Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Liddy Rose...Her Story

She's HERE! I have to apologize for the delay, but it's been a heck of a week and a half.

But...my little girl arrived on December 11th at 8:07 pm. She weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces and was 21 inches long (I question that length being accurate as she was about 19 inches a few days later). I was 36 weeks and 4 days.


My water broke (at work of all places) on Thursday, December 10th around 3:45 pm. After a tiny bit of mayhem, I made it to L&D only to find out I wasn't dilated. They wanted to see if I would start on my own, but nope! Around midnight I was put on Pitocin. An hour or so later, they administered the epidural.

Now, I always assumed I'd get the drugs for labor and delivery of a baby. And many people on that day said, "don't be a hero, get the drugs". I will tell you right now that is my biggest regret. The epidural made me the most miserable of any other part of my labor. For this reason. I got "wet tapped". Google it. But it basically means that they went to far. They punctured my dura. This meant that they had to give me the meds for the epidural very slowly because of the intense effect it would have. My lower body was complete dead weight. I couldn't feel them at all and even worse, for about 8-10 hours my legs felt asleep. Like the pins and needles asleep feeling. It pretty much drove me insane. To the point that I finally told them to turn the epidural meds way down so I could have feeling back.

By around 5 pm, on Friday, December 11th, I was finally dilated to a 10. We pushed for over 2 hours but she wouldn't budged past my pelvic bone. The doctor didn't think she was going to be able to get past it. She said I could push for another hour, but she just didn't see it working. So c-section it was. 

At 8:07, my beautiful Liddy Rose arrived into this world as perfect as she could be. I will never ever forget those moments. The moment in which we became a perfect family of five. When my family was officially complete.


The next day, my cup runneth over when my boys "strolled" into the room. It was in that moment that I broke down in tears. One, I'd been away from them for 2 full days. Two, I had all my children together, in one place for the first time. 


I wish I could say that things were super easy and smooth sailing from there. They weren't exactly. We were discharged on Monday, December 14th. But on Tuesday, Liddy was looking a wee too yellow and we had her bilirubin checked. It was 19. WAY too high. She was immediately admitted into the NICU and put under lights. That same day, my headaches from the last 2 days intensified. This was something I was told to watch out for from the anesthesiologist. I was told to go to triage (2 floors down from the NICU) and it was confirmed that I was having spinal headaches from the wet tap. So in between feeding Liddy in the NICU, I had to have a blood patch to try and fix the wet tap. Luckily it worked and the headaches went away immediately. But having a second epidural knowing that the same thing could happen again...was NOT fun.

The next two nights. I stayed at the hospital. Walking the halls at night (less than a week after my c-section) every few hours to feed my little girl. Luckily my milk had come in around the same day she was admitted. I like to think that I helped in a small way with getting her out of there and home quickly. On Thursday, December 17th, we finally went home for good.

It was so hard being away from the boys for so long and especially hard knowing I couldn't pick them up. The restrictions from the c-section AND the blood patch were pretty clear on that. It sucked. I won't lie.

The past 5 days have been a bit of a blur. We have 3 babies age 5 months and under. Pretty freaking amazing, but pretty exhausting too. Especially while recovering. But I'm doing great...and so is she. And so are my boys! We're finding a decent little rhythm and luckily have had family in town to help us.

My husband was my hero through all of this. Everything he's done and continues to do makes me realize how lucky I truly am to have him. I look at him and these beautiful children and trust me, I know how blessed we are this very special Christmas. 



25 comments:

  1. Wow! So incredibly happy for you Suzanne. I have followed your journey for years, and feel overwhelmed with happiness that your family is now complete.
    Liddy Rose is perfect and you will be a beautiful Mum to your boys and your little girl.
    You and Trevor deserve all the happiness in the world. Enjoy every moment. xox

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  2. She is gorgeous Suzanne! Gah! I'm truly happy for u and Ur beautiful family.

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  3. Congratulations! What a little Darling Liddy Rose is! What an amazing Christmas gift having such a gorgeous family! x

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  4. I'm so incredibly happy for you!! I'm so sorry for the hard labor and the wet tap, but I know you're glad to have your babies. Congrats to you and T for your amazing and wonderful Christmas. Merriest Christmas to you!!!

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  5. I just can't believe this. I have followed your story for YEARS. Your little girl is absolutely the most beautiful baby I've ever seen (other than my own of course). Congrats!!!

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  6. I just can't believe this. I have followed your story for YEARS. Your little girl is absolutely the most beautiful baby I've ever seen (other than my own of course). Congrats!!!

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  7. Congratulations!!! What a beautiful family :-)

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  8. I loved reading your story even though I hate you had to go through that pain during labor and then the headaches. I know it was clearly worth it, but doesn't mean it didn't suck at the time ;) Proud of you momma! Congrats on your sweet family of 5!

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  9. I've been checking your blog daily for an update and wow, what a wonderful update this is! She's perfectly beautiful!!! Sorry you had such a yucky labor but clearly, it was worth it:) Enjoy all your littles!!!

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  10. Congratulations on her safe arrival!!!

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  11. Congratulations!!! You have a beautiful family! Merry Christmas Suzanne! And here's to a wonderful new year full of amazing firsts!

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  12. Welcome to the world, Liddy! And a wonderful Christmas to all five of you.

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  13. Amazing! I'm sorry you had such a tough experience. Hoping it only gets easier from here on out! What sweet faces they have!

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  14. Your story seems like a Christmas movie with the most wonderful happy ending! Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. May you all ive happily ever after!

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  15. So happy for you. What a journey you habe been on. All the best to you & your beautiful family.

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  16. What a beauty she is. What marvellous tiny creatures they all are. YOUR CHILDREN! I get such a kick out of writing that out. Let me do it again: YOUR CHILDREN!
    Sending my warmest congratulations to you and and your husband. Liddy Rose is beautiful and perfect. And the five of you make the most beautiful family.

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  17. Congratulations over and over again! Loved finally reading about your miracle's arrival and how everything went! Hope your beautiful family of five had the happiest of holidays :)

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  18. Congratulations!!! What a beautiful family. I am so thrilled for all of you. Love, love, love the photos, especially the last one. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and an amazing 2016!

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  19. I just want to acknowledge that you had a difficult, complicated and no doubt painful birth experience and survived it all with the best possible outcome. I am sure you were thinking of your mother through all of this and I know she is so terribly proud and thrilled for you. Hugs to you on her behalf. (from another mom)

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  20. So many congratulations! I am so happy for you and what a beautiful family.

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  21. She is beautiful and perfect in every way. I fell a bit behind on your updates.....and was blown away to learn you were expecting! I knew about your boys...but this was a complete shocker - what blessings! Much love, Megan

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  22. What an amazing story! Congrats on the arrival of Liddy Rose, such a precious gift from God after all the years of struggle and tears! She is so beautiful in any way! I love the pictures of Liddy and the boys, so much love and joy! Enjoy your family, what a blessing!

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  23. First, I must say - look at the thighs on those boys! DELICIOUSNESS!!!! Ahem. Congratulations! I am always, always amazed by your story every single time I come to read your blog. Miracle isn't even a strong enough word! Liddy is just beautiful. I imagine your house is full of chaos, but what blessed chaos it must be.

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  24. Found your blog and loved reading through it all. What an amazing journey you have been on! WOW!

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