Catching up on...Haley's pregnancy and birth

Little Miss Haley joined our family on January 23rd,2019. She was 8 pounds 4 oz (our smallest baby by an ounce) and nobody really knows how long she was. Her birth certificate says 22 inches but I'm not sure. Several different people measured her with several different lengths ha! 

She was born via c-section. I went into it totally kosher, thinking that all would be fine, I've done this twice before, no big deal. Boy was I wrong! 

My pregnancy with her was pretty uneventful. I had some morning sickness in the beginning and lost a few meals down the toilet. We also traveled to Florida when I was 5-6 weeks pregnant and then to Nebraska when I was 14 weeks pregnant. Those made for some long road trips because we had to stop every 2.5-3 hours so I could get out and walk. It sucked! I like to just get in the car and go and only stop for meals and potty breaks.
Anyway, My heart did some funky things so I was put on a heart mediciation and even had to wear a heart monitor for a couple days in early January. Everything was normal and just pregnancy related things. A few times during routine appointments, my blood pressure would be through the roof, so I would end up in labor and delievery to be monitored. I think they were close to taking her early but that didn't happen. 
So c-section morning came. We got dumped with snow the night before. Our amazing neighbor Jim was out snow blowing us out of our driveway at 6am so we could get out of our driveway and head to the hospital. 
    The surgery time came and I was a bag of nerves as always. The anesthesiologist was a super sweet man and was super patient and helped me get into position for the spinal block. Unlike the lady that I had with Elliana who was just rude. Anyway, it takes a few times to get the spinal block in but I just breathed through it and he got it in. Then I get in position and Matt's brought in. I learned through my previous two surgeries to tell them everything I was feeling, even if I felt it was silly. I got lightheaded a few times, and nauseous but he was able to take care of everything. I also felt short of breath, but he reassured me that my oxygen levels were great and I also had the nose thing with oxygen going. So the doctor gets things going and before I know it, she's out! I of course cried hearing her cry and asked if she was alright. She was perfect! It wasn't long before she was laying on my chest with the help of a nurse holding her. 
    I was in new baby bliss when things got really quiet and I noticed my doctor looking very concerned. They took Haley off of me, Matt held her. Before I knew it the doctor is working frantically, and the anesthesiologist was shoving meds in the iv and I got a shot in the shoulder. Turns out my utuerus wasn't contracting like it needed to and I was hemorraging. At one point I gasped from pain and it was because the doctor had his hands up inside my stomach past the point of where the spinal block numbed things. It was pretty scary but they got things under control. I was able to get Haley back while they finished stitching me up.  Then we got to go back to our room for skin to skin time before she was taken to the nursery for newborn stuff. 
   My recovery was rough to say the least. I was supposed to be able to walk that evening but I kept getting light headed. So they let me rest and we tried the next morning. I was able to walk to the bathroom fine but would get lightheaded and almost pass out. I kept at it though trying to push through. The nurses finally had enough and called the doctor when I tried to take a shower but couldn't make it out. I didn't even get to shower before everything started buzzing and turned white. I just barely was able to pull the help cord. The nurse said I was pure white and she was quite worried about me. The doctor came and ordered another heart test. I was then taken off a heart med to see if that helped. It worked and I was finally able to shower the next day and take walks around the hospital floor we were on. And then I got a spinal headache. It wouldn't go away even with iv pain meds. One of the other doctors was close to ordering a blood patch for me. But I took their migraine cocktail again, strong tea, something to knock me out, Haley went to the nursery for 4 hours, we closed the curtains and the nurses were ordered to stay out unless we called. I got a good sleep in and woke up feeling pretty good so I didn't need that blood patch. 
   We went home on saturday. We surprised the kids with us coming home! My recovery at home was rough, lots of pain, took a few weeks before I could lay in anything other than the recliner. I felt better once staples came out but was still slow going. Thankfully the weather sucked, extreme cold windchills (Jeremiah's school was cancelled quite a few days), and lots of snow so we just stayed home and snuggled unless we had appointments to go! And there are so many appointments after having a baby! 

That's the birth and recovery in a nutshell! Next I'll catch up on her past year and a half of life!

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