Elva is home!

Elva came home last Monday (December 17th). It was so wonderful bringing her home and it will be nice not having to drive to the Peter Laugheed hospital every day. Of couse I had to check on her alot on the way home to make she was okay. She is still pretty tiny and I am a little paranoid. It is so good to have our Elva home. It has been a long pregnancy and it is hard to believe that it is all over now and Elva is here with us. I had Tuesday and Wednesday with her at home while Caeleb still went to family and friend's houses those days. I thought it would be better to have Elva alone for a couple of days as I am still healing and it has been several months since I have been a full time mom (speaking of healing, I honestly feel that even though the first couple of days were pretty painful after this c-section, I have healed faster than after Caeleb's "almost perfect" delivery). Thursday, we were all together at home. Caeleb has been so excited to have a baby sister and is doing so well with her. He always says "Elva" "Sister." He wants to hold her and kiss her. It is really cute.

Elva is a squirmer and grunter. When I put her in her crib she is constantly squirming around and making little noises but has not cried alot. She loves to be held and would be held all day if she had her way. I don't have a problem with that but Caeleb needs to have mommy time too and some work still needs to get done. I have been busy doing the piled up laundry this week and doing a little Christmas baking and decorating.

Camellia, Doug and Sterling are staying with us tonight (Friday Dec 21). We skyped Mom and Dad Smith in Korea and talked to them for almost 3 hours. It was fun to have the evening as a family even though mom and dad are half a world away. Elva has got alot of snuggles today with her Aunt and Uncle around.

Well,  Merry Christmas everyone! It is such a Merry one for us here at the Watters home. It is wonderful to be with family, especially a new little baby, at this special time of year when we remember the birth of a very special baby born so long ago.

Life in the NICU

Well, baby Elva should be coming home tommorrow - Monday Dec 17. She has spent the last two weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Her first two days were at the Foothills hospital but she was doing so well so they sent her to the Peter Laugheed NICU which is a step down ICU for babies. I was discharged the day she was sent over there. It has been so wonderful to sleep in my own bed and be around for Caeleb more in the evenings. Elva has done so well eating from the beginning and has been growing steadily. She is already past her birth weight and gaining weight daily. I have been at the hospital from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm most days to feed her and cuddle her. She is such a good little girl. Does not cry much at all. The Nurses do say that she has quite the lungs and lets out a loud howl when she is hungry but I haven't experienced much of that yet so it must happen mostly at night. I guess I will hear for myself soon enough. I love it when she has her quiet awake moments and just looks around. I love the feeling of purity and innocence that Elva and all newborn babies radiate.

We thought Elva would come home last Monday but she has had to stay longer because she was having bradycardic episodes where her heartrate and oxygen saturation would drop periodically. This happens alot with premature babies and just needs to be monitored but it does not mean she has anything serious. We feel so lucky that she is good health. She needs to be 5 days free of those episodes and that will be tommorrow so we are crossing our fingers. She has been given such great care by the nurses and doctors at the hospital. I love the environment there. There is such a special spirit in the nursery with all the babies. I have gotten my hospital routine of every 3 hour diaper changes, temperature checks, feeds and cuddles. I have seen a few of my roomates from the Foothills Antepartum unit here with there little babies and it has been nice reconnecting with them. I was really worried about one of my roomates who ended up having an urgent c-section at 31 weeks because her baby was not growing. Her baby is here now and doing well so that is a relief.

I worked in a special care nurery (like a NICU only on a smaller scale) for about 16 months when I was doing my Bachelors degree at BYUI. I loved it and have decided that I would love to work in that setting again someday. Probably not in the near future but someday. I now feel like I am not meant to be a Labour and Delivery or Emergency or Adult ICU or Pediactric Nurse but I do so enjoy my time working on my Medical unit and at the Extendicare and I loved my time with the babies and feel like that is something I can do again.

Well, I will upadate my blog when Elva comes home. Tommorrow really should be the day and we are excited! We feel so blessed to have Caeleb and Elva and love having Nathan living with us to share life's experiences. We are also saddened at this time for those families who have lost loved ones in Conneticut and our prayers and thoughts are with them. We pray they can find comfort and peace at this time.

