N is for.....Cont..

Nelly
A baby we have been waiting 37 weeks 3 days for.
A precious face awaiting to meet the world.
A little one who had two big sisters who will love her so!
A third little girl in our house hold.
A life filled with so much love already!

OR N is for.....

New Life!!!!
Miss Penelope Jean was born at 4:48 am!
I woke up Sunday May 29 EXHAUSTED, I felt so strange. I got a good 9 hours of sleep in. It took me nearly 3 hours to eat shower and get dressed. Our plan was to walk around the OC Market Place. By the time I was ready the Market Place would have been almost over. So we headed to the South Coast plaza.
We walked around there for about 3 hours. taking rests here and there. I was contracting, which wasnt abnormal. Ive had tons of Braxton hicks and was even in the hospital the day before (5/28) thinking I was in labor.
At the end of our walk we decided to have lunch at Wahoo's fish tacos. It was yummy. Headed across the massive bridge and mall to our car, Nick was hoping I would say, "LET'S GO TO THE HOSPITAL! ITS TIME!!!" NOPE I was even more exhausted. the 20 minutes home I had 6 contractions each lasting a minute or so. I was yet a believer! (It has happened before) Got home, I curled up in bed to sleep. they continued. I pulled out the contraction timer app on my phone, Oh POO! I think this is it!
I didnt want to tell Nick. He gets his hopes up way to easily, So I headed to my vanity sink sat on the floor and started removing pipes! The sink had been draining slowly and I wanted to see if there was hair stuck in there. HA! There was no hair. (Nick had to come in and loosen one pipe, it was on so tight) after that I was FULL of energy. I saw my huge excersize ball and thought that would be fun to bounce on! So I did for like 5 minutes. OUCH yeah I was in labor but contractions were getting stronger. I took a brief walk to see if that would stop them. I laid down. I tried different positions, nothing stopped them, so I called my Dr. BUSY TONE I called again after a few minutes yet again BUSY TONE! This happened a few times when I decided to just call Labor and Delivery at the hospital. They told me to come on in and they would get a hold of my Dr. (My friend Tina came and watched the girls until my sister came and picked them up)
At arrival, they check me, I was 5.5 cm dilated, WOAH! and my contractions were just getting stronger, lets say every 2 minutes lasting a minute long! WOW! So they hooked me up! I was admitted. I was gonna have a baby!
This time around I had Group B Strep, so I needed to go onto antibiotics ASAP and they needed at least 4 hours of it in!
So when my labor slowed down, we did nothing.
I got an epidural as Im scared of pain, and I dont mind it.
I got it at 7 cm.
My blood pressure went low, then high, I was on oxygen, I never slept. people coming in and out of the room, Nelly kept moving away from the monitor, so they had to keep moving it. internal monitors were placed
4:48 am May 30th came, They asked me to push, ONE PUSH she was almost out, they said, push again, I didnt finish the push and she was in my arms!!! I was SHOCKED 1.5 pushes. The Dr, and nurses all laughed at the expression on my face!

6 pounds 10 Ounces 18.5 inches of pure cuteness.

I held her close, skin to skin for 2 hours. She kept grunting, which I guess is a sign of fluid in the lungs. I breastfed her, SHES A PRO.

We got up to the recovery room. She was still grunting, my RN explained that she couldnt stay with me if that continued. (In the nursery there are nurses right there to watch over her, and know exactly what to do when she starts to cough stuff up) SO she was wheeled away, its been almost 7 hours at this point since Ive seen my angel! Nick has gone over and seen her, and Im able to, but I will cry. I cant hold her. She has coughed up mucus and old blood a couple of times. They are checking her blood sugar often.
So Im sitting here waiting for them to wheel her back in! Its kinda surreal, I had this baby in my arms and she has been gone for so long, like it was all a dream....

As I wrote the last sentence Penelope arrived back into my room! I cried as they wheeled her in! I was ECSTATIC! I fed her, I held her close! I was in LOVE! About 5pm as I finished feeding her she started choking she wasnt breathing, I flipped her over and started hitting her back, Nick pressed the button to get the Dr. in there, she started coughing, and Nick sucked the stuff out of her mouth. This meant they needed to take her away again. To the nursery she went. The RN told me that the night nurse in the nursery was the best they had, I felt a bit better. This nurse decided to pump her stomach, there was about an ounce of amniotic fluid in her tummy, (there was also some in her lungs) this is why she kept choking.
They suggested she stay in the nursery for the night, to keep a close eye on her, and they would bring her in when she needed to eat. I gladly gave her to them! Her not breathing and choking was the scariest moment of my life. (It happened once before)

The next morning she was doing great. I got to sleep some. At one point during the night I woke up to a nurse holding my finger, cleaning it with an alcohol wipe I asked her what she was doing, and she said she was doing some kind of test. Next think I knew she was pricking my finger. I went right back to sleep.

The rest of the day was great, she pooped a ton, and we were sent home that evening, we arrived home about 8pm, Anbo and Em arrived shortly after. The first night home went ok. I couldnt sleep without one of us being awake with her, so nick and I took turns through the night. (I was just afraid of her choking again, hormonal mom here!)

And today our first full day home, went really well. I took her to the Dr. to get check she went down to 5 lbs 15 oz. almost the 10% of her weight, her jaundice levels are up a little high, but not high enough to do treatment. I have to keep a close eye on her and keep her in indirect sun light. She gets checked again on Friday for her weight and jaundice.

So far she is a wonderful baby. Em seems to have a SLIGHT jealousy over her, and Anbo just adores her!


(We decided to keep her birth quiet, to not tell a soul until we were ready. Both set of our parents were not told until early afternoon, and friends werent told until that evening, Im glad we made that decision, as Nelly wasnt with us for so many hours and I didnt want to have to answer questions, or deal with people, thinking about her having problems made me cry!)