A Whole New World...

Wow, where to start. Well, let's go back to January.

At my normal ob appointment on the 25th, as per usual, they checked my fundal height. At the time I was a day shy of 36 weeks along, but I was measuring at 40 already. No wonder I felt so uncomfortable! It was seeming like our daughter was gonna be one chunky monkey, so just to be sure, we scheduled an ultrasound for the next week on the 1st to check her weight and other measurements.

The 1st came, and baby girl was measuring about 7lbs. 6oz. Dr. H. guesstimated that at the rate a healthy baby would continue to gain weight, she would be a 9 pounder easily. So another ultrasound was scheduled for the 15th unless I went into labor before then.

Sadly that didn't happen, though I was trying anything the doctor suggested to get the ball rolling.

Well, the 15th came and our ultrasound was performed. Now it seemed like baby was about 7lbs. 8oz. This was a concern for our doctor, since only 2oz. in 2 weeks was not normal this late in the game, and in addition, my amniotic fluid was rather low. They like it to be no lower than a 12, and mine was a 5. I have no idea what those numbers mean, but I do know basic math, and that 5 is a lot less than 12. This is when things got a little crazy and Dr. H. laid out our options. If we wanted, we could wait it out and try to have our baby the normal way, but that came with risks. She was concerned about leaving her in there for very much longer since it seemed like she was no longer thriving, and I was not a candidate for induction since I had not progressed at all on my own along with a few other factors(if you really want to know, just ask). The only other option was to schedule a c-section for sometime in the next week and a half, since it seemed more than likely that she would be born this way even if we waited for my labor to start naturally due to the other factors. At least this way it would be less traumatic since it would be planned, and thus healthier for me and the baby. Even though it was not my ideal way to go, I wanted to do anything to protect my child, even if it meant going through major surgery. So we agreed to the c-section. The doctor's office had to get in contact with the hospital to see when an OR would be available for us, and they were to call us later in the day with the plan.

After composing ourselves (I freaked out quite a bit...I blame it on pregnancy hormones), Dan and I decided we needed to go get any last minute things we needed for baby since she'd be here very soon. After a trip to Babies R Us and a bit of money spent, we went home to wait for the call. Well, it took some time to get things all figured out, but my doc finally called around 4. "How would you like to have a baby tomorrow?" was the first thing she said. Holy Moley. They were able to get us in at 8:15 the next morning. So much for having a few days to get everything finished!

So, bright and early on Tuesday February 16th, 2010, we arrived at the hospital to bring our daughter into the world. And at 8:38 am, we did just that. Lucia Elizabeth was born, weighing 7lbs. 9oz. and measuring 21in. long. She was (and is) so completely perfect, and we are so in love.

I'll try to get some pictures up on here sometime soon, but in the meantime, the picture on the left of my ticker at the top of the page is of me and her when she was just 6 days old. But for right now, this new mama needs to take advantage of the fact that her little one is asleep, and try to follow suit!