WELCOME BABY ELVA JEAN WATTERS

So, I woke up Monday morning (December 3rd 2012) at 3:00 am (I have been in the hospital for the last 2 week)  because I started bleeding again. I was 35 weeks along that day and had spent 6 weeks in the hospital in total. This time, however, the bleeding was really watery blood and there was quite a bit of it leaking out at a constant rate. The resident checked to see if my water had broke, which they have done many times before. I was sure in had not and the test was negative. The watery blood continued and when Dr. Fahey (who is amazing by the way) came in at 7:30 am or so, she said they were going to check again. This time it was positive for amniotic fluid and I was supprised. Dr. Fahey said that if my water broke after 34 weeks they would induce me as the risk of infection with baby staying inside out weighed the risks and set backs of baby being out at that time. It was also mentioned that my water probably broke early because the uterus was so agitated by bleeding throughout the pregnancy and this type of thing happens with chronic bleeds. They had been telling me this all along during my hospital stays but I still thought I would make it to 38 weeks and they would have to break my water like they did with Caeleb. I must admit, I was shocked that this was happening and called Chris right away who then took the day off of work to come and be with me. I got all my stuff packed up and they took me upstairs to the Labour and Delivery unit at around 9:00 am. Chris had arrived at almost precisely this time and brought my stuff with us. They started me on the Oxytocin drip around 10:30 and the contractions started. They were not bad at all at first and there were a few times that they seemed to stall out. My nurse was very nice. Her name was Kristen. She turned up the rate periodically and the contractions started to get stronger and stronger. I got up and walked around the unit with Chris and saw many nurses that I knew from the Antepartum unit (they work in both places). I wasn't in too much pain yet and wanted gravity to work so I tried walking alot. Dr. Birch (head of obstetrics) was on call today and he came and talked to us briefly. By early afternoon the contractions were starting to get stronger and stronger and more regular. I tried different positions to labour. At around 2:00 pm I was 3 cm dialated. Chris helped me to a chair for a while. At around 4:45 pm, I was getting back to the bed from the chair when I started bleeding fairly heavy with big clots.  The charge nurse checked me and I was still at 3-4 cm dialated which was a bit dissapointing because the contractions were painful by then.

Then things started happening fast! Baby's heartrate dropped to 60-90 beats/min and stayed that way. The charge nurse called for Dr. Birch who came in quickly. He put in a probe in baby's scalp that more acurately measured the heartrate (I think). Things were not getting better. I think the heart rate came up for a few seconds and then dropped again. I looked at Dr. Birch and asked, "Emergency c-section?" Then Dr. Birch said, " lets go and get this baby out." The nurse and Dr. Birch hurried me and my bed down the hall to the OR passing people I recognized at the nurses station. Quite the scene really. He said, "where is everyone," and the charge nurse yelled, "clear the break room," and then a whole bunch of people flooded the operating room. I hopped from my bed to the C-section table. I saw Dr. Birch come out of a room having scrubbed up for surgery and I remember wondering how he got there and back so quick. I also remember seeing my Labour nurse and a resident that has seen me alot. I saw a familiar face of a nurse named Myra who I just love so that was a tender mercy. She had predicted that I would deliver 35 or 36 weeks and she has been right before so I should have expected this. She has alot of experience. She started scrubbing my tummy down with antiseptic solution for surgery prep and I started whimpering a bit because this was all happening so fast and I was scared and baby's heartrate was not coming up. I remember praying and telling Chris to call Camellia. He wasn't aloud in the room and had to leave. The anethisiologist showed up fast and I knew that they would have to put me under completely as I have seen this type of surgery before (if you have an epidural in they can freeze the lower half of your body so that you can stay awake for the delivery - I didn't have one in). I asked and he said they were putting me to sleep. I remember him being older and really nice. They put a mask on my face and I asked "are you putting me to sleep now," and he said yes and then I felt something go in my IV and then I don't remember anything else.

I woke up as I was being wheeled into the recovery room and I remember feeling really good and relaxed. The first thing I remember someone saying is "baby is okay." I love that person for saying that first thing before I really knew where I was and who I was for that matter! That was the thing I needed to know right then! Chris was right there dressed up in scrubs with a scrub hat on looking handsome as usual and he said that little Elva had come out screaming and scored really well on her apgar scores - a 9 I think. She weighed 5 lbs even. They took her to the NICU really fast and Chris had followed her there. He tried to show me pictures but everything was so blurry and I could not focus my eyes. I was really calm though and felt good otherwise. My throat did feel funny and I couldn't talk well but I was trying and I remember thinking that I was doing so well becuase I was so calm and asking questions that made sense. They had to stick a tube down my throat in surgery so I couldn't talk well the rest of the night after they took it out. Elva was born at 5:05 pm. Everything happened from problem beginning to baby born in less than 20 minutes. They gave me a morphine drip I could control myself and showed me the placeta. The anethisiologist came in and shook my hand and Dr. Birch came in as well. He said that my placenta had abrupted more during labour and there was a clot forming on top of a clot by-under the placenta. They said I lost about a litre of blood. The nurse in recovery showed me the placeta and told me where the clots were. The placeta could have looked healthier and the umbilical cord was smaller than normal which I find interesting and am not sure as to why.

