Friday, April 20, 2012

Introducing.....

                                               Sabrina Fair Keyser - Born April 18th 2012!!!



We are thrilled to introduce our new little daughter to the blog world!  She was born at 3:48 PM on April 18th weighing 7 lbs 9 ounces and 20.5"  Long.  She is perfect and healthy in every way - God answered every one of our prayers!  


For those who like to read about the birth story, here is how it all went down:

Last week at my 38 week appointment my blood pressure and heart rate were high for the 3rd week in a row.  This started setting off some warning signals with my doctor and so she sent me over to labor and delivery for a non-stress test and bio-physical profile of the baby to make sure that the baby was still handling pregnancy well.  The baby showed perfect results on all of the tests ran so I was sent  home.  I was also told I was 3cm, 60% effaced and the head was fully engaged.  I figured labor would be right around the corner.

Fast forward to the weekend and for about the past  10 days leading up to this point, I was having "early labor" symptoms in the night.  This meant, like clockwork somewhere between 12:30 and 2:00 in the morning contractions would start up and would last until about 5:00 in the morning then fade away.  They were timed about 5 minutes apart, but just never strong enough to actually make me feel like I needed to go to the hospital.

On Sunday (the 15th) night I had about 5 or 6 very painful contractions in a row, and then they went away. I was kind of getting infuriated with the whole lack of sleep and fake labor thing so on Monday the 16th I gave my doctor's office a call just to see what they would say.  They wanted to send me over to labor and delivery to get checked out just in case the contractions were causing me to dilate more.  So that brings me to our second triage visit in a week.  I am so not the person who wanted to run to labor and delivery for every little thing. I got to triage, nothing much happening besides that I was still having high blood pressure.  I was told that I was still 3cm and that the head was now very high up.  Hmm, this was very discouraging news that now it appeared the baby was going the other direction.  But, after the nurse talked with my doctor they decided that due to my blood pressure ongoing problems that I should be set up for an induction on Thursday the 19th. 

So then, we come to Tuesday the 17th.  I had my weekly appointment with my doctor.  All my stats were about the same, but my blood pressure was a little bit better.  This caused my doctor to kind of reconsider the induction idea as she really wanted me to continue baking as long as possible but also wanted to weigh the risks of my health. She finally decided an induction should be perfect at 39 weeks so she told me to report back to the hospital at 6:00 AM the next day. I said that I was told it would be Thursday, she said no she wanted it to be done on Wednesday.  So to make a long story short, we ended up with a Wednesday the 18th 7:30 AM induction start time.  At the same time, since I had mentioned a major decrease in movement, my doctor sent me over to triage yet again for a final NST - yikes 3 trips to triage in one week!  


So, with the boys all settled in at Grandma's house, Peter and I went out for one final dinner date night.  After dinner we came home and cleaned house, got the final little things packed and then headed off to bed where I could hardly sleep as I anticipated meeting my baby in the morning.  It was kind of a cool thing to have it all scheduled and have everything perfectly in place.

We got up around 6:00 in the morning and got to the hospital right on time.  We got up to our room and were told that due to some unexpected c-sections we would be on hold for a few more hours, so we could just hang out and wait.  So we just sat there and waited.

Slowly but surely they got things going.  We went through lots of paperwork and got my IV hooked up and before we knew it, it was 10:30 and they got my pitocin drip going.  We were on our way!  I started my induction at 3cm and 80% effaced.

So we waited for the contractions to kick in.  My doctor had told me I could get my epidural anytime I wanted one, so I waited until the contractions were in a regular pattern but still got it in plenty of time to have a nice labor :)  By 11:30 the epidural was in place and I was contracting about every 1-2 minutes apart so we were well on our way.  My epidural wasn't quite as perfect this time, but I still was very glad to have it.  I had a "window" where I could still feel the contractions in a small spot on my left side.  However, my right side was extremely numb!

As soon as I got my epidural, my high blood pressure became very low blood pressure so I was being monitored closely for that.  Around 1:00, my doctor came in and checked me and I was 4cm and 90% effaced.  My doctor decided to break my water and really get the ball rolling!  

It was a pretty calm day.  We were just kind of hanging out and waiting.  I let my nurse know that once I hit 6cm with Eli I progressed to complete in 45 minutes so she went ahead and got the labor table all ready just in case I started moving along.  We had an awesome nurse who treated us so great and we had a lot of great conversations with her about adoption!  

At 2:45 I was checked again and was 5cm with the head really low.  I kind of felt like things weren't moving all that fast, but I also had a lot of confidence in my ability to progress quickly once labor got going.  

And progress I did!  Around 3:30 my nurse came in because the baby was having some heart decels and the heartrate was starting to stay down for longer periods of time.  My nurse decided to go ahead and check me and I was at 8cm!  She decided it was time to go ahead and give my doctor a call and get ready.  No sooner did she leave the room to call the doctor and I started to feel some pressure.

My doctor as in the room a few minutes later and they started getting ready for delivery. At 3:40 I was complete and started pushing at 3:45.  With the first push the baby was already mostly out.  At this point my doctor told me I needed to keep pushing and 3 minutes later I met my little girl!  After the birth we found out that I had an umbilical cord prolapse, which can be an extremely dangerous situation so we were very fortunate that she came out as quickly as she did.

This delivery went perfect!  They put her right on my chest and let Peter announce what we had! I was so happy!  They all knew how difficult of a time I had with Eli being taken right from me so they let me have as much time with her skin to skin as I wanted!  She came out perfect in every single way!  



After close to an hour of time with her on me, I told them they could take her and weigh her.  They said I could keep her if I still wanted her.  She wasn't gone for too long though and we found out she was a perfect 7 lbs 9 ounces and 20 1/2"




                                                                             
                                                       Peter got some snuggle time too!


                           After a few hours we had family come in.  I was very eager to see my boys!


                                                               Eli LOVED his baby sister!



                                                  It didn't take long for us to get her in pink :)



Things went so well for both of us that we were released a day early! We have prayed so hard for a healthy baby and she did so good with everything.  She was even very low on the scale for jaundice, and has done great with feedings.  It felt really good to get out of that hospital and home with our little family!




All the stress of these last few months is behind us.  I feel such a sense of relief having her here, MY DAUGHTER!  This has not been an easy pregnancy.  I have spent so much time worried about how everything would turn out and I could not have asked for a better ezperience this time!  I feel like my life is so full now - with 2 sons and now a precious little daughter - I don't think I could be any luckier!!!

3 comments:

Amy Wolff said...

Oh my. Tears as I rejoice with you in your sweet baby girl. Congrats! What a story ;)

Elle J said...

I am so excited that you have boys and a girl! Congratulations and Praise God for health for Mommy and Daughter!! Enjoy, and I can't wait for more and more blog posts about your family of five. =)

Brittany Gilbarte said...

Hi!
My name is Brittany and my family is adopting two children from Africa. (we actually just got a referral!) I found your blog off http://filledwithpraise.blogspot.com/and have enjoyed looking through it. You have very beautiful children and congratulations on your new little girl she is so, so beautiful!
You are welcome to follow my blog!

Blessings,
Brittany