Doing better.

It has been one week today since our cute little girl arrived. (I don't feel like the word "born" is the right word when she was cut out of me.) What a whirl wind of emotions it has been.

The day of surgery was long for me. I was awake from 3am to 4:30am, went back to bed, then was up for good by 5:30am. At 6 I had a big bowl of oatmeal and at 7 I had a 3 egg and cheese omlet, as my final meal. It was no more eating for me after that. Jeff went into work for a few hours while I finished up some laundry and finished cleaning through the house. Ginger, Jeff's mom, came down from Utah to be with the boys and arrived about 12:30, as did Nik, Jeff's brother. By 1:15pm we were off to the hospital. Having it linger over me all day was so stressful! There is something to be said for just going into labor, not knowing when it is going to hit. You don't have the anxiety building up. Needless to say, my bowels were a wreck and to summarize the day would be IBS! I got settled in, got my IV started, blah, blah, blah. The doctor was running about 20 minutes behind, which gave me one last chance to run to the bathroom.

I walked into the O.R. and sat up on the table, knowing, or thinking I knew, just what was in store for me. Got my spinal tap, which was a breeze! My IV hurt way worse. I couln't even feel the spinal at all, or the lower half of my body after about 3 minutes. They scrubbed me down and put up the big blue curtain. This is when Jeff came in. He was a real trooper. We arrived at the maternity floor at 1:45 and surgery didn't start until 3:45. So it was a lot of waiting for me and him. It seemed like forever for them to get to the baby. Normally a 10 minute procedure took them about 30 minutes. My body was full of scar tissue from my previous 2 c-sections, and it was a real mess. Jeff described it as looking like hamburger. Yes he looked, I couldn't believe it, but he watched just about the whole thing. They were cutting and cauterizing forever. Then with a bit of pulling and tugging and LOTS of pressure, out came baby's head, screaming like crazy. 4:09pm. I was sure they had delivered her but at that point it was only her head. Another big push on my belly and out came the rest of her. Instantly, just from hearing her cry, I was in love! The doctor held her up at the curtain so I could see-she was beautiful, blood and all! Off she went to the side with the nurses and Jeff to get APGAR-ed and cleaned up and then the real work began for the doctors. Stitching up all the many layers. When a nurse came in and said the baby was 6 lbs 14 oz, I couldn't believe it. We made a little baby! How great is that! Who would have known it to be possible. So great! An hour later they finished sewing me up and wheeled me into my room. I didn't get sick! The first time ever after a baby! So exciting for me.

Josephine spent her first 4 hours in the NICU. Her resperatroy rate was too high, most likely due to fluid in her lungs. (very common with c-section babies.) It was so sad for me to sit there and have to wait. Jeff took all the boys to the nursery window so they could see her and it killed me that I couldn't. So sad for me to wait for so long for this baby, and then to have to wait 3 more hours seemed like eternity. They finally brought her in, around 7:45, and she far exceeded all my expectations of a little girl. She is so beautiful and perfect and little and did I mention perfect?! What a wonderful family I have been blessed with. Jeff was so great about everything! Kate was a real trooper and spent the night with me that first night. It was so great to have her there. I know she was so sleep deprived when she left, but it meant so much to me to have her there with me to help me and take care of Josephine.

I could go on about all the other details, but I won't. If you want to know, call me and I'll fill you in. I hope to be better about updating from now on. This first week was a rough one and hopefully the worst is behind. Here are a few more pictures. Thank you to all of you who called and visited and helped with my kids and brought me and my family yummy food. I realize how lucky I am to have such a wonderful family and friends.