Presenting...Ivy Lucile!

My last post left off with me heading to the hospital on Monday, December 20th.  This is three weeks before my due date and two weeks before my scheduled C-section.  I was having pretty good contractions.  When I got there they hooked me up to all the monitors and watched for a bit.  They decided to do an ultrasound test where they check for her movement, breathing, and amniotic fluid levels.  She did fine on that test but the nurse was still concerned with the baby's heart rate during contractions.  The nurse told me that the doctor would come in during his lunch which could be between 11:30 and 1:30. 
 Corey had an appointment at his doctor 45 minutes away at 12:45.  I told him he needed to go because the doctor is hard to get in to and I was just going to sit there in pain, annoyed that he was napping!  So he left to do that. The nurse came in around 12:15 and said the doctor was on his way and could veto her, but she didn't like what the heart rate was doing and didn't feel comfortable sending me home.  She said Corey needed to get back to the hospital soon because we were having a baby in an hour or two! I called him and told him to reschedule his appointment, turn around and get back as soon as he could because we were going to meet our little girl!  The doctor came in at 12:30 and confirmed that we were, indeed having a baby.  I called Carrie to tell her and my contractions were so bad I could hardly talk.  She called everyone else for me because I couldn't do it.  Another nurse came in to prep me for my C-section.

 From there it's a blur.  We were up in the operating room by 1:15 and shortly after that I had my spinal.  That was heaven.  Finally the pain was gone and I could rest.  I was SO tired. I think I slept through the entire surgery.  She was born at 1:45 pm. When she was born they said the cord had been wrapped around her neck twice and tied in a knot in another place.  No wonder her heart rate dipped with my contractions!  Luckily, everything was fine and she is totally healthy. She weighed in at 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 inches long. She was my smallest baby but was three weeks early.  I wonder how big she would have been if she had made it to her due date?  I woke up enough to see her when they held her up and to hear my doctor say we were done and he had tied my tubes (no more babies for us!) Then I slept.  I am sure the morphine didn't help. Corey held her while I slept for a few hours in recovery.  I remember them saying it was time to move to my room and gathering my stuff.  Then I remember being in the room, but nothing in between.

  That's when I finally held her and tried to feed her.  She wasn't acting too hungry and the nurse wanted her to eat more so I tried formula. She ate a little, then puked everything up!  They took her and sucked 12 cc's of amniotic fluid from her tummy.  No wonder she wasn't hungry! Poor little thing.  On Wednesday the pediatrician said she had jaundice and needed the treatment under the Billi lights.  She was in the nursery for 24 hours but they brought her to me every two hours to feed her.  I only got 30 minutes!  Talk about pressure. She wasn't always hungry when they said she should eat and it would often take half of our time fighting to get her latched on. We made it through and she was back with me Thursday morning.  She was absolutely perfect, my little Christmas gift.  We left the hospital Thursday afternoon to start our holiday festivities.  I'll post about the end of December next time!  Here are my favorite pictures from the hospital.

Finally resting after contracting for 8 hours and waiting for surgery.

Baby Ivy (in all her grossness)!



Corey is cutting the umbilical cord.



Daddy holding his beautiful baby girl.

Tired mommy, looking a little rough!

Beautiful Ivy (not gross anymore)!

Dr. Linnerson and baby Ivy

Sweet little thing!

Where am I and what just happened?

Finally coherent and alert enough to snuggle my baby girl!

Cora is such a proud big sister!

Sayer is a great big brother!

Here's Luke, not too sure about this whole thing.

Renner loves his little sister but you can tell by his eyes he has lots planned for her.
Hopefully she's a fighter.  She's gonna need to be tough to live with him!

Merry Christmas, Mommy!

What a proud daddy!