Better late than never, I figured I needed to blog about Abigail’s birth and first few weeks of life in the NICU. You probably remember that my due date for “baby #3” wasn’t until October 4th. I think I mentioned in one of my last posts that everything was going great with the pregnancy. I’d been feeling good overall and had no major issues (other than some headaches off and on). In fact, this was such a busy summer that I rarely had too much time to dwell on being pregnant. We were obviously not anticipating meeting our little girl for several more weeks. But, if the last few months have taught us anything, it’s that things don’t always go according to plan…
31 weeks – August 2nd
32 weeks – August 9th
Monday, August 14th – This was the day of my 32 week checkup. Travis has been really busy at work lately, and he had an important meeting that morning that conflicted with my appointment. He’s been able to make it to most of the appointments, but for this one I was on my own. It was MONSOONING that morning when I left the apartment with the girls, and we got soaked just running from the apartment stairs to the van. I literally looked like I’d showered in my clothes. It took forever to find a parking spot once we got to the office, but thankfully we’d left in plenty of time and were actually a few minutes early by the time I signed in. We waited…and waited….and waited….for 1.5 HOURS before they called us back. The girls did pretty good out in the waiting room all things considered, but it still seemed to take forever. When the nurse checked my blood pressure and said it was high (140/85 or so), I blamed it on our long wait and stressful morning. For most of my previous appointments, my blood pressure was usually 110/70 or so, so this was definitely higher than normal. But then when they checked my urine, the initial test showed protein in it. The NP wasn’t too worried about it, but wanted me to do bloodwork and said they would send the urine off for a culture. Later that day, they called and said my bloodwork was fine, but that the protein level in my urine was pretty high. They asked me to do a 24 hour urine collection, so I had to go back to the office that day to get the supplies. So, that was my day on Tuesday…collecting urine in a jug to take back to the office. (The things we do for our kids!).
Wednesday, August 16th – I had made an appointment for 8 AM on Wednesday morning to turn in the 24 hour urine collection and have my blood pressure re-checked. Thankfully, Travis was able to come with us to this appointment. This time, my blood pressure was 160/90-ish. When my OB came in, she said that the combination of my blood pressure being so high plus the elevated protein level in my urine meant that I needed to go on to the hospital for observation.
Ready to ride over to the hospital :)
Once we got over to L&D, I changed into a hospital gown and got settled in the room. Travis called Cici to come pick up the girls because we weren’t sure exactly what was going to happen. We knew that having the girls in the room probably wouldn’t help keep my blood pressure down though ;) The nurses attempted to start my IV, and it took FOUR tries to get it. I’ve never had any problems with my veins in the past, so I should have taken this as a sign that things weren’t about to go smoothly over the next few weeks…haha. After they finally got my IV started and were monitoring my blood pressure, they started giving me different medications to try to get my blood pressure under control. Every time I would start talking, my blood pressure went way up, but if I laid there and tried to relax, it seemed to come down. Overall though, it seemed like the medications weren’t consistently keeping my blood pressure down. It would come down some and then shoot back up. I was trying so hard to relax, but I think the harder I tried, the worse it was. It was also slightly stressing me out that baby Grant didn’t have a name yet ;)
The initial goal was to keep me in the hospital on bedrest until I got to 34 weeks gestation, which would have been another week. Then, the high risk OB came in and thought a good goal would be to make it 2 more days until that Friday. But, when the ultrasound tech came in and lowered me flat in the bed to do an ultrasound of the baby, all of the sudden I started feeling really bad. I’d been getting progressively hungrier all afternoon because I hadn’t eaten since breakfast that morning (a small bowl of Cheerios, and that was it). I assumed it was just my blood sugar getting low, but then the nurse rushed in and said my blood pressure was something like 63/29. Apparently, all that medicine had caught up with me, or else my body didn’t agree with the change in position. Who knows. I didn’t lose consciousness, but I remember feeling pretty awful and really short of breath. When a bunch of nurses and doctors rushed in, Travis said it was one of the scariest things he’s ever witnessed. Thankfully, they got my blood pressure back up pretty quickly, but after that episode, they decided it would be best to go ahead with the c-section that afternoon.
If we thought we were unprepared for Savannah’s delivery, that was nothing compared to this. At least Savannah had a name! At this point, we didn’t have a name for the baby, we had no baby gear or clothes at home, and Savannah was still sleeping in the crib…haha. Like I said in my last post, it was a good lesson in how you can’t always count on things going like you think they will. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine delivering a baby at 33 weeks, but that’s exactly what happened.
