Well, Pippi has made her debut.
The story goes a little something like this:
Because of the blood stuff my last two babies encountered, Dr. Thein had me seeing a neo-natologist named Dr. Pan. Theiny and I liked to refer to her as “Yang”, because she was unapologetically blunt and acted like whatever she said was gospel. She immediately told me that we would be delivering Pippi no later than 38 weeks, but would probably deliver earlier than that. Theiny and I had the same outlook. My fourth was going to have blood problems no matter what, that would most likely require some sort of transfusion — so we thought that keeping the baby in my womb as she developed was the best route. As I continued to see her, Pippi’s numbers stayed stable. She was “mildly” anemic, and they were able to monitor something in the brain via ultrasound to see if that “mild” ever increased. On a regular Thursday morning, and at Pippi’s gestational time of 35 1/2 weeks, I went in to have a stress test and get an ultrasound.
Yang performed the ultrasound, and said, “Well, how do you feel about having a baby today?”
I immediately went out and called Theiny and tried to convince him to convince her to move it to the following Tuesday. That worked much better with my schedule! But when he got the ultrasound results an hour later, I got the call that said, “I looked at the results, and you need to be in today — and as soon as you can!” I knew I was pushing my luck, but pleaded to be able to go to Scout’s Back to School night, and he said, “Fine. But don’t get in any later than 8:00.”
Deal.
Here I am on my way to Back to School Night.
Clearly I was going to deliver early, because my deep belly button never came flush.
After Back to School night, (which I am SO glad I attended, because Mrs. K. went over everything for the entire year, and I would have been lost without the instructions!) we headed over to In-N-Out for 10 cheeseburgers sans onions for the nursing staff. We walked into the hospital at 7:58, delivered our food, and then were walked into one of the two nicest delivery rooms in the hospital. (Sidenote: we have gotten one of the nicest rooms three out of the four times I have delivered. In-N-Out is the KEY to our success!)
Once there, they got me checked in, started me on the cervix softening pill, and by about 3am they had me on Pitocin. My first contraction had me buzz the nurses for my epidural man. Within a few moments, he was there, and I felt nada. But my contractions were coming in quickly and putting the baby in distress. So much so, that they gave me a steroid shot to stop the contractions all together. In the meantime, the nurse checked me to see that I was dilated to a 3, and they wanted to have someone break my water. Unfortunately for them, Theiny is a hands on guy, and said he would be over quickly.
When Theiny came in, he was irate at the nurse because he found that I was dilated to a nothing! He was also worried that the baby was really far up, and wasn’t coming down. At the same time, Pippi’s heart rate and blood pressure were giving us a run for our money. That being said, Theiny came in and said, “I know you don’t want a C-Section. I will try everything to get this going, but if in a bit there has been no progression, we might be heading to the operating room.” I told him I trusted him implicitly, and to do what was best. But to wait until the last moment before making that decision. Ten minutes later, he came in (he had been monitoring things from the nurses station) and he said, “This baby needs to get here safely, and the only way that is happening is by a C-Section.” Before we left, I told him, “That’s fine Dr. Thein, but I know your boy is an artist. And so when you cut me open, I want the most beautiful piece of art down there you have ever created.” He replied with, “My son got all of his skills from his mom!”
So Micah and I both got geared up, and off we all went.
Here I am mid Section above the curtain.
And mid-section below the curtain.
Theiny — the greatest doctor in the world, worked calmly and meticulously.
He brought in another doctor to assist, there were several nurses from labor & delivery and a couple from the NICU in anticipation of a possibly sick little baby. The Section went great. I had a great conversation with the doctors as they were working their magic. One doctor said, “You have the most beautiful muscle structure!” I thought that was about the nicest thing I had ever heard, and basically high-fived Micah when I heard it. While laying on the table, Micah snuck a camera over the curtain and recorded the whole thing. It was awesome, and so great to have! In it you can hear me asking if “I have the most beautiful inner stomach they have ever seen”. And if they have found any chewed up bubblegum in there. I was really calm during the whole thing, and so were the doctors.
At 5:37am they got Pippi out, and she made two teeny tiny cries before Theiny lifted her over the curtain for a split second for me to see. I only saw a hand and said, “I only saw her hand, but that is the cutest little hand I’ve ever seen!” Then they rushed her over to the table to make sure all was well.
They cut the cord, swaddled her, and then they brought her over to me for about 30 seconds to see her.
They had to send her to the NICU ASAP, so I really only got to look at her, but the nurse had her close enough that we touched cheeks for about 2 seconds and I closed my eyes and fell in love. She was darling with a head full of black hair. She reminded me of Scout, because when both were born, they had their eyes wide open and just looked around and blinked. About five minutes after she was born, she was in transit to the 5th floor. When there, Micah was informed that she was born with her Biliruben already at an 8.5, and they were going to immediately perform a double exchange transfusion as soon as the blood was there.
While she waited for some good blood, she weighed in at 4lbs. 6oz. And was measured at 17 1/2 inches long. Soon after, they got her all gussied up with her leeds/cords/monitors, etc.
They immediately put her in the incubator, and thus her life in the desert was about to begin.
Back on the 2nd floor, I was getting stapled up, and was wheeled into the recovery room. But before I fell asleep, I called Seth to come over and give Pippi a blessing, and we wrangled in Jim Zimm for some help. Seth came to visit after he came, and he and Micah reported to me that they were pretty sure the doctors and nurses had out the manuals to figure out exactly how to do the exchange. And Micah also let me know that one of the nurses hadn’t performed one of these in 15 years. That’s when I told him that maybe these weren’t the types of things a mother of a sweet baby in the NICU should hear.
Pippi and I both slept for the next few hours. At hour four, she got her transfusion, and it went perfectly. At hour four, six and eight I was transported to different rooms while I waited for my real room to be cleaned and evacuated. Each time they moved me, I threw up about seven times. Something about that medicine made me crazy motion sick.
When I finally made it to my room, I wanted to go and see Pippi, so Micah wheeled me up to see her. She was as peaceful as can be, and looked like a little doll. I spent a little time with her, whispering sweet nothings to her, met with her nurse Rhonda who loves me and the other two kids she remembered, and headed back down. But before we went down, we headed to the first floor to visit Britni who had come into the E.R. with bad stomach pains. We went down and hung out for a while with her and Jason, and then went back to our room. The nurses were baffled as to where we were for so long, but we just kind of played dumb.
Pippi had a few visitors, but being in the NICU made it so nobody could really see her. But Nonnie came by — of course, and Seth and Brett (who had taken our kids like champs) came by before they headed back to Utah. The saddest part of my day was that Tristen was out of town, and wasn’t there to spend the night with me — as tradition goes — but we called each other a bunch.
The day went great.
We got our darling little girl.
She had a very successful transfusion.
We have great doctors/nurses.
I feel great.
The kids were well taken care of.
Not much more you could ask for!
Welcome to the world my sweetest little Pippi.
I’m going to take good care of you.
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