Sweet Sunday Surprise

 

    My day did not start our well at all, but it sure finished sweet.  About 4 AM, my sleep deprived mind snapped and I had a little bit of a breakdown.  Being pregnant, pumped full of IV fluids, fetal monitors strapped to my tummy and trying to sleep in an unfamiliar bed finally took its toll.  Thankfully my wonderful doctor decided that I needed rest more than anything and disconnected all the monitors and IV fluids and I was able to sleep for a couple of hours.

  I was awoken to the news that my lab work was improving, and if the numbers were the same on Monday the decision to induce labor was even less clear.  The question of sending me home came up, but they still couldn’t guarantee that I would be home for Christmas.   So once again, my condition was “clear as mud” – but getting murkier.

   I got up to use the potty and everything changed.  I won’t go into details for the fainter of tummy, but let’s just say it was obvious something was wrong.  My nurse checked me and I had gone to 4 cm, so she called in Dr. Greenhaw.  The pitocin was started and epidural ordered….things progressed quickly.  I went from 4cm to  7cm in 45 minutes.  All that time I was frantically calling Jason, who had taken the kids to church.   I finally got a hold of  Brother Jackson on the church phone line, who had the fun job of finding Jason and telling him the news.

   After a very easy (and short!) labor, Gretchen made her way into this world screaming like a banshee at 3:05 PM.  She is 6 lbs, 2oz, and 19.5 inches long.  Quite the big girl for 34 weeks and 6 days – I shudder to think how big she would have been if I went full term!   She is breathing on her own, and has some minor preemie issues so she is in the NICU, we hope not for too long.  The neonatologist said maybe by Christmas.

  I forgot to put the memory card back into the camera after downloading pictures last night, so all the great shots Jason took of her being cleaned up, weighed, and measured don’t exist.  Thankfully they let him follow them to the NICU and he was able to get some there.

  We both thank all of you for your prayers, well wishes, offers of meals once we get home, and babysitting!  Without our extended family this would have been so much harder.  We can’t wait to get her home so we can share this tiny Christmas miracle with all of you.