we apologize it’s taken us two weeks to introduce our daughter to the world… it’s been hard to put her down and work 🙂 we decided to show
pics and tell the story from the beginning. for those of you who didn’t know…her transition into the world wasn’t so easy.
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this was my last belly shot, just before they gave me my heplock to prep for surgery. 39 weeks.
as i stated in the last blog, my BFF emily was able to be with us and take cool pics. adam wouldnt post any because he was afraid
people would be grossed out with the blood and goo. ha! i thought it was pretty cool.
as if i wasn’t swollen enough…they had to pump me full of THREE fluid bags in the hour leading up to surgery! aghhh!!
believe it or not, adam was able to stand up and take pics!! i couldn’t believe it. i think he did it so fast, he didn’t realize what he was doing.
remember how i said she was breech? for the last 9 weeks in the womb her feet were touching her face 🙁 when they inked her little
feet, she got black on her ears and nose!! she stayed like this the first few days unless we swaddled her legs down!
think she will be a gymnast when she grows up?
she was so wittle 🙂 and as you could see her color was VERY white. when babies come out the nurses quickly assess a number of things, and give
them an apgar score out of 10. nori’s was 4. that is dangerously low.
the transfer from the operating room to recovery. it was about a 30 second ride. this was the first and only time i got to hold her for the
first 36 hours of her life. soon after this, adam and the nurses took her to the NICU. and thank God emily was with me because i would have
been left alone in recovery, with no one and NO idea what was going on with nori. emily was able to go get mine and adam’s dad to be with me.
in recovery, the nurses were all crowded around nori getting ready to take her. i wasn’t even able to see her from my bed. since i was able to use
my upper half (ha!) just fine… i snapped some proud daddy shots. for fathers day i bought adam a plain tshirt so they could stamp her feet on him 🙂
in the NICU they knew something was wrong but couldn’t figure it out exactly. without the oxygen she’d lose her color but her heart and
lungs were fully developed so it wasn’t making sense. her hemoglobin count was 16 and should have been around or above 40. she didn’t
have enough blood in her, which is why she wasn’t receiving enough oxygen to keep her color.
here she is all ‘hooked up’. 🙁 they took my blood after they took hers and found i had ‘baby blood’ in me. which meant my placenta
had been leaking blood and they didn’t know it. my body was absorbing the blood she should have been receiving! once they established this,
they knew blood transfusions would solve her problem. the red tube leading into her hand was blood. after receiving blood for about
10 hrs, she then became jaundice :-/ thankfully it stayed at an ok count that she didn’t have to be under the lights.
once i was able to feel my lower half (about dinner time), erin was allowed to wheel me to the NICU. Daddy had literally been standing there
by her side like this the entire time. by almost midnight i had to beg him to come back to the room with me and go to bed.
about 48 hours later they finally released her to be with us! the walk out of the NICU was very exciting but at the same time, it was the saddest
moment. as they wheeled her incubator past all the other sickly TEENY tiny babies in the NICU, my heart sunk wondering if and when they will
ever be released. we were so blessed to be walking out with a beautiful healthy baby who practically looked like a giant next to them. this
picture was just after the first time i was able to breastfeed her. i was very VERY happy she was able to feed since they were
supplementing her in the NICU with bottles.
they later told me the tear/detachment (still not sure yet what it was) was most likely caused by the ECV procedure (to try to flip her
around from breech position) i had done in the hospital at 37 weeks. you know, that procedure i was VERY unsure about and wanted to
avoid at all costs because it could damage my placenta…yah, that one. they sent my placenta to the lab to see what happened. but it does
explain why she was so small in weight and length because the last two weeks she wasn’t receiving the full amount of blood and nutrients.
after all the drama she was finally discharged only one day late! and they told us to act as if none of it ever happened?! they said she
was healthy now and that the transfusions will never be an issue again. THANK YOU GOD!! we knew she was going to be an excellent
christmas present…we didn’t know she was going to be our christmas miracle!!
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the day after we got home was christmas eve! so we weren’t able to give Nori her first bath until the weekend. i didn’t know whether to
videotape it, shoot it or help!! so i did a little of each 🙂
once those warm washrags turned cold…we HEARD about it. lol. arms and legs began flailing! once the umbilical cord falls off we can submerse her.
when i was a baby my hair stuck straight up. i was nicknamed mel-monkey. can you tell she’s mine? 🙂
on her one week birthday, Nori had her first photo shoot. 🙂 she enjoyed it so much, she peed AND pooped on this blanket. ha!
i waited a very long time to hold these perfect little hands. 🙂
not many months from now, she will be crawling around on this rug in her bedroom! by the way, she peed on this carpet too. 🙂
she doesn’t have much hair…but enough to play with:)
that L shape on her teeny heel was one of the many pricks she got from testing. most babes are only stuck a couple times in routine testing.
i bet she was at least 12 times? 🙁 she was so used to it, she didn’t even cry the last few times! so sad 🙁 poor thing.
your’e beautiful, little girl:)
the ONE feature everyone says she got of mine…her lips.
you might also notice another part of being breech is the head shape. they said it will round out in time 🙂
she looks so perfect. i know i’m bias, but come on…she for real looks like a doll!!
this is going to be her birth announcement! what a precious little peanut. we are so happy she’s here! and healthy!!
adam bought this onesie and was SO excited. it’s 0-3mths and HUGE on her. hehe.
i know every parent feels blessed when they hold their baby for the first time. even though the last few mths of pregnancy was very hard
on me emotionally and physically, we are so thankful everything worked out. she is beautiful, healthy and strong. her pediatrician said she
is doing amazing and we should be very proud of her. and boy are we!! the day before we left the hospital she was 5.12lbs and 18.25″. now
she’s 6.13 and 19+”!!! that’s amazing. we couldn’t be happier. so far, so good! every time i look at her, i’m not only amazed that she was just
inside me, but that adam and i created her! we have felt so many emotions that can not be put into words. all i can say is that i wish
everyone in the world could feel this kind of happiness at least once in their lives. as nori grows, i know she will make many more appearances
on the blog! on facebook you can see other cute shots of her that i have put up over the past couple weeks. and i would like to remind you
next time you have the opportunity to donate blood, DO IT! you could save a life, just like Nori’s. 🙂
heart, the very PROUD parents- melanie and adam
