So this is our family a couple of months before Jenna.
Just a couple of weeks before delivery. Mommy at 37 weeks and not feeling so hot because of a cold that everyone in the house was passing around.
The baby shower my wonderful friends all had for me.
This is the nursery we got put together thanks to the missionaries moving furniture and Grandma Osborne's expert taste in design. :)
Mommy the morning of the delivery about to head to the hospital.
Brian all ready to go with his "support person" tag before the delivery.
Hanging out and getting prepped for the c-section.
And.....she's here!
Stats.
THE STORY
Okay, well since we will eventually print this blog off, I thought I'd put the story of Jenna's delivery on here, so here ya go. We were supposed to go in for a scheduled c-section on Friday February 1st, but we thankfully found out a few days before that the hospital we were delivering at wouldn't be covered as much as Miami Valley Hospital would, so at my last appointment I had to tell the doctor we needed to switch hospitals. They were surprisingly understanding, however we had to bump the delivery date from Friday to Monday. Luckily the extra days passed fairly quickly and they ended up workout out better for the overall schedule of help and Brian's time off.
Onto the delivery morning. We had the kids all spend the night at our good friends, the Coons family, the night before so we could leave bright and early around 4:45 am to get to the hospital on time. It was so quiet an peaceful that early in the morning. Everything went so smoothly as I was getting checked in and all my lab and prep work done before the delivery. Our friend Jacqueline that's an OB resident here had worked the night before and hadn't left yet so she was able to stop by for a nice quick visit before the surgery. I had told the nurse that the last time I had my labs drawn I was slightly anemic. Well it turns out I was quite anemic when they got my blood work back. I don't remember what it was exactly or what units of measuring they use, but my hemoglobin count was 10 point something. Apparently they usually give you a blood transfusion when it's less than 8 and I was about to go into surgery.
Next was the anesthesiologist. I let them know that I had a severe reaction to the morphine after my first delivery (I nearly rubbed my face off I was itching so bad!). For my other two surgeries they just started me on the oral pain meds right away after the surgery, but they were going to try giving me something similar to morphine through my iv this time. Also, the last time I got a spinal done I got a severe spinal headache so they decided to go more slowly for this one. It hurt, but it wasn't the acute stab that I was used to. For some reason my right side wasn't numbing like the left side was so they had to lean me on my side and we had to wait a little longer to start but eventually they got it all worked out and began.
So we went into surgery and they had my blood all matched up just in case I needed it, which I didn't. When I had my tubal reversal surgery the surgeon told me that he didn't see any scar tissue, so I had bragged about having 3 c-sections and no scar tissue. Well, needless to say, when my OB opened me up she told me that wasn't true and in the process she actually broke her surgical scissors trying to cut through the scar tissue! How's that for something you don't want to hear while you're being operated on?
Despite the scar tissue and the numbing issues at first the surgery went a lot longer than my others, but went well none-the-less. About 10 minutes later we heard our little Jenna's faint cry. I remember thinking "thank goodness she didn't come out with a loud scream and fighting mad like Megan!" I thought maybe she would be a little more mild mannered than Megan. Unfortunately it wasn't a good thing because it turned that because it had taken her so long to be pulled out she had prematurely taken her first breath and aspirated fluid (which is common for a multiple c-section delivery womb). They quickly showed her to me and then I thought I was sending Brian to go to the nursery with her but then he told me they were taking her to a transitional room and he couldn't go. I was always okay with my c-sections because I trusted Brian to go look after the baby so this made me a little nervous that he couldn't watch her and she was just taken away. I could tell it made him nervous too. They didn't even have a chance to weigh her before she was taken away. I did the best I could to relax and Brian stayed with me until they were done operating.
After I was all sewn up they took me to the recovery room where I was for about an hour. Remember that morphine allergy that I had? Well it turns out that I have it with the other drug they decided to use this time too. I was scratching myself raw. They'd given me two doses of Benedryl to try to help, but all that did was make me scratch while sleeping. They finally gave me a drug that was supposed to reverse the affects of the one that I was having trouble with and I got a lot better after that. Once the itching was under control Brian left to go to the NICU where they had transferred our sweet little Jenna (he was too worried about her to wait for me). In the passed I've been directly moved from my operating table bed to my post postpartum bed in my room, but since Jenna was taken to the NICU they put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me over to the NICU so I could see her.
This is what she looked like the first time I saw her.
It was so scary seeing my precious little baby hooked up to all of those tubes and having an iv needle in her tiny little hand. I just remember thinking how I didn't know how parents with premature infants did it. Leaving her there to go back to my own room was one of the harder things I've ever had to do. It was so surreal going there without my new baby. It turns out that it was a good thing to not have to worry about feeding and doing other things physically for her because I was having trouble staying awake. I somehow made it back to the NICU with help from the nurses at about midnight and was able to have some skin to skin time with her and hold her for the first time.
I went back to my room and went to bed for the night. The next morning Brian came to visit Jenna and hold her for the first time too. They asked if I wanted to come down and try to nurse her as they'd finally been able to take the tube out of her throat, but I was still having trouble staying awake. Luckily I was able to pump a little colostrum for Brian to be able to feed her while I was recovering.
I thought it was just the Benedryl they gave me after the surgery and just being tired from waking up so early the previous morning, but when they came to take my blood the next morning and got the results back my hemoglobin went from 10 point something to 7.8. My doctor was trying to hold off on the blood transfusion, but when my heart rate jumped 40 beats per minute just by standing up she decided I needed to have one, so I got a pint of donated blood (thank you to whomever donated it!) :) Within an hour I was MUCH more awake and had an appetite for what felt like the first time in two months. Who knew a little bit of blood could make so much of a difference?
This is what Jenna looked like after they took the tube out of her throat when Brian got to see her that morning. The poor thing had red marks all over from the medical tape the had to use to keep the equipment on her.
After his visit with her Brian stayed with me and then went back home to the other kids. We had some amazing friends taking turns watching our kids for us so he could be with me during the day. Later that evening Brian brought the three kids to come meet their new sister.
They took to her right away and were so good with her. Jenna got out of the NICU within 48 hours and was moved to my room and after that the rest of the hospital stay with filled with visitors and flowers and pictures!
After we got her home Megan got to show her her new room.
The next week was a bit of a sleep deprived blur and Jenna got initiated into the family properly as seen in the following picture.
Don't worry, Daddy always comes to the rescue and once again is wrapped around another little girl's finger.
After my usual whining and complaining my mom and dad decided to come out to help for a week which was MUCH needed and MUCH appreciated. :)
Fast forward two months and we have Jenna's baby blessing.
And a new family photo!
