Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Sophia Gabriella~1 Day Old and Birth Story



First I want to say thank you girls for all the support through this pregnancy. All the well wishes mean more than you'll ever know. And THANK YOU for not pounding if I had my tubes tied. lol! I think that question has been asked about 30 times in the past day from different people. lol I didn't just to let you all know but me telling willingly is so much better than being hounded by everyone.
The past day has been a bit surreal. It's hard to believe we have this new cute baby and we get to take her home tomorrow. I told Dave when we arrived, "am I really pregnant? What if they open me up and there's nothing in there." He just thought I was a weirdo like normal. lol Dave decided he wanted to compromise on her name which surprised the heck out of me. He said we could put Sophia (my top pick) as her first as long as Gabriella was her middle. Everyone seems to love it! I love Gabriella but I told him I was afraid everyone would shorten it to Gaby which I didn't like. Sure enough as people filtered into the hospital yesterday for a peek and heard Gabriella they said "Gaby" so he had a change of heart.

Monday I started feeling better after about 4 pm. I'm not sure what I had but thankfully it never gave me a fever. I ended up taking 3 naps during the day and that evening I was cleaning like crazy making up for lost time earlier that day, doing laundry, installing carseats and just getting everything I could think of done before having to leave early the next morning. We finally ended up going to bed around midnight after I ate a few pieces of apple dessert pizza from Papa Murphy's at 11:30. I did NOT want to starve to death before and after surgery.

We woke around 4 am and I felt so sick, ended up puking in the shower however no food came up which was good. Got to the hospital at 5:30 and the nurses were ready to start prepping. I was fine but told Dave I think I was possibly hungry already. I couldn't believe it because I stayed up especially to eat and drink right before my midnight cut off. The first thing they usually do is the IV and as soon as she started I felt extremely weak. Didn't pass out but started throwing up over and over. I knew this was NOT going to be an easy surgery right about this time. lol We got the belly bands on so we could listen to our girl and I took the death cocktail (it's a nasty acid drink given before a C-section to control the stomach) They knew I was feeling terrible and said I could puke it up at any time as long as I drank it and kept it in for a few seconds. Well plugging my nose I drank it and kept it in for about 20 minutes and then I lost it again. Poor Dave held a pink bucket next to my head as I just threw up over and over. This is a pic of miserable me with my puke bucket. lolThe nurses were really supportive trying to assure me this C-section would be a piece of cake for me since I was a "pro." Ha. It was so funny seeing these ladies coming in saying "Hey I remember you!"

Around 6:30 the Anasteologist came in to go over everything. I told him of the problem I have every C-section with my blood pressure dropping and how I feel like I'm going to die. He promised he would take great care of me and try not to worry. He was a bit concerned that I had thrown up 3 times in the past 3 hours but said he would do all he could to make me comfortable. My OB came in just a few minutes before 7:30 to say hi and check on Sophia's stats. We were a bit shocked when she came in and told me that the baby had a heart arythmia. I told her I "thought" something sounded odd the past 2 hours on the monitor but figured the doppler wasn't catching her heart rate when I moved in the bed. It wasn't the monitor though, her heart was skipping around I just didn't want to believe it. Talk about wanting to lose it. I held tears back but was scared out of my mind. She said after delivery it may straighten out and we just needed to wait but because of this discovery they were calling our Ped to be at the hospital.

It took about 30 minutes in the OR for them to get me ready. The spinal actually kinda hurt this time, I think he was a bit rough but my legs went numb and I thought I was good to go. He started to lay me down and just like that the feelings that I was going to die hit me. My chest started feeling like I couldn't breathe, the room started spinning, my arms grew extremely heavy. They sat me back up quickly and I told him "this is what always happens." He gave me something to conteract my blood pressure dive, giving it to me twice he said. It started working after a minute or two and they laid me back down. According to him, I should NEVER have a spinal. I've had 4 surgeries awake and I should have had epidurals not spinals. It's a condition called Surprime? where first the dosage of the spinal is given all at once and my body can't handle it where as a epidural it's a slow process. Then my Aeorta is being cut off by the weight of the kids laying flat on my back so both of those together is causing this horrible drop in my blood pressure and cutting off the blood supply to my head. Anyways it was NICE to finally have someone diagnosis what was always happening to me because this has always been my biggest fear going into each surgery since I now expect it to happen. During surgery my OB did tell us that my bladder was fusing to my uterus from all my previous surgeries. That was a pretty big blow (could mean no more babies) but I'm dealing very well with it. I'm sure when my hormones start to change it'll hit me.

