Glad to be home

I’m so glad to be home.

You saw the post about Anja being here early a week ago on the 15th.

I wanted to document a bit more of the whole experience, both as a “diary” post and also to Thank the nurses/Drs at Wake Med in Cary, NC

Sunday morning or day I started “cramping” and wasn’t sure if it was contractions or not, they were somewhat regular but then would stop, then come again and stop (like 10min apart for 2 hrs) then stop for an hour….

I called my Ob/gyn office (which is a pain to deal with on weekends)- had to leave a message for the answering service then wait for the on call midwife to call back and several times she never got the message so I had to call back, my “problem” was early Sunday morning, as I was STARVING and knew that I wasn’t supposed to eat before surgery, so I wanted to know if I should go in or stay home. She first said to stay home and wait it out.

It wasn’t until late afternoon that I had monitored it now 10 min apart for over an hour and it was more than just cramping! so I called her back and she said to pack/get a baby sitter and come in! she would call the hospital.

And to expect a different doctor that was not part of their practice who covers for them ONE weekend a month.

Of course we hadn’t packed a THING! I had waited for diapers from my baby shower and honestly thought I had more time…

I got my friend Laura to come over and hubby had already started dinner so that had to be finished, and I told him to eat too! and he took a shower too and franticly ran around packing too.

Finally, we left, and arrived at Wake Med in Cary at 7.15

On the car ride there, my contractions were 5 min apart of not a little bit less.

I quickly got admitted and hooked up to machines and IV fluids and they said I WAS indeed in labor and about 2-3min apart, they drew some blood for the lab and waited for the results, which took about 10 min (to see platelet count and something else, to see if I can tolerate a spinal- which I could!)

 

As soon as they got the blood lab results, they wheeled me off!

That’s the Doctor on the left with her hair up (Dr Tatawhe I think that’s how it’s spelled)

She was GOOD btw!

And here I am all prepped and ready, I told them that I always got sick from the anesthesia, so they tried alcohol swabs in front of my nose and just to keep me warm and comfortable.

(Not that you CAN be comfortable in the OR like this!)

Anja was born 21.23pm and the Dr. said this would be my smallest baby she guessed.

My heart dropped, when they said 5lbs 5oz, I thought something Major was wrong with her. But she checked out just fine! and got a 9/9 apgar score.

We went to a recovery room and slept pretty well the first night, they told me that she might not be that hungry the first night, and that’s ok.

Then in the morning I texted Laura and told her first to give the kids a choice, if they wanted to come see the baby early and be late for school or come after school.

To my surprise, it was Bjorn who wanted to come right away, and Solveig who wanted to wait. But I said to come, then they would be the first to see her too!

 

after 12 hrs they wanted me to get out of bed, at least to step a few feet and sit in a chair. I told the nurse that 3 yrs ago, when I did that, the first time I swung my legs around I had a terrible pain on my left side, that the scar had pulled something or a muscle and that was the part that gave me such a hard recovery for a few weeks.

The nurse I told it too, remembered it, it was HER! ha ha…..I guess it wasn’t typical, so it stuck in her memory! she said she recognized my husband too and he said the same, to me it was all a blur I guess.

They did get my out of bed and I felt good about it.

By day 2 I was walking laps around the halls.

Then Wednesday they hit me with the bad NEWS!

She couldn’t go home Wednesday!

I had kept track of feedings and diapers the best I could, and according to that, Anja hadn’t had a wet diaper in the last 24hrs, so something was wrong!

A Dr. from NICU came by and said they wanted to do a blood test on her that would see if she was dehydrated or had kidney problems. They also sent in a lactation consultant to watch me nurse and then showed me how to pump. ( I never really pumped with my other kids, I just wasn’t good at it) and all this work for 10ml of colostrum, which she would drink after I nursed and she drank it in 2 min, what took me 15 min or more to pump…. the first few times they supplemented with some hypo allergenic formula, but I read the ingredients on the box, and after water it was corn syrup! YUCK….

I knew that once the milk would come in, she’d be fine!

And of course she DID pee, right before the blood test, but they wanted to be sure. And of course the TEST was FINE!!

Still in this ordeal, she had also lost weight and was 4lbs and maybe 12oz.

So they also had to do a car seat test for an hour, which she passed too!

So Wednesday night, we transitioned to a courtesy room and had Anja with us, but I was no longer under the hospital’s care, only Anja was…. They just wanted her to eat more and gain weight, we had hoped they’d weigh her Wednesday night and she would have gained weight and then they’d send us home, but NO, they wanted to wait and see overnight….

The extra room, I’m thankful that we had, but it was SO depressing, No windows, bad light AND it was an old L/D triage room! so I saw all these plugs and gadgets hanging on the walls, I just broke down and cried AGAIN (which I did too when they told me we wouldn’t go home that day)- they nurse Candy/Candace was so sweet to me and she said that if I cried she’d cry too!

At 7pm when her shift was over she came and gave me a hug and said goodbye. She was really nice.

They all were, I just don’t remember all their names, only one named Erin who was an “allover” nurse, so she said she worked all over the hospital but really liked to fill in at L/D because it’s such a happy place! I also remember her because she said she got her nursing license at a Christian college in FL.

So a big thank you to all the L/D nurses at Wake Med in Cary!

Thursday morning, Anja got weighed and she was 5lbs!! she had gained 4oz in a day. WOOHOO.

Now it was just to wait for a Dr to dismiss her, which seemed FOREVER! it wasn’t until 12 we left the hospital and got home around 1.

Nurse Candy found this cute hate for Anja btw.

(I wonder who donated it to the hospital? I know my quilt guild has some ladies that knit premie hats and donate them, but don’t know what hospital) it has a cute little crocheted flower on the front.

The kids got dropped off from school by Danielle (who kept the kids pretty much the whole time, Laura sometimes watched Sonja during the day while the kids were at school) They were a HUGE help to us!

THANKS!

Here’s big sister and brother holder Anja – AT HOME!

 

And it was so nice to be in my own bed again!

It was daddy’s birthday Thursday, so one little gift he got was some coffee samples 🙂

Here’s Sonja being a BIG sister too holding Anja

I try to include her as much as possible, like picking out Anja’s outfits and reaching a diaper for me, which is a GREAT help 😉

So while hubby and the kids are at church this morning, I’m having a relaxing quiet morning to catch up on emails and blogs 🙂