I had a full day of meetings scheduled at work on Tuesday the 15th and then decided to take Wednesday and Thursday off for vacation days before my scheduled c-section on Friday morning. My intention was to spend some one-on-one time with the boys, color my hair, get a pedicure, and catch up on laundry. I only got my hair colored! I went in at 11 am for my last non-stress test and was only on the monitor for about 10 minutes when the nurse sent me up to the hospital. Baby was having decelerations in her heart rate dropping to about 100 bpm from the 150 bpm range. I called Brandon and had him come meet me in labor and delivery. When I got there they put me back on the monitors and this time baby's heartrate was in the 200 bpm range (normal is between 120 and 180 bpm). The nurse said that they generally only see that if the Mom has a fever, which I did not. The heart rate stayed in that range for another 15 minutes or so and then settled in the 160-170 range with just a couple of decelerations. The nurse came in and said it was looking better but she didn't know what the Dr. on call would do - if he would do the c-section or send me home. I advised her that I had no intention of going home and that she might want to let Dr. know that if he tried to send me home I would put up a fight. If they were worried enough to send me to the hospital that fast then I was worried enough to not want to go home, especially after I saw her face when the heart rate was in the 200's. I also reminded her that my scheduled delivery was in less than 48 hours. She looked a little taken off guard but Brandon said I was nicer then I thought that I was. Turns out my "tough talk" wasn't necessary, as my regular Dr. had called in to the office to find out how my non-stress test went. She has been watching me and baby like a hawk - we are so thankful for her! When they told her that they had sent me to labor and delivery she came in to check it out and told the Dr. on call that she would do my c-section. When they decided to move ahead with the surgery everything moved pretty quickly. Brandon had left to get himself some lunch and I was worried that he wouldn't make it back! Dr. told me before the surgery that she predicted baby would be 7 lbs, I told her I predicted 7 lbs 10 oz. Turns out she was closer! She said that because I kept the gestational diabetes so well controlled it didn't add any extra weight to baby. The first time I heard Jenna cry I sobbed - what a beautiful sound. I only got to see her for about 10 or 15 seconds before they took her away to get cleaned up, but she looked beautiful. They asked Brandon if he wanted to come with them to the nursery. I told him he could go ahead an go but by the time I said it he was already up out of his chair and heading to the nursery. Guess he wasn't waiting for my permission! The procedure itself went very smooth - the only thing that made me nervous was that a 3rd year resident was apparently participating and I heard her say at one point "I don't know what my problem is today, I'm normally better than this." Things you don't want to hear your surgeon say during your operation!
After the procedure they took me to recovery where we started to make phone calls to everyone. It was fun because it was so unexpected - we didn't have time to call people before hand and no one was expecting her to arrive until the 18th! Grandma Lin was very excited and started to cry and ask a million questions. It wasn't until after we hung up that I realized she didn't ask baby's name and I forgot to tell her! Grandma Karen hung up quickly but arrived at the hospital within minutes! My boss Peggy sure was surprised, especially because I had just talked to her at 10:30 and there was no indication of baby's arrival! They transferred me to my room on the maternity ward and three hours after she was born they brought her back to me. Too long - I was dying to get my hands on her! They had pulled up her little hat in the operating room to show me her hair, but I didn't realize how much hair she really had. Wow! More posts on her first couple days coming soon...
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