We finally did it! After three years, five rounds of IUI, three attempts at IVF, and eight months of pregnancy....... We have TWO babies! And it was all worth the wait. It felt like it was taking forever before we had them, but it seems to have whizzed by now that they are here. It's funny how that happens.
We welcomed Addison Lee Risner (Baby A), and Ella Lynn Risner (Baby B) into the world at 8:59am and 9:00am on Saturday, June 29th, 2013. The beginning of our new lives as parents.
We were told at our ultrasound on Thursday, June 27th that Baby B (Ella) had dropped below the 10th percentile in size, something we had been carefully watching with both girls from very early on. We were told to go for an additional ultrasound the following Monday and meet with my doctor to come up with a plan. Although our due date was August 2nd, Dr. Linnerson thought we could make it to 38 weeks. He had scheduled us for a c-section on July 22nd. But, now that Ella had fallen behind in size he said the girls would most likely be delivered before the 4th of July. Needless to say, we didn't even make it through the weekend to meet with the doctor and reevaluate our plan. These girls were coming no matter how hard we tried to keep them cookin'!
On Friday night I felt terrible. I had what I thought was heartburn and was having contractions. Nothing out of the ordinary as I had been having regular contractions starting at 27 weeks. I took a Zantac thinking that would cure the heartburn and tried to lay down at sleep at about 7pm. After about an hour of still being in pain, I decided it was something other than heartburn if the Zantac hadn't kicked in by now. I jumped in the bath to see if that would help. No such luck....I was still feeling pain and the contractions were still there, although they were irregular....not following a rhythm that could be tracked as I was told labor contractions would do. I was thinking they were just Braxton Hicks like all the others. Until the pain kept getting worse and I began vomiting. That's when I knew we were dealing with something different.
At this point I had been in increasing pain for about 7 hours. It wasn't until 3am after throwing up that Rick and I decided it was time to see what the hospital thought. And of course we thought it couldn't be labor so no need to take the hospital bags that had been carefully packed and repacked over the last two months. Idiots!
Once we got to the hospital they hooked me up to all the monitors and gave me Terbutaline to stop the contractions. I had been given Terbutaline before at 27 weeks when my contractions would not stop. It worked within five minutes and the contractions stopped. This time it only slowed them down. They would not stop. The nurse decided to do an evaluation and discovered that I was fully effaced and dilated to a two/three. Looks like it was labor after all and we were not going home. I freaked! Call my parents! We don't even have our camera!! Rick wanted to wait until the doctor came to talk to us before he called to wake anyone up or left to go get our things.
The doctor on call, Dr. Wilson, decided he would try and keep me pregnant and give me steroids and magnesium to see if I could go a little longer. Since I was only at 35 weeks and 1 day he wasn't quick to want to deliver. I asked him to please get a hold of Dr. Linnerson because Baby B is below the 10th percentile and Dr. Linnerson had already planned to deliver them in a few days anyway. At this news Dr. Wilson did get a hold of Dr. Linnerson and decided to deliver me right then.
So, around 5am we started making the phone calls. This was it.....Nurses came right in to get us all prepared. Rick ran home to get our bags. The nurses blew two veins trying to get the IV in....that was fun. Both of my arms puffed up and bruised right away. My parents made record time driving from California! They only missed the delivery by about an hour and got there when I was still in recovery!
The next few hours seemed to fly by. It all felt so fast. Before we knew it we were heading to the operating room. There were 12 people in the operating room for our delivery! It was like a party! The doctor who delivered the girls was named Dr. Vaziri. I was bummed to not have my own doctor do the surgery but Dr. Vaziri was really nice and made me feel comfortable.
I will never ever forget the first time I heard my daughters' voices. I've never cried so hard in my life. And to see Rick crying so hard he couldn't even tell me how much they weighed, made it a whole lot more emotional!
Once he was able to talk, I learned that Addie weighed 4lbs 9oz and Ella weighed 3lbs 12oz. The neonatologist told us that Ella would have to go right to the NICU based on her small size (even though both girls appeared healthy and each got 9 on their Apgar scores). Rick went with Ella to the NICU and Addie stayed with me.
The rest of the morning in recovery was a complete blur. The drugs were great, family came....although I don't remember much! Rick was gone for a long time with Ella, making sure she was safe and got settled in the NICU. He eventually came back once I got settled in the postpartum room. He told me Ella was fine, just tiny. He did not share much else with me at the time. I found out later that she would need to stay in the isolette in order to maintain a steady body temperature and could possibly get a feeding tube if she could not bottle feed. She had an IV and was hooked up to a bunch of monitors.
Luckily she was able to eat right away and after 4 days she was able to come out of the isolette and into her own room. She spent the last day proving that she could hold her own temperature and was a champ!
Having Addie with us in the room and Ella upstairs in the NICU was so hard. Rick would go upstairs to feed Ella a bottle while I fed Addie. It was hard to see Ella more than once a day because we needed to time it just right. The girls were on the same feeding schedule so we needed an extra person to feed Addie while we were gone. Plus, I couldn't walk so I had to have someone take me up in a wheelchair. And sometimes, with so many nurses and doctors coming in and out of the room, time would pass by and we would miss the feeding time.
The first few days after the c-section were miserable for me. They could not get my pain under control. They kept giving me Morphine and I was not responding at all. It was so weird. They just kept giving me more and more Morphine and my pain was so severe it obviously was either not getting through my IV or my body was immune to it in some way. Finally my mom stepped in as my advocate and told the nurse we needed a different kind of drug, no more morphine. Once we got the right combination of meds, things got a lot better.
Addie and I were discharged on July 3rd. It was so exciting but at the same time it felt very weird to be leaving Ella there by herself while we went home. The updates we were getting from Ella's doctors gave us comfort that it would not be much longer though, so we felt that we would all be home within a few more days. When we got Addie home.....after a very scary car ride for mommy (Imagine a 4 pounder in a 5 pound carseat! She was so teeny!), it felt bitter sweet. I felt like I left half of my heart at the hospital. All I wanted to do was go back and hold Ella.
The next morning, On the 4th of July, Rick and I left Addie at home with my parents and went to feed Ella. The doctors told us Ella would be able to be discharged either that day or the next depending on how quickly they could get the testing done that they needed to do. She was now holding her own temperature which was great. We spent some time there with her and headed home. We got a call shortly after that Ella passed all her testing and was able to come home. It happened so much faster than we expected! We could not have been more happy! We rushed right back over to the hospital to grab our little munchkin.
When we left the hospital with Ella, the nurse walking us out told us that not only was Ella the smallest baby she had ever seen leave the NICU at under 4lbs, But she was the smallest baby she had ever seen leave the hospital at all. It really felt crazy. I have never before seen a baby as small as my own daughter. But, she's a fighter! She might be small but she is mighty!
So, on July 4th, 2013 our family was at home and complete! What an amazing week. Our lives as parents had begun. Let the adventure continue!
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