Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Jubilee Hope Has Arrived...about 11 months ago!

This brings my slacking to a whole new level. Jubilee is almost 11 months old and I still have not written out my birth story. I feel bad because I know I'll forget some of the details, but this past 11 months has been very, very busy and Jubilee's birth was, well, a little less than desirable! I was a couple of days past my due date with Jubilee. She was a very active baby in the womb and always reassured me with lots and lots of wiggles. It was my ritual that I'd get up in the morning, grab my cup of coffee and sit down and feel her wiggle around. The morning of July 9, 2017 was different though. I sat down and she wasn't moving. Well, I shouldn't say she wasn't moving...she was BARELY moving. It was very unusual for her. I did not like it at all and I decided I needed to go to the hospital. I got everyone situated at home quickly and we went to the hospital. She wasn't really moving the entire drive to the hospital and I feared the worse. We couldn't get there quickly enough. When we got in, they put me on the monitor right away and PRAISE GOD, there was a heartbeat!! Oh, sweet music to my ears! The problem was, the heartbeat was VERY fast. Like in the 180's. They called the doctor and got me started with an induction right away. The doctor said, "Whatever is going on, your baby is not happy!". I had a lot of fear about the pain of delivery, even though I had already delivered 4 babies without medication, for some reason I had a lot of fear this time. I said, "Do you think maybe I should get an epidural, just in case we need a c-section?" The doctor said, "Absolutely". They hooked me up with an epidural, but they didn't start any medication. I thought, as long as it's in place, I can ask for the medication when I need it and it'll all be good. Jeremy left to get some food and I was laying there, trying to rest. All of a sudden, a bunch of nurses and the doctor came running into the room, they threw an oxygen mask on me and told me to get on my hands and knees. Yikes! I had no idea what was going on and my husband wasn't there! Soon everything calmed down and they said that Jubilee's heart rate had dropped drastically, but she was doing okay now. The doctor was mad that the epidural didn't have any medication going through it, she said, "This is WHY we have this, just in case I need to do a c-section!". So they started the medication. It was the best epidural I had ever had. It was so mild that I could still move around, which was very handy because the whole, "GET ON YOUR HANDS AND KNEES" charade happened again, and again. They came in and prepped me for a c-section. The doctor didn't know what was going on, but she wasn't happy and didn't want to take chances. The weird thing was though, that Jubilee kept coming back just fine and kept the doctor second guessing herself. I'm so thankful though, because she was not one of those doctors I had heard so much about who are more than happy to just cut you open at the drop of a hat. She really did NOT want to do a c-section on me. She said, "You've had 9 babies already with no c-section, I don't want to be the one to cut you open!!! But, your baby is not doing well, so I don't know what we're going to do." The drops in heart rate didn't seem to coincide with contractions or anything, it was all so random. We were all so confused. At some point they had me ready to go off to the O.R. and again decided against it. It was so scary and so frustrating. Everything was getting more painful and I asked them to up the medication on the epidural. The doctor came in and said, "The Neonatologist and I are not happy, we need to do something." I was ready to get this all over with, I couldn't stand the fear and uncertainty. All of a sudden though, I felt pressure. I told the doctor I thought I was ready to push. She checked me and sure enough, we were ready. I pushed one time, hard...and Jubilee was born. They said I started pushing at 9:10pm and she was born at 9:10pm. She had her cord wrapped around her neck twice and she was not moving, not crying, struggling. I was so scared. I couldn't see her, couldn't hear her. It was the worst! I'm so used to a baby being placed on my chest and nursing them from the start and this was so different and so hard. I asked Jeremy to get the camera. I thought that if she wasn't going to survive, I wanted some photos of her while she was still alive. When he left, I burst into tears. It was probably the scariest and worst time of my life. They took care of me and took her off to the NICU. I got settled into my room, but all I could think of was when would I see my baby??? I hadn't even seen her yet. They brought me to the NICU and let me hold her. She was on a CPAP machine, oxygen, heart monitor, etc. She looked so sad, but my oh my, she was SO beautiful. She had the most hair I had ever seen! She looked peaceful, but I wanted to hold her without tubes. I wanted to nurse her, but she as too weak. Throughout my stay in the hospital I pumped milk for her and I visited her as often as I could. I tried to nurse her, but she was too weak. We waited for lab results to find out what had gone so wrong. Slowly she was able to come off of the CPAP, eventually the lab results came back from my placenta. It was infected. I have no idea why, or what had happened. I had no symptoms of any issues whatsoever. I can only guess that perhaps my water had ruptured ever so slightly and I didn't notice and an infection developed. We really don't know though. She had to stay in the hospital for a week to get an entire course of antibiotics. She got stronger and more alert, but was not able to nurse. It was such a different experience from what I was used to. After a week in the NICU she came home. She was and has been such an easy going baby. It was so weird for me to have to wake her up to feed her. I'd get up to pump milk for her, but she'd stay asleep. I don't know if it was the routine she got into while in the NICU or just the way she is or the fact that she was getting more than enough milk from the bottle, but whatever it was, she has pretty much always slept thru the night, from the very beginning. It was SO nice!! I was able to pump milk for her for 4 months and then I gave up because I wasn't getting enough snuggle time with her. She has been our most physically advanced baby...she learned to get around all over the place as soon as she learned to roll over at about 5 months. she didn't really start sitting up at 7 months the way her other siblings did because she preferred to roll around. She got her first tooth between 8 and 9 months, a record for this family! At almost 11 months old, she has 5 teeth already! She's pulling herself up to standing already as well! She giggles and smiles constantly and is just such a treasure. I am so thankful that the Lord gave me the wisdom to go to the hospital when I did. I'm so thankful that everything turned out just fine with this precious bundle.