Let's see if I get the time to write this out all the way!


On the 30th of October my OB came to see me in the morning. She told me that my bloodwork was sliding deeper into severe preeclampsia territory and that she wanted to deliver me on Monday when she came back on shift- but if things got bad, someone else would do it that weekend.

I was super excited at the prospect of finally meeting my little girl and getting the heck out of here. Apparently Karina was too- a few hours later I was chatting with my MIL and Dh and my blood pressure skyrocketed to 195/120. It would NOT come down, and my head started pounding worse than I'd ever felt. My nurse took one look at me ande called my OB right away- but she'd already gone home for the day.

Dr. Barbour was on call instead, the head of OB/GYN at this hospital. He's a very intimidating older gentleman who is known to get to business and tell it like it is. She had a quick conversation with him and said to me "Oh honey, it looks like you're going to surgery. Time to have this baby!" Within 5 minutes I was being wheeled to Pre-Op with my husband running behind me, calling my family on his cell. I couldn't even really begin to comprehend things though, my head hurt so badly.

We get to the pre-op room where the anasthesia is already waiting for me. He puts in an IV (with Lidocaine, so I felt nothing- yay!), and starts talking about what he'll need to do for a spinal, my medical history, and so on. All the while they are taking my finger and thumbprints for the birth certificate. It was a whirlwind! Dr. Barbour comes in and chats with me for about two minutes about the plan of action, but his bedside manner was so excellent it was like talking to a different person. He was almost grandfatherly, patting my hand and telling me everything would be ok, it was just time to have this baby.

When everything was cleared and ready, DH suited up and I was wheeled in. It took them FOREVER to get the spinal right- apparently I have very narrow spaces between my bones. That was really the worst part- no real pain, just electric jolts. It took them a good half hour to get me numb. Then they let hubby in, and I remember being awed into silence by how fast everything was going. It was like hurry, hurry, hurry- and then when they started the c-section, things slowed down so much. Dr. Barbour was chatting with the nurses in the OR, telling me I had quite a bit of scarring from my previous c-sections that he was removing along with a bit of extra skin (free mini tummy tuck, yay). When they finally got to Karina, the suction machine was set up wrong. Dr. Barbour was quite ticked off, the nurses had to re attach the tubing which someone had put in backward. As soon as they fixed it, I heard a gurgling sound and then this little kitten-y cry. They took her right to the warming bed as she was only 35 weeks, to assess her breathing. She scored 9 and 10 on her Apgars, but started grunting a bit. I didn't get to hold her for long before she was whisked off to the nursery (not the NICU- crazy huh?) to see if she was having trouble breathing. They found her blood sugar to be extremely low, which is common for preemies. They had to give her a bottle of formula right away, which she drank like a champ. My husband was able to be with her the whole time.

After my stay in recovery, she was able to room in with me right away. But since she's so teensy, it tires her out to nurse for too long. What I've been doing is nursing her on both sides for as long as she can stay awake (which is getting better every day as she gains in strength), and then supplementing with formula. Usually grandma or DH will feed her while I pump to establish supply. My milk came in today which I was stoked about! Hopefully as she gets stronger and stronger, she won't need as much formula, til we're exclusively BF'ing. I'd rather see her using her energy to grow than trying to get all her nutrition from the breast. As I produce more milk too, she can have pure EBM in her bottles.

She's been able to room in with me this whole time which I find kind of miraculous. Aside from her feeding, she has no issues- no digestive, breathing, heart rate, apnea, nothing, she's healthy! I'm truly blessed to have her safe and sound. If she passes her carseat evaluation tonight, we go home in the morning! Pictures incoming as I get them resized.

If you got all the way to the bottom of this, good for you! Haha!

__________________