I
walked to labor & delivery from my doctor’s office and got settled in my
room. We still had about 2 hours until
we were scheduled to go back into the operating room. It was uneventful – they asked me a bunch of
questions, monitored baby, put the IV in, and then prepped me for surgery. Daniel
was there and both of our parents came to see the new Harris addition. I wasn't nervous at all for the surgery part,
but I was for baby girl. She was 36
weeks and the NICU was going to be present for the birth just in case she
needed any help. I was comforted in the
fact that when I had my kidney stone surgery, they gave me steroid shots to
help her lungs mature a bit. I just
wanted her to come out crying and strong – I didn't want her to have to stay in
the NICU and me lose those first hours of her life with her.
It
was finally time! I remember being surprised I had to walk myself into the
OR. The other times, I was in labor and
had already been given an epidural so they had wheeled me back in the bed. This time, I was going to be given a
spinal. The anesthesiologist did great. Medicine kicked in, my doctors (there were 2
present) started doing their thing, and Daniel finally walked in to be by my
side. I felt TONS of pressure this time
with a sharp pain in my right side.
Apparently, she was stubborn coming out so they had to work a little
harder. Afterwards I was told they had
to use the vacuum to help her out.
Thankfully I wasn't aware, because the thought of that makes me freak a bit. My doctor had asked if I wanted to
see her come out by pulling down the curtain – um…yes!! So, they pulled down the curtain for us
me to see her being delivered. It was
pretty neat since I wasn't given that option with the other girls. Daniel turned his head until my stomach parts weren't in his view (he doesn't handle that stuff well). We had a beautiful CRYING baby girl!! The
most amazing sound – what a relief! Harper
Madden was here! They took her to do all of the assessments they needed to do,
and she was perfect – no NICU stay J
Unfortunately, I didn't do the initial skin to skin in the OR because I
had this horrid throbbing pain in my neck.
Thankfully, the anesthesiologist started pumping me with additional meds
and it took care of it. Daniel went to
be with Harper while the doctors finished with me (at my request). She passed her initial tests with a 7 out of
9 (immediate results) and then 9 out of 9 (5 minute results).
I
got back to the room and Harper was in the nursery getting additional tests
done and they wanted to watch her for a bit to make sure she was stable. Because she was 36 weeks – she was considered
pre-term and everything was taken
with caution. No bath until after 24
hours of life to make sure she could regulate her body temperature and nurses
had to prick her heel to check her glucose before every feeding for the first
24 hours. She also had to do an hour and
a half car seat test to make sure she didn't have any problems sitting in the
seat to go home. Harper was a champ
though and passed everything J
As
soon as they brought her to me, she immediately latched on to nurse! Woohoo!! She was perfect and beautiful and had such light hair! Her
sisters had dark, so it was a pleasant surprise to see. For being a pre-term baby she was big –
weighing in at 7 pounds 4 ounces. Can
you imagine how big she would've been if I waited another 4 weeks?!
We are so lucky to have THREE healthy little girls – our family is complete! We knew we were finished having kids, but the aftermath of this delivery definitely confirmed that even more…
.JPG)