The c-section itself went fine overall. The anesthesiologist got my spinal in on the first attempt, so that was better this time around. At this point, I don’t have a lot of memories of the delivery other than it seemed to go really quickly. Abigail came out pink and crying with Apgar scores as high as our other girls. One of the NICU nurses commented to Travis, “She’s got some spunk, Daddy!” It was reassuring to know that she was initially doing so well even though she came 7 weeks early. I got to briefly touch and kiss her, and then they whisked her away to the NICU. My OB finished up the surgery (and also removed my tubes—we’d decided ahead of time that this would be our last baby), and then I went to recovery for a while.
She was 3 pounds 4 oz and 16 inches long…definitely our smallest little gal :)
First glance at our newest addition!
I love this one!
Travis went up to the NICU with Abigail while I was in recovery and got some more pictures of her. She was pretty alert!
They wheeled me up to the NICU to see Abigail briefly before taking me back to my room on the 2nd floor. I was excited to see her, but I remember not being able to enjoy it too much because I was shaking so badly (I think from the medicine they’d given me). Thankfully, that wore off after a couple more hours :)
Back in the room that evening – snuggles with 2 of my 3 girls :)
Siblings ages 3 and up were allowed to visit the NICU once a day with a parent. This meant that Brooklyn could go in, but Savannah was too young unfortunately. Brooklyn got to meet Abigail the day after she was born (August 17th). Travis said that Brooklyn did great! She was very curious about all the other babies and wanted to go see all of them, not just her little sister ;) She also wanted to know if Abigail’s bed was “where she played.”
Travis and I went up to see Abigail later that day and got to hold her for the first time!
Just for perspective, look how small her head looked next to Travis’s hand.
It was strange to not hold her until over 24 hours after she was born, but then again, nothing about our experience was very normal…
She was on CPAP for the first couple of days after she was born, but was doing so well that they weaned her off of it pretty quickly. We were thankful that she did so well despite being born so early.
We got to swab her mouth with my colostrum since we weren’t able to try nursing for a while. They did give her my pumped milk via tube feedings and eventually bottles during her NICU stay.
It’s pretty crazy that she was only taking 3.5 ML per feeding on her 2nd day of life. A tiny amount for a tiny stomach I guess :)
We were surprised to see how much hair she had (and how dark it was!). It still wasn’t a ton of hair compared to most babies, but we are pretty used to having bald babies :) I think Brooklyn had a little hair when she was born, but Savannah hardly had any!
The next day, August 18th, Abigail got moved to a new bed in a different area of the NICU. Her new bed, an isolette, was enclosed on all sides and helped regulate her body temperature. Her new spot was right by a window and was a little quieter than where she had been. There were 3 other babies in that room too, and it was neat to follow their progress over the next week or two. That night, Rae Rae got to hold Abigail for the first time before she left town to head back home :) It’s hilarious to see how big that paci looked in Abigail’s mouth (and it was supposedly a preemie size)!
The isolette had little holes on each side that opened up where you could put your hands in to do “cares” (a.ka. change her diaper and check her temperature). If we came at specified times during the day, we could help do those things and then hold her afterward. The nurses tried not to disturb her other than during care times so that she could rest and grow :)
Abigail was gearing up for her first solar eclipse while she was the in the NICU :) Each baby was even provided their own pair of sunglasses for the viewing (hehe), although I have a feeling that she probably slept through the whole thing…
Since her bed was right by the window, it gave us some excellent light for pictures during the day :)
I was able to stay in the hospital after the c-section until Sunday, August 20th, which made it easier to go up and see Abigail in the NICU and also to send her my pumped milk. I was feeling great overall during my stay in the hospital. I felt like I was up and moving around a lot easier than the previous 2 c-sections and having less pain. Things were going great! Brooklyn drew me this picture to decorate my hospital room. She loves to draw and color these days!
That afternoon before I was discharged, Travis and I got to help give Abigail her first bath!
It was a little different than giving our other girls their first baths. This time we had to be extra careful of all the tubes and wires. We especially didn’t want to mess up her IV…she averaged getting a new one just about every day. I’m not sure if she was pulling them out or if her veins were just that fragile. Either way, we didn’t want to be responsible for her having to get poked again!
Abigail was at her lowest weight on this particular day…2 lbs 15 oz! After that, she started gaining and never looked back ;)
Melissa had become one of our favorite nurses by that point. She’d been Abigail’s nurse for 3 days in a row, and she was great!
In good hands :)
First picture of us together with Abigail :)
On Monday, August 21st, Travis and I went up to see Abigail around lunchtime before going home to view the solar eclipse. Kristyn, one of my former pre-op co-workers, was her nurse that day :) Brooklyn also drew a picture for Abigail that we hung beside her bed.
