She is here! Our little E joined our family a month ago now and it has been quite the roller coaster! Already it seems that she was always here with us. Everyone I met during my pregnancy warned me that things get all shaken up once a third enters the picture and I have to say they completely correct. Before E, there was one parent for each child and now that is far from the case. I think it is the age difference between her and our now one-year old G and our not-quite-three year old that is making everything such a challenge. M is nearing three in late December and her behavior is very in-tune with that. While she is talking better than ever, understands us better, and is learning like a sponge absorbs, she is also displaying open defiance, massive tantrums, and sneakiness. G is above average in many areas and is long past walking and well into climbing and using logic to get into and out of whatever she pleases. She is a master guilt tripper and is super cute to boot. D has been so overwhelmed with our state of two babies and one near-preschooler that he has tried telling me that G is toddler and not a baby. Yeah right! G was six days shy of one year old when E was born. Luckily, D and I were able to talk about it and he realized he was just trying to push G into being older to make things a little less intense. And intense it has been. E was born by surprise c-section. I in no way, shape, or form had any intention of having a c-section, let alone a c-section 11 days ahead of the due date. I was in a state of denial that she was ever actually going to be born in the first place and I had just barely come to terms with her being born overdue so that I could have more time to get ready for her. Well, I guess that God and my OB had a completely different plan for E and I because I went in for a routine doctor's visit on October 5th and she was born that same day by c-section.
A week before that, my doctor had run some tests that I was unaware of and when I went in for my next appointment, she had some not-so-great results in. I won't go into what they were, but regardless, she and I discussed that I needed to have a c-section and soon. I was thinking to myself, okay, it is Friday so maybe she will schedule me for early next week. Wrong! Just as I am wrapping my mind around that, she asks me about if I have been having any contractions and I answered that I had so she checked me and I was dilated to a two and had been completely undilated the week before. After that, she turned to me and asked when was the last time I ate and it hit me that she had every intention of c-sectioning me that day. So I told her, she left the room, and I called my husband and had to let him know that it looked like the baby was going to be born that day and gave him my family's phone numbers. Sure enough, the doctor came back in and told me to go home, get my kids to a sitter, get my hospital bags, and get back to the hospital as quickly as possible. I rushed home making phone calls the whole way to set up last minute childcare and tell my family that they needed to head down as quickly as they could and why. From there, I was admitted into the hospital and my surgery came not to long after.
C-sections are really scary. You go into this very sterile and scary operating room fully conscious and are heaved, full-term pregnant, onto an uncomfortable operating table. Mind you, there is already a very uncomfortable and slightly painful catheter and i.v. in you while they do this. From there, they turn you on your side and have you curl up in a ball so they can put in your spinal. Luckily, the spinal didn't hurt and it kicked in quickly. They then turn you back onto your back and strap your arms onto arm rests that are sticking out on either side of you. Next they set up a drape right above your chest and put an oxygen mask on you. It was at this point that D was actually able to come in and sit next to my head and once he sat down, I just turned my head to him and tears just rolled down the side of my face. I was terrified. I had no time to prepare myself to have our baby this way and I was about to have someone cut me open and deliver our baby and I couldn't even see her when she came out. As they started, I didn't even realize they had because of how numb the spinal made me and how far up it went. I have had two separate epidurals and a spinal was not the same. It went much higher up and made it a conscious effort on my part to breath. There were times after E was delivered and I had kissed her and sent D off to be with her that I had to keep myself awake because some part of me felt that if I fell asleep, I would stop breathing. I laid there just wanting it to all be over so badly. I wanted them to be done putting me back together and I wanted to just sleep as hard as possible (I didn't know it at the time but they had given me a sedative through my spinal). I wanted my baby and my husband and I wanted my family there with me. As I was in the recovery room, people kept trying to ask me questions and congratulate me and I wanted to tell them how bad I needed them to just leave me alone and not talk to me. I wanted a moment to process everything that had happened in one day.
Once I was settled in my room and had my husband and baby with me, I slept. The spinal was slowly lessening and I could feel more and more of my body and I was no longer afraid to sleep. E was born at a tiny 6 pounds, 7 ounces and 19 inches long and was doing great. She did seem disoriented and confused at being outside of me so suddenly, but she was alive and healthy and I didn't care about anything else. As time went by, she was having a rough time trying to understand how to latch on to her bottle or even want to, so we had to get her a pacifier that triggered the instinct for her. After three days, we were released from the hospital and I was feeling pretty darn good and attributed it to the fact that I had had a healing blessing right after the surgery and it was my birthday. We went home and low and behold, our two oldest girls had colds, and ugly ones. It didn't take long for E to catch them both and by a week and a half old, she was admitted into the hospital for a sinus infection. She and I spent another three days together in the hospital under much less celebratory circumstances and she slowly started to recover. It was emotionally trying to go through having my newborn go through having i.v.'s and x-rays and having to stand by and let them do those things in order for her to get better. Pain before healing, what a way to have to spend your first two weeks of life.
