to leave me and that broke my heart. Mom said she was fine after getting out of the hospital, which I am sure she was, but it was hard to watch her cry as she was leaving. Since being home, we are still dealing with a bit of seperation anxiety from me - she doesn't want to go anywhere that I am not going - even school, but it seems to be getting better every day.
Keira has been doing great with Mallory, wants Mallory everywhere she is, loves to hold, hug, and snuggle the baby. While I am extremely happy with how well she is adjusting, it is a little nerve wracking because she isn't always as gentle as she needs to be. But she is learning!
Mallory is adjusting to the real world too. We've had one really rough night of sleep where she was awake from Midnight to 1:30 AM and then from 3:30 AM to 6:00 AM. That was none too fun - she wasn't fussy really, she just didn't want to be put down. And really, I am not complaining, I don't really want to put her down. :) But other than that night, she has slept as well as can be expected for a newborn.