We didn’t have any of the special sunglasses, so Travis made a DIY viewer out of a cereal box. We watched the coverage on TV, and it was really cool to see the places where it really got dark outside. Brooklyn was pretty excited about it too! That same afternoon I started running a fever, which meant I didn’t get to go see Abigail in the NICU for the whole rest of the week…
The next day, August 22nd, Travis reported that Abigail had to do phototherapy for the day because her bilirubin level was getting too high. Didn’t she look cute in her sunglasses? :) She weighed 3 lbs 3 oz that day and was taking 15 ml of milk per feeding.
And here she is with the light turned on…
The next day (Wednesday, August 23rd), Brooklyn went up to the NICU with Travis. Proud big sister!
On August 23rd, she weighed 3 lbs 4 oz and was taking 19 mL per feeding. They were also reducing her IV fluids a little bit each day in the hopes that she wouldn’t need them at all before too much longer!
On August 24th (Thursday), Travis reported that Abigail weighed 3 lbs 5 oz and was taking 22 mL per feeding. She also got a bath that day!
This sign was also hanging on her bed that day. It was really tough to read that note (Travis took a picture of it for me) and know that I couldn’t go hold Abigail because I was still running a fever.
Tummy time on Friday, August 25th! (Also, this was the day of my first surgery after the c-section…)
Abigail weighed 3 lbs 6 oz that day, and it was also the first day that Cici got to hold her!
I was still running a fever even after that surgery on Friday because it turned out to not fix the issue. Sunday afternoon, they ordered a CT scan and determined I had a large hematoma in my abdomen which was causing the fever. Because it wasn’t a contagious infection, I was finally allowed inside the NICU that evening for the first time in almost a week! The next morning (August 28th), I had another surgery (this time to remove the hematoma).
Tuesday, August 29th – where’s Abigail?? :)
The rest of that week is basically a blur. I was in the hospital until Friday, so Travis spent his days running back and forth from the NICU to my room trying to be there for both of us. It was exhausting for him, and I wasn’t feeling up to going to the NICU until the end of the week. So, I have no notes on Abigail’s progress during that time. At some point that week, she got moved to the progressive side of the NICU and got new roommates :) It was one step closer to going home! She also ditched her IV for good that week!
“These lights are so bright!”
On Friday, September 1st, I finally held Abigail again for the first time since the Sunday before. I got to feed her a bottle…
…and do “skin-to-skin” for the first time! This was also the day I was discharged home from the hospital.
Saturday, September 2nd – back up to the hospital to see our girl!
On September 2nd, Abigail weighed 3 lbs 13 oz. She was doing great with bottles at this point (no more tube feedings!) and was starting to try to nurse.
Monday, September 4th – Rae Rae got more snuggle time with Abigail!
On Wednesday, September 6th, she was 4 lbs 2 oz. They also moved her to an “open crib” instead of the isolette to see if she could maintain her own body temperature without help for 24 hours. That was the last hurdle to cross before she could be discharged, so we were thinking she might come home in the next day or two. Spoiler alert: she didn’t pass the test (her body temp dropped too much), so they moved her back to isolette and tried it again that weekend. Also, notice they’d taken out her feeding tube by this point…yay!
Snuggles with Daddy on Saturday, September 9th – Abigail and Travis really bonded during those weeks in the NICU. Due to my complications and prolonged recovery, he spent a lot more time holding her and feeding her than I did after she was first born. I’m so glad he was able to be there for her when I couldn’t!
…and back to the open crib that day!
Monday, September 11th – “When are they gonna let me out of here??”
Tuesday, September 12th was the big discharge day! Abigail was 27 days old and weighed 4 lbs 9 oz…over a pound heavier than when she was born. She was taking anywhere from 35-50 ml per feeding in her bottles and doing great. We were also practicing nursing about once a day. We were so proud of the progress she’d made!
So excited (and a little nervous) to finally be bringing her home!
Time to leave!
When we got home with Abigail, Brooklyn and Savannah were so excited. (This was Savannah’s first time to actually meet her little sister since she couldn’t go in the NICU.) Savannah was all smiles and very interested in touching her. Brooklyn and Cici were waiting for us at the front door! They must have been watching for us ;) Brooklyn wanted to know if she could hold her and help burp her too.
Needless to say, we were really glad to be together at home as a family of 5 for the first time! Overall, I’d say we had a really good experience with the NICU at Huntsville Hospital. I feel like Abigail was well taken care of while she was there, and most of the nurses were really great. But, nothing compares to being able to hold and see your baby whenever you want to at home. It was a big milestone for our family for sure, and we are so thankful that God blessed Abigail with such good health despite her early start. Next up: blogging about the first couple of weeks of August, all of September and October, and Abigail’s 1 month and 2 month updates. I’m so behind!!
