Gladys Rose

As I sit here typing, I am still 5 days away from my official due date.

On June 9th I was supposed to go to Wonderland with my older girls and some friends. At the last minute, (and taking my doctor’s and husband’s advice) I decided that I’d  stay home instead. That maybe walking around a theme park in the hot sun for 10 hours, while 35 weeks pregnant, and an already engaged baby wasn’t the best idea…

On June 10th I went for my OB appointment and she sent me for an NST that night. She actually wanted me to go right away, but the girls had a recital that I wasn’t willing to miss. You can see the triplets play “Edelweiss” HERE… or Keona singing her solo HERE… All the videos are on my YouTube channel.

So I rushed home, got everyone ready for the recital, went to the recital, and then headed to the hospital for my NST. I joked with a nurse and then the doctor who kept asking me WHY I had so many kids… I was having contractions the entire time, but they weren’t very strong – just braxton hicks we all thought and I was sent home with a c-section scheduled for July 3rd. The next morning I went for an ultrasound where they checked baby’s lungs and found out they were good and developed. The kids were excited when I got home and said everything was good. I told them we still had another 22 days until we’d meet the baby. We had dinner and ice cream cones and they all went to bed. I spoke to Scott on the phone around 11pm, said goodnight and headed to bed. Not even half an hour later I woke up to a contraction that felt “real”. I didn’t think much of it at first, but after about an hour of them being consistent, and becoming more intense- I sent Scott a text to update him. By 1:30am I could no longer find a comfortable position. My back was cramping up with what felt like back labour and I was feeling sharp pains near my previous c-section scar. After having 6 caesareans and a previous dehiscence, my OB had warned us over and over again NOT to allow contractions to go without monitoring and these were definitely contractions. So I called Scott who was ready to leave work anyways, and I called my mom to come over and stay with the kids, and I tried to get a few things ready for the hospital. You’d think that after Lily’s birth I’d have been more prepared, but I wasn’t! I kept thinking that it was just cramps and I’d be sent back home.

 

My mom arrived at our place and waited by the door with me while I sat on the stairs and tried to dig my fists into my lower back to ease the pain. We heard a car speed down the street and both of us thought “that must be Scott”… Sure enough! We sped to the hospital in the pouring rain and they hooked me up to the monitors right away. We had probably been there for less than an hour when the OB on-call decided that it was best to deliver the baby. A few hours later, I was lying on the very familiar operating table with Scott at my side and we welcomed a 5lb 2oz baby girl into our family! Being 5 weeks early, she had a little bit of trouble regulating her breathing and heart rate at first. I kept shouting to Scott and asking if she was ok. (I couldn’t see her right after she was born because the curtain in the OR was in the way) He walked over to me and said, “Yes, she’s the same as she was when you asked me 30 seconds ago…” haha… Poor guy running back and forth between us to make sure we were both alright.

They took her to the nursery and I had to go back to my room to recover. Scott stayed with her and was texting me updates. I had been given an epidural instead of a spinal and I couldn’t believe how numb my legs were! I really wanted to get over to the nursery to see her, but my nurse told me I couldn’t go until I was able to stand up and get in a wheelchair. I got Scott to come back to the room and rub my feet to wake them up, and I’m surprised that I didn’t rip a stitch using my stomach muscles to try and get my legs moving. Oh, did I mention that the only pain meds I had been given up until this point were two tylenols? Apparently they were having trouble deciding what to give me since I’m allergic to morphine, and then it took over an hour to arrive from the hospital pharmacy. I was not in the best of moods. However, I was determined to see my baby. I called the nurse in and told her I was ready to go. She tried to tell me that my legs weren’t ready yet, and I may have lied when I told her that I could feel the ice cube on my calves. While she went to grab something I told Scott that he was going to have to support me (and make it look easy! ha!) because I had very little feeling in my legs. But we did it! I made it to the nursery and cried as I held my baby’s hand. She was hooked up to several monitors, an IV, and CPAP which meant it would be unlikely that I’d get to hold her. I think the nurse saw my tears, or she just truly believed in skin-to-skin, but she came over and said, “I know what you both need…” and picked my baby up (wires, tubes, and all) and put her to my chest. Then I cried again. This time a good cry. We decided to name her Gladys Rose – after my grandma. We call her “Addy” for short.

Addy and I spent the next 6 days in the hospital. I honestly have no complaints. All of the doctors and nurses were amazing.

I was given a room to stay in by the nursery free of charge.

Not to go into details, but there were a ton of things that could have gone wrong with this pregnancy and birth. My doctor had prepared me with a whole lot of worse case scenarios and I thought up just as many what-if’s… I can’t even begin to express how thankful I am that everything went as well as it possibly could have. There were none of the complications we had prepared for. I just kept thanking God for taking care of us.

After two weeks of her being at home with us, I can’t imagine it any other way. She is adored. She is already being spoiled. There is always a line up to hold her. Lily and Ella constantly walk by and say, “She’s so CUTE!” And they seriously cannot be near her without giving her a kiss.

When we brought her home from the hospital…

Jeddy was looking at Addy today and said, “She’s our special baby. She shouldn’t even be here because you weren’t suppose to be able to have any more babies. She’s lucky!”

I told him that I don’t believe in luck. I believe that God gave her to us. That she IS special – a special blessing.

What an amazing gift to our family…

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. 

- Psalms 139:14

 

I have way too many stories and pictures for one blog post… So there’s more to come. :)