The surgery went quick and I had her at 8:03 am. She was so purple and obviously huge when they showed her to us but then they took off with her quick and told Dave he probably needed to go in there. I figured it was just because of her heart but as soon as I got out of surgery I found out from Dave that she had some sort of defect in the mouth. At first they thought it was cleft palate or something so they passed her off to our pediatrician and I didn't see her or hold her while they sewed me up like normal. An ENT Dr came up last night to examine her and he can't even identify what it is. Basically she has 3 low hanging lumps in her mouth attached to her gum plate that are hard tissue. In this picture you can see one of them. She's able to suck and breastfeed so they don't want to take them out or mess with them until she is a bit older. When they are removed they will test them to make sure they aren't anything bad. (or as he said cancerous which has me freaked out) Thankfully it's only noticable when she is opening her mouth or screaming. lol I hope and pray they are nothing, that's about all we can do but this was a completely different birthing story as I've never had a child come out with any issues that could mean a problem.

So now Sophia is 1 day old and today she means business. She's hungry and is rooting all over the place. Yesterday she was all about snuggling and sleeping and I kept her with me in bed all day. Few of the nurses didn't like me co-sleeping instead of having her sleep in her bassinet. I finally gave her to the nursery at 1 am till about 5 when they brought her in for me to nurse her. Tomorrow morning we hope to be going home. The kids saw her yesterday but of course Alex and Dominic were the only ones that really knew much about we were bringing her home. Damien knows but he was all about running around in the room. Mia eyed her but didn't really care. lol I'm getting around great and ready to get home and back to a normal, non-pregnant life. lol I can't even begin to express how happy I am that everything turned out ok and I made it through another surgery safely.

12 comments:

Kris said...

I'm sorry things didn't go the way you hoped, but am glad you're all ok. She is a beautiful baby...

S said...

Awww Sabrina! Sophia is just so beautiful! I am so happy for you! Congratulations sweetie! Awww man I'm must be hormonal because I am crying! She's so sweet!

Bird's Eye View Photography said...

Yeah! She is gorgeous! I am so glad to hear that everything went well and you will be going home safely!

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad to hear that you and Sophia are doing well. And I think that's adorable that Dave changed his mind on the name. I absolutely love the name Sophia (I love Gabriella too, but I like Sophia more).

I will keep you in prayer for a speedy recovery and Sophia that none of her "problems" actually are problems.

She is beautiful! Congratulations!

Jen said...

Im happy to hear you and Sophia are doing well!! I love the name switch.

Terri said...

Sabrina she is beautiful! I will keep all of you in my thoughts and prayers! Best wishes!

Amie said...

YEA! I am so happy for you. Have been thinking about you the last couple of days! ((hugs)) Amie :)

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry there are issues you need to be concerned with, but your faith will get you through. She is beautiful! I'm happy you finally know what was going on in the OR with your blood pressure. (Keep that doc's name handy incase you get the go ahead for another in the future.)

Take care.

Anonymous said...

She is gorgeous, Sabrina! Hairy babies are the best. ;)Congratulations!!!

Norberto Kurrle said...

I really like the name you gave your daughter. She's beautiful. I

Finally you got some real answers about your l&d struggles.

Hugs and prayers for a smooth and rapid recovery.

Lorie said...

Congrats Sabrina! She is beautiful!

Michelle said...

Congrats! I'm glad everything went well for you and your family. Enjoy!