Since the infection and everything, E has been getting help for her many small afflictions that she has- acid reflux and constipation- and it is coming along more and more. We love her and I am grateful for her impatience in joining our family because she is a beautiful addition that would have left us feeling like someone was missing without her. We will see how things go being outnumbered by our dear little ones! Until the next time...
A week before that, my doctor had run some tests that I was unaware of and when I went in for my next appointment, she had some not-so-great results in. I won't go into what they were, but regardless, she and I discussed that I needed to have a c-section and soon. I was thinking to myself, okay, it is Friday so maybe she will schedule me for early next week. Wrong! Just as I am wrapping my mind around that, she asks me about if I have been having any contractions and I answered that I had so she checked me and I was dilated to a two and had been completely undilated the week before. After that, she turned to me and asked when was the last time I ate and it hit me that she had every intention of c-sectioning me that day. So I told her, she left the room, and I called my husband and had to let him know that it looked like the baby was going to be born that day and gave him my family's phone numbers. Sure enough, the doctor came back in and told me to go home, get my kids to a sitter, get my hospital bags, and get back to the hospital as quickly as possible. I rushed home making phone calls the whole way to set up last minute childcare and tell my family that they needed to head down as quickly as they could and why. From there, I was admitted into the hospital and my surgery came not to long after.
C-sections are really scary. You go into this very sterile and scary operating room fully conscious and are heaved, full-term pregnant, onto an uncomfortable operating table. Mind you, there is already a very uncomfortable and slightly painful catheter and i.v. in you while they do this. From there, they turn you on your side and have you curl up in a ball so they can put in your spinal. Luckily, the spinal didn't hurt and it kicked in quickly. They then turn you back onto your back and strap your arms onto arm rests that are sticking out on either side of you. Next they set up a drape right above your chest and put an oxygen mask on you. It was at this point that D was actually able to come in and sit next to my head and once he sat down, I just turned my head to him and tears just rolled down the side of my face. I was terrified. I had no time to prepare myself to have our baby this way and I was about to have someone cut me open and deliver our baby and I couldn't even see her when she came out. As they started, I didn't even realize they had because of how numb the spinal made me and how far up it went. I have had two separate epidurals and a spinal was not the same. It went much higher up and made it a conscious effort on my part to breath. There were times after E was delivered and I had kissed her and sent D off to be with her that I had to keep myself awake because some part of me felt that if I fell asleep, I would stop breathing. I laid there just wanting it to all be over so badly. I wanted them to be done putting me back together and I wanted to just sleep as hard as possible (I didn't know it at the time but they had given me a sedative through my spinal). I wanted my baby and my husband and I wanted my family there with me. As I was in the recovery room, people kept trying to ask me questions and congratulate me and I wanted to tell them how bad I needed them to just leave me alone and not talk to me. I wanted a moment to process everything that had happened in one day.
Once I was settled in my room and had my husband and baby with me, I slept. The spinal was slowly lessening and I could feel more and more of my body and I was no longer afraid to sleep. E was born at a tiny 6 pounds, 7 ounces and 19 inches long and was doing great. She did seem disoriented and confused at being outside of me so suddenly, but she was alive and healthy and I didn't care about anything else. As time went by, she was having a rough time trying to understand how to latch on to her bottle or even want to, so we had to get her a pacifier that triggered the instinct for her. After three days, we were released from the hospital and I was feeling pretty darn good and attributed it to the fact that I had had a healing blessing right after the surgery and it was my birthday. We went home and low and behold, our two oldest girls had colds, and ugly ones. It didn't take long for E to catch them both and by a week and a half old, she was admitted into the hospital for a sinus infection. She and I spent another three days together in the hospital under much less celebratory circumstances and she slowly started to recover. It was emotionally trying to go through having my newborn go through having i.v.'s and x-rays and having to stand by and let them do those things in order for her to get better. Pain before healing, what a way to have to spend your first two weeks of life.
Since the infection and everything, E has been getting help for her many small afflictions that she has- acid reflux and constipation- and it is coming along more and more. We love her and I am grateful for her impatience in joining our family because she is a beautiful addition that would have left us feeling like someone was missing without her. We will see how things go being outnumbered by our dear little ones! Until the next time...
