Special Surprise

We survived the first two months with our new bundle of joy. Everything was a bit of a whirlwind for a while, but things are starting to settle down. I wanted to do a recap of how everything happened.

Mitch and I had to make an unexpected trip to the hospital at 2:30 am on Wednesday morning, November 16^th. We were definitely anxious to get there, but I prayed the entire way to Macon, and I knew the Lord was with us. After a slight fiasco of getting into the hospital, we finally were settled into a room. FYI – doors are locked after a certain time, which makes it a little difficult to enter the labor and delivery portion! They immediately hooked me up to the fetal heart monitor, and hearing that sweet heartbeat was music to our ears. We were so relieved to know that she was okay. It was a long few hours of waiting in a closet examining room. We decided to wait until morning to call our parents since nothing huge was happening. Finally morning came and the doctor came. He discussed a lot of possibilities, and we felt better knowing that we were in safe hands. They wouldn’t let me eat until they finished taking tests, which was miserable. We were eventually moved into a nicer, more spacious room.

The second night was pretty miserable. I was hooked up to about a million different machines, which all had to be unhooked each time I needed to get up. Being 7 ½ months pregnant, caused me to have to get up frequently. I had to wake Mitch up each time because my cords would get all tangled. Several times during the night the nurses would rush in to check on things. They didn’t really tell us what they wanted, but we could tell things weren’t quite right. They would mention that the baby’s heart rate would dip down pretty low, but the nurse wouldn’t tell me how low. Around 7:45 am, the doors opened again. This time is was my OBGYN, Dr. Roddenberry, his twin brother, and several nurses. Mitch and I looked at each other in anxiousness. Dr. Eric showed me his phone which had my contractions and the baby’s heart rate on the screen. Pretty neat! He pointed out that each time I had a contraction, which were pretty frequent, the baby’s heart rate would drop. At this point, we had 2 options. We could try to wait until 34 weeks to deliver to help the baby’s lungs develop, or we could go ahead and do the c-section that morning. He and his brother suggested the c-section because they feared the baby’s heart rate would continue to drop with more contractions, which could cause serious problems. As scary as the situation was, I was surprisingly calm. We didn’t have time to really think about everything. They threw a set of scrubs at Mitch and wheeled me away.

I was the most scared about the epidural. Having something poked in your back didn’t seem to be the most pleasing thing. I have to admit, it was a breeze…piece of cake! The medicine from the epidural and spinal block (used to completely paralyze me during the c-section) made me extremely shaky. I couldn’t tell if I was cold or not. I definitely didn’t like not being able to move anything, but I know for the safety of me, the baby, and the doctors, they had to do that. I was so relieved when it all wore off!

The c-section took about 15 minutes. At 8:44 am we saw the most precious sight. Sweet Ansley was born. Dr. Eric held her over the tarp for me to see. I will never forget that first glimpse. Mitch was able to step to the side and take pictures of the nurses working on her. They had a team of NICU nurses and doctors in there since she was so early. They tried several times to get her to breathe on her own, but she made no effort, so they had to use the ventilator. She was wheeled away to the NICU, and Mitch was able to follow and be right there with her. It wasn’t until later that afternoon that I was able to see her again. They wouldn’t let me up until the epidural wore off and I could move my legs to get out of bed. The nurse was so kind to take pictures of Ansley and bring them to me so that I could see her. I was amazed at how big she looked. She was beautiful, and I couldn’t wait to see her in person. Later that afternoon, I was finally able to be wheeled down to the NICU. I will never forget that sweet moment when I saw my baby girl. It was love at first sight!