Happy Birthday Baby Girl

Today is my last baby's birthday and she's turning two.  It feels like I blinked and two years went by.  She has been the perfect addition to round out our family.  Her older siblings love her so much and she is tons of fun.  Tons of fun and so so much work.  This child gets into EVERYTHING.  If I can't see her she's doing something she shouldn't be doing.  She's quiet and quick about it too.  She used to love playing in the toilet - praise the Lord we're past that.  She is always climbing on top of the table and she recently discovered there's a little slot in our fireplace where she can stick toys.  I know most baby's of the family are doted on but she really is special to all of us.  She has a sense of humor, is spunky, mischievous and bossy.  She loves peanut butter, ice cream, jumping, singing, Dora and Diego, and coloring.  And she does really good somersaults.

Her pregnancy was very high risk.  At four months we'd had some abnormal test results and so had a high resolution ultrasound done. They found that I had a placenta previa and an accreta.  Both things are risky but together they made for a very high risk pregnancy.  I didn't find out until after we'd had baby girl that 10% of women with this do not survive.  It was a miracle that they found these things before I was further along and went into labor because we'd already had our regular ultrasound and without those abnormal test results wouldn't have had another one.

It is best if the placenta is at the top of the uterus.  A previa means that it is low or close to the cervix.  A complete previa means that the placenta is completely covering the cervex and that's what I had.  Those usually cause bleeding and the patient is put on bed rest until it's safe to deliver.  I already knew I'd have to have a c-section and a complete previa is more dangerous because of the bleeding it can cause during the surgery.  Plus it's in the way of where the doctor would open you up.  Lucky me - I also had an accreta.  A placenta accreta is when the placenta grows attached to the uterus or in my case even grows through.  It has trouble detaching like it should and causes major bleeding.  In serious cases, you have to have a hysterectomy because the surgeon isn't able to detach the placenta from the uterus during delivery.  That is what happened in my case.

We were worried that I might go into labor so were on red alert all summer.  I couldn't travel because I had to be very close to a major hospital just in case.  At five months along I had to switch to a high risk doctor and a larger hospital.  I was on semi-bed rest because I couldn't stand for very long.  This made cooking and taking care of the then four, three, and one year old hard.  My wonderful church family brought us meals and my sweet husband tried so hard to take care of everything else.  He was so stressed his goatee started turning gray!

I had two rounds of steroid shots to help baby girls lungs along and at thirty-six weeks had an amniocentesis done to see if they were developed enough for her to be born.  A gigantic needle going into your stomach is scary!!  The amnio sent me into labor and they delivered me the next day.  They waited till the next morning so my doctor could make sure he had his surgical team in place.  That and it was his birthday so he was going to a concert that night.  :) The surgery was risky enough the

anesthesiologist put me under general anesthesia instead of doing a spinal.  That meant my husband couldn't be in there for the birth. My placenta had grown through to my bladder so they had to repair a hole there as well.  My hospital stay with baby girl was eight days and I needed a blood transfusion.  I had to go home with a catheter for 10 days!!  So awful.  That was the most awful part.  While in the hospital I had to have 30+ blood draws and IV pokes.  This is what happens when you don't have a good IV line for the blood transfusion.

I don't know the exact time baby girl was born but she weighed 5 pounds and 4 ounces.  She was so tiny compared to her huge brother!  Her lungs were fine and she was beautiful.  My parents came to watch the other kids while we were in the hospital.  Because they own their own business and it's busiest in the summer, it took a lot of juggling for them to get here.  This little child may never know the amount of stress involved with her entry into the world.  She was worth every bit of it though.  She is such a precious little girl.

While in the hospital our oldest had her fifth birthday and we had our eleventh anniversary.  We celebrated with dinner from Macaroni Grill and watching the show Eureka.  I should add that I love hospital stays.  I don't care if there are needles in my arm, I love it.  Hands down one of the best things about having a baby.  I get to nap, watch tv, read, snuggle a newborn, and people bring me things.  With every baby I stayed in the hospital for as long as they would let me.  It was the calm before the storm of going home to a houseful of toddlers after just having surgery.  At this hospital I even got to order my food.  From a menu!!

After we came home from the hospital we found out baby girl has a birth defect in one eye called an Iris Coloboma.  This is when the iris doesn't close at the bottom giving it a key hole shape.  In her case the nerves weren't damaged and it shouldn't affect her sight.  That eye is just more sensitive to light.  I know I've said before that I would love to know what God's plans are for my kids and I am very curious about this child.  Through the whole process He had His hand on us and He definitely made sure she got here ok.  That summer of waiting for her reminded me that God is in control.  He gave me an inexplicable sense of peace when I needed that and He used friends and family to provide for our needs.