She is here!!!

I am so proud to introduce Miss Aubree Joie Lord. She was born Monday January 11th, at 10:21 am. She weighed in at 6 pounds and 17 1/4 inches.

The past week and a half has been a blur. I got out of the hospital on Wednesday after spending 9 days there. Last Monday night I started contracting at home and could not get them to stop with the medicines that I had here. My mom came over to stay with the kids, it was 11 o’clock and they were sleeping. I was hoping that they would just give me a shot or two to make them stop and send me home. It didn’t exactly end up that way…

After getting to the hospital we found out that I was dilated to 2 cm (I had been one previously) They did give me a shot or two to try and stop the contractions, but also put me on magnesium to try and stop it. It didn’t stop. Around 7 am my Dr. decided that I should probably be transported to another hospital with a Level 3 nursery (this is the highest care for babies). Aubree was breech (her bottom was coming first) and if she had to be delivered I would have to have a cesarean. If Aubree needed more care than my hospital could give she would have to be transferred to a level 3 and I would be stuck at my hospital following the surgery. It made more sense to transfer me pregnant, so if I delivered, I would be at the same hospital as her. I was transferred by ambulance to Banner Desert. I was put in Labor and Delivery and the amount of my magnesium was bumped up to try and slow the contractions. Aubree at this time had turned in the ambulance ride to head first and I was now 3 cm. I was given another dose of steroids to try and mature Aubree’s lungs more quickly ( I also received these at 25 weeks). They did an ultrasound and my fluid had gone up again and Aubree was weighing approximately 5-12, which is big for a 33 week baby.  My contractions did slow and eventually I stabilized and it looked as if we had stopped the labor. On Wednesday I was feeling miserable. Magnesium works by relaxing every muscle in your body since your uterus is a muscle it stops it from contracting. My vision was blurry and I couldn’t walk to the bathroom. They turned my magnesium off and started me on two medicines by mouth, the terbutaline I had been on and a medicine called nifedipine. These medicines worked for about 12 hours and the contractions started again. I once again had to be put on magnesium, just as I was starting to feel “alive” again. I bawled when I found out I had to go on magnesium again. It makes you feel awful. I also felt selfish, I hated the way it made me feel, but I knew it was what Aubree needed to try and prolong her delivery. PPA which is a high risk pregnancy group consulted on my care. They suggested that I have an amniocentesis to see if by any chance Aubree’s lungs were mature (if this was the case we could stop all of the medicines and let her be delivered). They also wanted to rule out that there wasn’t an infection that was causing my body to labor and if that was the case then she would need to be delivered. The amniocentesis was terrible, it hurt so much. Poor Nate almost passed out during it. I would never have another one again, it was awful. The results came back and Aubree’s lungs were  not mature and I did not have an infection. All the more reason to stay on the magnesium to keep the contractions away. On Saturday I wasn't feeling well, but my sister surprised me and had a friend come and give me a pedicure, it was the highlight of my week. Saturday night I was feeling ok on the magnesium, Nate picked up Pei Wei and we had a little date in the hospital. On Sunday I was feeling awful on the magnesium again. I also was terribly homesick. The hospital has flu restrictions on and children under 12 are not allowed in. I missed my kids so much. Each time I thought about them or talked to them I just sobbed. I hadn’t seen them in almost a week. I had two amazing nurses that day that snuck my kids in (don’t tell, I am not mentioning any names) but they were the ones who kept me sane. I got a 15 minute visit with my kids and it meant everything. Here they are with their masks…they thought is was pretty cool to be sneaking around.

Sunday after the kids left I started contracting during the Cardinals game. It’s kind of ironic because Nate had said, “she is probably going to come during the cardinals game.” We increased the magnesium again, but the contractions kept getting stronger. I got many doses of the shot that is suppose to stop the contractions and nothing seemed to be working. The Dr. checked me and at this point I was 5 cm. Aubree was transverse. The Dr. came and talked to us and said, she thinks it is time to stop everything and have a baby. For whatever reason, the labor was progressing and none of the medicines were working anymore. Since Aubree was transverse the Dr. was going to try and turn her so that I wouldn’t have to have a cesarean. They had me get my epidural first in case we had to go to cesarean. They had Nate get changed into OR clothes and had me sign cesarean consents.

Luckily, Aubree turned very easily. She was too high though for the Dr. to safely break her water. So, they put me on pitocin all night to try and move her down to where it could be done safely. At 6:45 am the Dr. broke my water. About an hour or so later my contractions started to hurt. Anesthesia came and gave me more medicine through my epidural to make me comfortable. It lasted about 30 minutes and then started to hurt again, this time really bad. I was feeling all of my contractions. Anesthesia again came and said that it should have been working that they gave me a c-section dose. They again gave me more medicine. Within a couple of minutes I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I had what is called a high epidural I was numb up to my chest and felt like I couldn’t take a deep breathe. It was scary. I then felt like I needed to push. I was 10 cm and I started to cry. I think it was a cry of relief. It was almost over!

I pushed for eleven minutes and out came by beautiful baby girl, screaming. I was so relieved to hear her cry. She was taken to the NICU since she was six weeks early. Aubree had to be put on CPAP to help with her breathing and had to have an umbilical line put in because she was having problems with her blood sugar due to my gestational diabetes.

Aubree had done so well. She only had to be on the CPAP for about 24 hours. Her blood sugars stabilized and she got the umbilical line out. Here she is talking to her sister, Rylee on the phone. I am SO in love with this little girl. She was worth the wait and every minute of the terrible, long pregnancy. It broke my heart to leave the hospital when I was discharged on Wednesday night. I hated having to leave her there.

 

I have been there the past two days. Her main struggles now are jaundice and eating. She is under lights for the jaundice. She is eating much better yesterday and today. I even got her to latch on breast feeding.  I am hoping that she will get to come home sometime next week. We need her to start gaining weight now, today she was down to 5-7. Daddy didn’t get to hold her for the first couple days. This is the first time he held her. Yes, I am turning a little bit yellow. One of the rare times both eyes are open, most the time Aubree sleeps or peeks out of one eye.

I am SO happy to be done with this pregnancy. It was the longest time of my life. I had been on bed rest since October 23rd. I am proud of how far we got, although I wish I could have gotten a little farther, so that Aubree would have been able to come home with me and not be in the NICU. Thank you to everyone who helped us get her here. I would have never been able to do it without all of you!