Continued: My daughter was born after going to the delivery room and trying to push for two hours. This whole time, including the hours leading up to it, my family is in the waiting room, having traveled from hours away. My family and my three friends. When Rachel and Melissa got sick of waiting, they busted through the nurses station to get to my room. They came in right after I delivered her. Literally a couple mins later.
Melissa, Rachel, Ember and I.
Once Ember was born, the nurses took her and weighed her. I was able to get off the table right away and go watch them weigh her and take her measurements. \I shouldn't have been able to get off the bed, but because my epidural had worn off completely, I could feel my legs and just got up. The doctor was shocked.
Once they had weighed her, they took her blood and checked her in the nursery. They brought her back to me to nurse to get some colostrum to see if that would help her blood sugar levels. It didn't help, so they went and gave her formula. That didn't help either. They ended up taking her to the NICU and hooked her up to a sugar drip and a feeding tube.
My family didn't even get to see her because they rushed her off so fast.
Nobody ever expects their child to be in the NICU when their entire pregnancy was a breeze and they took care of themselves. Literally all I could do was hold her fingers through the glass the whole first day. The next day the hospital released me and I would end up going home to pump and the driving back and feeding her every three hours for the next 6 days.
Ember's heart rate had dropped during one of her feedings, which is what caused her to be in there for an additional five days. Her blood sugar had evened out after a few days and she could have gone home then, had her heart rate not dropped.
She ended up becoming severely jaundiced while in the NICU and had to be put under a UV blanket to make it clear up, so she could come home with us.
Mommy holding Ember just post delivery, before they took her blood and took her off to the NICU
Melissa holding Ember for the first time in the NICU
Auntie Rachel (Ember's Godmom) holding Ember
Mommy being upset that her baby was in the NICU and couldn't go home
Daddy feeding Ember, while she holds Mommy's hand
Ember was jaundiced and had to be in a UV blanket for a day
more UV blanket
Daddy holding Ember in the NICU
Ember with her IVs and feeding tube
Angelic, even hooked up to IVs
Daddy burping Ember
Papa Jay holding Ember for the first time
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We finally got to bring her home on November 16th in the morning, We truly had some of the best nurses and doctors that a baby could ever need. We were blessed to have her at Fountain Valley Hospital. (I was also born there, as well as several other family members.)
The handoff. She was free to go home!
First car ride in Daddy's Grandfathers truck
Ember meets her brothers, Rito and Bean
Finally home with all my babies
First time in her crib
Many more firsts to blog about. It has taken me over two years to finally finish this aspect of the birth story. If this is any indication of when I will get around to the rest, the dont hold your breath. I am going to write another short update right now, but not about Ember. A lot has changed in the last two years of our lives.
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