Emmeline's Arrival

Well, so much for my hopes of an easier recovery this time around...

Emmeline made her debut on Tuesday, February 28th at 7:54 AM. Our little spitfire was wailing before they even had her out of my tummy. Curiously I did indeed have polyhydramnios again. When they opened the sack the pressure release actually shifted her and they had to use the vacuum on her hairy head to get her out. They measured about 3 liters of amniotic fluid when all was said and done. My doctor commented on it several times.

I was surprised to hear that she weighed in at the same weight as Quintin, 8 lb 10 oz. But even more surprising was her length; 22.5 inches long. Giant baby! She's certainly started out long and skinny.

I was not fond of the yucky meds I had to take. Even though it was kind of cool that I could feel my feet but no pain, in general I felt awful; general disorientation, nausea, and I was vomiting during the procedure. Let me tell you, that's not fun when you're flat on your back! It took me hours to feel undrugged. I had to have others put her on me in recovery and try to breastfeed because I was so weak and shaky. Much to our delight she latched to the nipple shield right away. I was so excited. She defiinitely got some colostrum in her first few days, the normal way.

My recovery was horrid. Much worse than last time. My stomach was so bloated afterwards I looked like I was still about 6 months pregnant. This alarmed me, plus it hurt to even touch my stomach. In addition my GI system stopped, this was what caused the bloating according to them. I was in so much pain I was terrified of what would happen when it started working again. All the staff and doctors were telling me that all of this was common for a repeat C-section...everything was stretched out more. None of my friends every said that. I was so hot from hormonal something the first day I could hardly handle having a sheet over me, poor Ian was freezing. Plus being on my back for so long I was itching like crazy. I was also lucky to get even 4 hours of sleep a day while in the hospital, and once I got home. I was several days after I got home before I got a decent amount of sleep. Lucky for me my ob is LDS, so he and Ian gave E and I blessings after the delivery.

I was afraid to leave the hospital before some of those things started acting normally again. They had started the blood thinners again about 12 hours after the procedure. They took the staples out Friday morning and I started leaking blood in my incision Friday afternoon (during the echocardiogram they were doing on Emmeline to identify the heart murmur they had heard that morning). This also had not happened before. All they did was apply a pressure bandage and call it good. Well, it didn't turn out to be good. I've now been back to the doctors office (1 hour away) about 4 times for the incision to be checked and re-bandanged. It continued to bleed out and actually opened back up again. I got so sick of paper tape residue on my tummy! Luckily it hasn't gotten infected and won't. They say it's a 2 week set back, I'm now at the point I should have been when I came home.

Emmeline's breastfeeding abilities deteriorated after a few days. She chewed instead of sucking so I relented and gave her a bottle. Luckily I only have to pump 4 times a day to keep up with her needs. We've been to lactation and now also a cranial osteopath to try to help her. She's still chewing, but we are hoping for improvement, soon. After two weeks she's already 1 lb over birth weight. I'd say she's getting enough to eat! I'm also back to pre-pregnancy weight so I'm happy. Once my GI tract started again my tummy went away.

The cardiologists at Children's Hospital said E's heart murmur was nothing to worry about after saying otherwise before we were discharged. Good news; just wish we hadn't had to drag all of us to Seattle to hear it.

So Momma and baby are doing much better. I feel like I can finally relax and start enjoying my children now. Dr. appointments are all done. Quintin loves his new sister. He couldn't stop talking about the baby for the first week or two. What a relief.

This next week is her baby blessing. :)