Our Newest Addition!

Scarlett has arrived!!!!! She was born on Monday, June 1st at 5:06pm. Making her exactly 6 weeks early. She was 6lbs 6oz and 19 inches long. She is doing SOOOOO good!!! She continues to surprise everyone in the NICU. We're not sure how long she's going to be in there, but they are not ready to release me yet either so, we're both making the hospital our new home for a bit. Everyone seems really impressed with all that she's able to do. She is not on any machines and is doing great with her breathing and keeping her own temperature. She is VERY red though.....so living up to her name! Her red blood cell count was in the 60's when she was born, so we've been anticipating her needing to go under the billirubin lights, which they just started. Her number was still low (7.2), but we found out she is A+, and since I'm O+ there is an incompatibility, so they started her on the lights before she started to get worse.

And now for the story....

Wednesday my bleeding started to get worse, it was now red and all through the day it kept getting a little bit more and more. After Riley's last half day of school and Dean had left for work, I went upstairs to take a nap, when I felt even more bleeding. I decided that it was time to go into the hospital, so I called mom and she came and got the girls and I headed in. They did an ultrasound and hooked me up to monitors and started all the blood tests. I was not contracting, but my swelling and blood pressure was getting worse so they started in on preeclampsia testing, plus monitoring the bleeding. Wednesday was pretty uneventful, they did have to put a catheter in to be able to get urine for a test and then when it came back at 30 (0 is normal) I had to start a 24 hour urine test, which is collecting all your urine every time you pee for 24 hours, only I had to try to do it without getting any blood in it (yeah, good luck).

Thursday as I was getting up to pee I had a huge gush of blood, so this put me in bed with another catheter to be able to finish up the 24 hour urine. They also checked me at this time and I was at a 3. Still no real contractions, so mostly just monitoring the bleeding and the baby.

Friday about midnight the 24 hour test was done and it came back at 300, which put me at mild preeclampsia. And then Friday about noon I got a HUGE headache. Which they weren't sure whether it was caused by the preeclampsia or the blood pressure medicine they had started me on, or the loss of blood. But they were willing to give me pain meds, so I pushed through it, although it didn't end until mid-Saturday. Through out all of this Scarlett's heart rate was great! Everyone was so happy with how she was handling all of this (plus they had no desire to deliver a 33 week baby). Plus the bleeding had also slowed down.

On Saturday my headache finally started to subside during the afternoon. They had been doing constant blood tests to monitor my blood loss, and also my liver functions (for the preeclampsia). The tests were always coming back normal so that made the docs happy. She was still doing really good. Every once in a while I would contract, but nothing big or consistent. They decided that they would do another 24 hour test, since they weren't sure whether the bleeding had made the last test abnormally high. When I was almost done with the test, my bleeding picked up again, so they decided that we would completely redo the test with a catheter (so now up to my 3rd, so not fun!!!!)

Sunday I spent with contractions on and off during the day. The bleeding started to slow again. Later that night the results of the 24 hour test came back and I was now at 600. The doctor on shift talked to the high risk docs and they decided that since my other symptoms where under control they weren't going to induce yet, just wait for something to change for either me or Scarlett so she would have more time.

Well apparently she had other plans! I woke up at 4 am when my water broke. I have never had my water break on it's own before! So they waited to see if I would start contracting on my own. The contractions were there, but not consistent or strong and about 11 am they decided that it was time to start me on Pitocin. About 1 pm I got my epidural. And then when my nurse checked me (I think it was about 4:30) I was up to an 8. The epidural had started to wear off (which had never happened with Alexandra and Riley) so I was in pain. I told the nurse that I go very quickly after I get to 6, so she started getting all the stuff in the room ready, the baby warmer, calling NICU, getting all the equipment and then she was going to call the anesthesiologist to see about getting more drugs when I felt like pushing. So she hurried and got the doctor in, who was barely able to get the bed apart and get sat down with equipment when I started pushing. After 3 sets of pushing, she was here! And I have never felt such excruciating pain in my life!!!!!!!! Both other girls I couldn't even feel the contractions to know when to push, and this one I felt it all. And then she was here!

And here are the pictures!! Please forgive me for the ones with me in them, not only had I just been through labor, but they hadn't let me shower in days!!! I know, no big deal, but it makes me feel better to say that!

Dean calls this her "Hercules Pose". I swear this is how she was in my belly.......

Oh yeah!!! The cool sunglasses!!!!

This is taking forever to post, no time, slow hospital internet, trying to nap and eat...so quick update on my sweet girl! She is doing amazing!!! They took her IV out early this morning. She had her last glucose test this afternoon (as long as she keeps eating). Her billirubin count is down to 6.9. They will check it again tomorrow morning. She is nursing great! All of the nurses keep saying how she does better then a lot of full term babies. She's up to nursing for about 20 mins and then takes an ounce of formula on top of that. She is such a good baby. She hardly fusses at all, even when she's hungry and having to wait to eat. Hopefully that stays the same! Although she is very easily distracted. Any time she hears a noise she has to look and see whats going on, which doesn't help when I'm trying to feed her. Last time they weighed her she was only down 3% of her body weight, so super good! Especially since she really hadn't started eating good until today.

I am actually feeling really well. I didn't need any pain medicine today! So far even though I haven't gotten much sleep, I'm still feeling pretty rested. I feel like I have no time though. I'm down in the NICU nursing, then in my room pumping, then I either eat or shower or take a nap and then I'm back to the NICU. I love getting to sit and rock with her when she's done eating. She is such a snuggler! My feet have swollen up huge!!! It hurts to walk, and I can't feel my ankle bone at all on either side when I push on it. My blood pressure is still running high, but they don't want to put me on any blood pressure medicine because my hematocrit is so low. I lost a lot of blood during the delivery. They told me that I lost about the same amount as someone who goes through a c-section, and that was just during the delivery, not including what I lost before hand and after. My hematocrit kept dropping till it hit 20 (I was told 40 is normal) and barely started going back up yesterday afternoon to 22. They will check it again in the morning, but I'm feeling good and looking good (meaning I have some color....not looking like my usual self yet). I will probably be discharged tomorrow, but I will get to stay as a "border" for two more days. There hasn't been any talk of when Scarlett might be able to go home, and I haven't wanted to ask yet.....I'm scared to hear it will be a super long time, and so I don't want to know. I'm hoping she just keeps doing so good and that they will just surprise me!

Well, I hope that this wasn't too rambly and that it all made sense! Just remember how sleep deprived I am! I probably won't post any more until I get home, it's just too hard to try to do this and it usually takes up when I should be napping....but I wanted to get something posted, plus the pictures for everyone to see!