Two days before I reached 33 weeks I went back to the hospital because I had been having constant contractions. When we walked through the Labor and Delivery room doors we got a warm welcome: What are you guys doing back here? At least you're 32 weeks now!
They knew us well.
They did all the usual checks; blood pressure, monitoring baby heartbeat, monitoring contractions, etc. I mentioned that I had felt a bit damp the day before so my nurse Chrystal did a swab of my cervix. Another nurse came in and was an inch away from poking me with Terbutaline to stop the contractions when Crystal read off the positive test result for amniotic fluid. My waters were leaking. The nurse put down the needle and they moved me to a delivery room. I sat there for the next two days trying to keep my sweet girl in for as long as possible. The contractions started getting more intense so I got an epidural. I was 6 cm. A couple hours later I got my nurse to come in because I wanted to be checked. She asked if it felt like I was having pressure. And I said no, but that it felt like someone's finger was on my butt hole which apparently is common with epidurals. She looked and suddenly there were two more nurses and the lady doctor on shift (Dr. Smith), and they called in two more nurses from the NICU to take Baby Girl away after she was born. I was a little out of it, but Marcus said he could tell by the look on the nurse's face that they were concerned about something. Apparently I was birthing large blood clots. (We found out nothing about those, but everything seems to be fine now.)
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| The anesthesiologist giving me my epidural. |
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| My feet are very narrow and skinny so it may be difficult to tell, but the epidural made my feet swollen...and numb obviously. |
Push.
Push.
Push.
Baby Girl came out crying with her foot next to her full head of hair...maybe we should put her in gymnastics.. It was Sunday March 6, 2016 at 2:50am. She was 5lbs 2oz and 20 inches long. I got to see her for 20 seconds before they took off with her to put tubes and cords on her. They tried to get me to hand express some milk right away to stimulate my milk production. I tried a little but then I felt so drained. I wanted to sleep for days. After 10 weeks on bed rest and going in and out of the hospital I was exhausted.
When I woke up from a two hour nap they wanted to move me to the postpartum wing. Once I stood up I wanted to puke and my head was in so much pain. A few hours later it was determined that I had a spinal headache. The only thing I can compare this headache to on the pain scale is natural childbirth (I had an unmedicated birth with Madeline). Like...would I rather give birth without meds OR get an epidural and have a spinal headache? I think if we have another biological child, we will forgo an epidural. The spinal headache lasted 10 days. My labors last a couple hours. I can handle a couple hours of intense pain. 10 days of nonfunctionability (is that even a word?) isn't worth it.
They got me in the next day to have a Blood Patch which is supposed to stop the spinal fluid from leaking out since blood clots and forms and creates a Bandaid effect. The patch worked for about a day. I went in to see my girl for the first time really. While there we named her and the nurse on duty let me put her on my chest. She was so tiny. I started to cry because I tried my best to hold her in as long as I could and she still came early. I hated that she had to be there with all the cords. I felt like it was my fault and my heart was breaking not being able to snuggle her newborn body all the time.
Lisa stayed in the NICU for 21 long days. I went every day after my spinal headache went away. Those days I couldn't go were torture. I cried my eyes out multiple times a day. Marcus was definitely my rock during these days. It didn't seem to affect him the same way it did me. He loves his children but let's be honest...he's not the mama. I yearned to have this little tiny baby that we created in my arms and in our home. The day we brought her home was such a happy surprise. When we came in to visit her the doctor came over to talk with us and said "well, we don't really see any need to keep her here. There's nothing more we can do for her here that you can't do for her at home." So we left her there and picked the girls up from church and went shopping for supplies. We didn't have anything like a bassinet and other items since we didn't know when she would be coming home...and having them there while she was in the NICU would just remind me she wasn't where we wanted her. After that we went back to the hospital and picked her up with the freshly laundered car seat and blankets and her coming home outfit. Madeline was especially excited because she had been waiting nearly a month for this sweet baby to sleep at our house. It was an incredibly long day. And after she was home Faye started puking. My bedroom was quarantined and Marcus went to work the Tuesday after that and so I was left home alone for the first time with three children. Two were vomiting. And I had a newborn. It was so hard. I caught the bug a week later and could not get out of bed. It was so bad. But the senior missionary couple came over and helped watch the children while I was in bed. They were such a blessing. My parents arrived the next day, and then I got better.
Other pictures that fall into the story:
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| The girls came and visited while we were still in the hospital. |
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| Marcus cuddled and visited this sweet girl while I couldn't. |
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| She was so small Marcus' hand was bigger than her whole head! |
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| Our first family photo without the sisters. |
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| Tiny feet! |
Lisa Christine is a beautiful, sweet gift. We are grateful to have her in our lives.
