Happy Birthday Lauren!

What a week this has been! Where do I even start. On Thursday night (last week) Hailey and Ethan were using me as a human jungle gym. I was lying on the couch and they were jumping up and down all around me. Well Hailey's foot nailed me right in the belly and it felt like I'd been stabbed by a knife. I laid there for a few minutes in tears because it hurt so badly. Then after the kids were in bed I got up and looked in the mirror, thinking I would see a bruise. Nothing. "Well that's a good thing" I thought to myself. I checked several more times that night to see if I'd bruised and never did. It still hurt a lot though.


I didn't sleep much during the night because I was in pain and I noticed the baby's kicked had decreased. So I was up a lot counting her every movement. By morning I was feeling a little better, but she was still less active than normal. I played around with the idea of calling my doctor, but I didn't have any bleeding or loss of fluid so I figured it wasn't anything to be concerned about. Then at 1:30 my sister called me and I told her what happened and asked her if SHE would be concerned. She said "Uh, yeah I would!" So I paged my doc and he called back. I didn't even get through explaining to him what had happened with Hailey before he said "You need to come on in to Labor and Delivery and get checked out". He told me of some tests he would run and if he wasn't happy enough with the results, he would want to deliver the baby that day! Aaahhhh!!! So I called Cody, left the kids at my sweet neighbor's house (thanks a million, Jen!) and off we went.


I didn't have time to clean up my house, let alone pack anything to take. I did however grab both cameras just in case this girl debuted. I was so scared and nervous the whole way there, just praying that the baby would suddenly become more active and get back to her normal self. But she never did. Finally at the hospital I was hooked up and monitored for 15 minutes, then moved into ultrasound. That was the longest U/S I've ever had! They looked and looked for everything. She looked in every knook and cranny to see if there was a problem. Although she couldn't find anything, during the hour long U/S we only saw the baby move about twice. That was a little scary. So then I was sent back over to L&D and hooked up to an IV of sugar water. They were hoping that getting some sugar into my blood would wake up the baby. Still nothing even after and hour on the IV. Then they moved onto another test where a doc did another U/S to check for movement and breathing (apparently babaies swallowing amniotic fluid is called their breathing). She looked and looked for about 30 minutes and barely saw a movement from her, and never saw her breathing. At about 8:00 that night she called my OB to give him the report and see what he wanted to do.


They were a little iffy about sending me home, but decided that things looked good enough to let me go. But there was this nagging voice that wouldn't shut up in my head that said "That's not good enough!" It wouldn't stop saying that! So I asked to talk to my doc on the phone and told him what I was feeling. He said he was more inclined to listen to that voice and go ahead and deliver her. I felt very relieved, but very scared!!! Luckily Cody had called my little sister hours before and told her what was going on, because she had planned on being here for the birth. It all worked out and she was able to get out of town and make it up here just in time. She walked into L&D as they were making the final decision.


The got me back to a pre-op room and got everything hooked up and ready. We sat around just waiting for the doc to get there and finally at 10:30 he showed. I was in the OR by 11:00 and at 11:37 p.m. on September 21 Lauren Elizabeth showed her cute little face. 6 pounds 10 ounces, 18.5 inches long. She wasn't as big as we thought she would be, but not bad for being 37.5 weeks gestation. She could have been a good 8 pounds if she'd waited that extra 13 days (until my scheduled c-section). Leighann got to video tape the birth and I'm excited to get to have it all documented. Lauren is so perfect and healthy and we're so happy to have this new little person join our family. I am not excited to go through the ordeal again any time soon, but I would gladly do it all over again for this baby and my other babies too. C-sections are certainly not for sissies, but things really couldn't have gone more smoothly. Lauren took to breastfeeding instantly and is such a sweet baby. Ethan and Hailey love her, but it's going to take some getting used to having a new baby around. Hailey is already trying to take over as Mommy. It's pretty cute.

Last night was our first night home and it went okay. It went a lot better than my first night home with Ethan and Hailey. I wasn't anxious or anything like I was with them. I guess I may be getting used to this! I will be posting something new each day so you can keep up with Lauren's development and the crazy happenings of our family. We are in for a wild ride!!!

Last pregnancy pic in pre-op.

Leighann kept everything light and fun!