When I was more awake, they wheeled my bed to the NICU so I could see little girl. She was in an incubator and looked so peaceful. They said she was doing great and really, compared to most of the babies there, she is big and doing very well. Camellia came to see me while Doug and Nathan watched the little boys and Chris took her up to see Elva. I was so drowsy and slept on and off in a deep sleep that night in postpartum. I didn't worry about baby girl as I knew she was in good hands. That was two days ago and yesterday I went to the nursery about 4 times for feeds and cuddles. I was pretty exhausted and sore yesterday as well but feel pretty good today. Elva is doing quite well with bottle feeds and is slowly getting the hang of breastfeeding. Chris took off work the last two days and today is working part of the day. I am going to go up and see little Elva after breakfast and am excited. I will get discharged later this afternoon and Elva is getting moved this morning to the Peter Laugheed hospital as she doesn't need to be in this 3rd level NICU right now. She is doing well - a feeder grower is what we call them. Well, that is our story. What an adventure the last several months have been. I am so grateful that we have had such wonderful care here at the Foothills and that I made it to 35 weeks. I am going to miss my nurses, doctors and support staff. We feel so blessed that things turned out well and that little Elva is here safely. Monday was an interesting day but we were given the strength to get through it and we count our blessings.

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Let the Christmas Season begin!

I have been getting into a steady routine here at the hospital. Wake up call is 7:00 am each day for breakfast (no, they don't let us sleep in). Sometimes the lab will come to draw blood at 6:00 am (those vampires like to work when it is dark out I guess). And don't forget the wake up calls at night for vital signs. Then my nurse will put me on a monitor to listen to the baby's heartrate for sometimes up to 1-2 hours. Then I am free to shower and get ready for the day. I usually go for a walk and do some nursing module studying in the morning out by the window at the end of the hall. From there I can see the STARS helicoptor land and take off which is always exciting. Lunch is at 11:00 am and then I read for a while and take a nap. Supper is at 5:00 pm and then I continue to read or watch a movie or have my Chris and Caeleb visit or go out on a small pass. I am usually really tired by 8:00 pm. You know, this sitting in bed all day can make a person really tired!

I am a slow reader but have read several books since I have been living this slower pace of life. I just finished President Monson's biography and I loved it! What an amazing man! He has seen so much and has done so much and has helped so many people. I loved reading about how he has helped the less fortunate. He visits those in nursing homes and hospitals. He remembers faces and names of people he had not seen in years. Quite remarkable really. In his book, he complimented, individually, each President of the church that he has worked with as well as many of the Apostles and other General Authorities. You can sure tell that this man has a love for the "one," not just the general population.

Right now I have started a fun Christmas book called Christmas tree lane and it will keep me busy for a while. I think this experience has helped me learn how to enjoy books more. I do love to read but sometimes find it hard to get into a book especially when it is hard to find time to read. Throughout the last weeks and months, I have looked forward to picking up a book to read and have got lost in several books for hours at a time.

I went out on pass yesterday. Camellia came up to Calgary for an Occupational Therapy seminar and stayed a couple of extra days to watch Caeleb. She picked me up for a pass yesterday and took me home for a good portion of the day. She is so wonderful! Nathan is on holidays this week so he was home too and Chris was at home doing work remotely for part of the day as well. It was such a fun day watching Caeleb and Sterling chase each other around and laugh and play in their cardboard fort. They are such happy and busy little boys. Camellia and I (well mostly Camellia) made Turtles (tradition in our family) for people that we know. Yumm, I love homemade Turtle chocolates. We watched old fashioned Christmas cartoons and listened to music. We set up our little tree and decorated it in the evening and turned off the lights in the living room so we could enjoy the Christmas tree lights. I always love doing that. We also set up some of my nativities and had a pizza party. It snowed today. Big, beautiful snowflakes too. It was so wonderful to be home with family today at the start of this Christmas season. I brought a little fake Christmas tree to the hospital tonight to put on my window seal and had fun decorating it before bedtime.