Okay, so it's been a few months since she joined us but boy have I been busy. Number 3 apparently has thrown me for a loop. I guess I'll start at the beginning, at least the beginning that I'm willing to share!
On January 4th of 2010 I decided to take a pregnancy test. I always wait quite awhile because it's usually a waste of money. Not so much this time. I took it and there was sort of a line, faulty test. Good thing it was a pack of 3. I waited half an hour and then took another. It was almost instantly positive. I laughed. Right out loud! Then I went and showed Scott -- he laughed too. After so many years and struggles to get our babies here this was a shock. Shock #3 to be exact. Shortly after finding out I was pregnant, I started to get sick. This is pretty normal and almost a sigh of relief, it usually means that the baby is doing well. As awful as it is, I'm thankful for it. Not so much when my head is in the sink but you get the point. At about 15 weeks I felt our little Sunshine move. Those sweet little flutters in your belly, I love it! Then at 17 weeks she stopped. I was so worried and scared. I prayed and prayed that she was alright but I was terrified and couldn't overcome the feeling that something was wrong. After a couple of days of nothing and lots of tears I had a blessing given to me. I was told exactly what I needed to hear. That my baby was there and that she was growing and would be strong. That my body was doing what it needed to in order for her to be healthy. Shortly after, I calmed down enough to let myself feel her move again. It was the most wonderful feeling, I can't explain the relief that I felt.
At 20 weeks we had our ultrasound. Scott and I were certain that this baby would be a boy. We knew his name for sure and couldn't wait to confirm. Well, we were so wrong! We were having another girl! Surprise!!! It was kind of a shock but we were still so excited! We got to see her little hands and feet, her sweet fat cheeks and even her eyes. All seemed to go well. Scott went back out to the car with the kids while I finished with the doctor. She came in and had that look, I was hoping that it wasn't bad. She told me that our sweet baby wasn't growing as much as she should be and that her umbilical cord hadn't developed properly. The cord only had 2 vessels instead of the 3 it was supposed to. She told me that our baby could be born with down syndrome or other developmental problems. There were other problems that happen with this type of cord (heart, kidney) but they had checked them during the ultrasound and ruled them out. From this time until the day our Sunshine was born we had 6 more ultrasounds. I always measured to small for the amount of weeks that I was. She was in the 30th percentile and the doctor wasn't happy about that. At my 38 week appt we found out that she was breech. Because of the cord complications they wouldn't let me have her, or even labor in that position. We scheduled to be induced a week later with strict instructions to go straight in with any consistent contractions. And, to make things even better, my doctor went out of town the next day. So, of course, the next day I started having contractions. All day long! Finally at 11:30 that night I woke Scott up, they had started coming every 10 minutes and that was my cue to go. My Mom came over and we headed out.
We got to the hospital and they hooked me up to all the fancy monitors. And of course, as luck would have it, all contractions stopped. Hardly anything. But what we did find out was that Sunshine (we started calling her this since she had no name, this or Stinker and squirt) wasn't keeping her heart rate up. She would drop down and not recover like she should. After two hours of monitoring they finally released us but on the way home they called and asked us to come back in at 6am, it was 2am. The doctor had looked more closely at our test strips and wasn't pleased with Sunshine. So, we went home and tried to sleep. I was trying to pay attention to Sunshine, how often she would move or kick. It wasn't much, I was really worried. We went back in and within 20 minutes of being monitored I was being induced. Sunshine's heartbeat dropped down like it had previously and she needed to get out of there. To make a long story a little shorter the day was full of those. Her heart rate going up and down. They would turn me over from one side to the other, oxygen and medicine to bring up both of our blood pressure. They put in internal monitors along with a tube that would run cool water around Sunshine to stimulate her and keep her heart rate up. We got the rundown on C-sections and introduced to the lady who was going to knock me out. I was at about 8-9cm when it was time to get her out. her heart rate dipped it's very lowest and wasn't recovering at all. I pushed, someone else pulled and someone else stretched. After a couple minutes, it felt like hours, she was born. The cord was around her neck and it was as thin as your pinky. If she hadn't come right then we were going to get a C-section.
They laid her on my tummy for just a second before they took her away. She wasn't crying and she wasn't responding like she should. I looked over and saw her little arms fall to the table as they were doing the Apgar test. We were so worried. Scott was right with her, he would look at me reassuringly but it was terrifying. After 15 minutes she was pinking up. We weren't allowed to touch her or pick her up. The labor and birth were to much for her After half an hour we were allowed to touch her. It's amazing to me how they can recover so quickly. We were able to hold her shortly after that.
The only visitors we were allowed that day were Max and Alaina. They were so excited! Our sweet Sunshine had made it! She still didn't have a name, not until the next day. That took some time. We really had no clue. We decided on Gabriella Joy Roberts. Named after her sweet Great Grandma's - Luella Thurber and Rella George.
Our sweet baby Gabby Jo! She is healthy! No problems at our. She is truly our little miracle! I hope that the stress that she caused us during pregnancy and birth means that she'll be a perfect child. She used up all the orneriness then, none left for later in life. A mom can dream!!
