What's going on...

WOW! It has been a crazy week! Nicola was born on April 6th at 8:46PM. She was 6lb 10oz and 18 5/6 inches. She is a strong girl and eating well. She had trouble keeping food down at first, but has been doing very well the past few days. We were orriginally going to go home on Friday, April 10th, but when they checked her blood, her billie levels were really high, so she went under the lights. While under the lights, her oxygen levels went down, so she had the oxygen going into her nose. She is no longer under the lights, and the oxygen has not been running for the past 12 hours! We may get to go home by Thursday of this week, but I refuse to get my hopes up again. We are still at the hospital, and she is still in the NICU. Those who are reading this on facebook, I am unable to get on facebook right now. My laptop is not picking up the wifi anymore for some reason, so I am using the parents lounge computer (facebook is blocked). I am posting the birth story below. So those who have weak stomaches may not want to read any further ;)
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So, it all started around February 26th. I woke up with contractions about 2-3 minutes apart. Chris took the girls to my parents, and took me into the hospital. They got me on the monitors, and noticed the contractions, but also noticed that the baby's heart rate was shooting back and forth from the 120's to the 220's. The nurse got a bit freaked out, and called in the doctor. She did not seem as worried, but it was bugging me, as the nurse was a bit paniced. My OB called to the IWK in Halifax and spoke to my doctor there. Her respoce was "send her IMEDIATLLY via life flight!" Wow... They called to get life flight set up, come to find out that it was grounded, so I was transported via ambulance. That was the most uncomfortable 4 hours of my life! I had a threatened pre term labor and I had to go through it in an ambulance with 2 men I don't know! Chris had to stay home because he had to work. I was taken right into ultrasound upon arrival. Baby was calm, and my contractions had also calmed down. I guess the meds to stop labor worked! I got my first steroid shot that day and the second one the next day. I spent 7 LONG weeks on bedrest in the hospital. Talk about boring! I was on level 3 bedrest, so I was allowed to get up and walk in the halls, but I had to stay on the floor I was a resident of. After a couple weeks of being on bed rest, I was allowed to go out on passes during the day. Ceri would pick me up and take me out to eat, and stuff like that. It was not until I hit 34 weeks that I was "allowed" to go shopping. We spent a lot of time walking at the malls.... but baby stayed put.

My doctor and I talked about an induction date.... we agreed on April 6th. It put me at 38 weeks, 5 days by one of my due dates, and 39 weeks 1 day buy my other due date. On the morning of April 6th, my doctor and a resident walked in. My doctor said "Ready to have a baby?!?!?" OMG, I was so excited! A couple hours later, they had stripped my membranes and put the gel in there to get things moving. Contractions kicked in with a vengence! Ceri and I sat in my room watching Wall-E waiting for things to happen.... I really did not think that we would make it through the movie. Around 6:30pm, we were getting ready to go down stairs to the labor room. Once I was in the bed down there and hooked up to monitors, Ceri went back up to get all my junk that I had aquired over my 7 week stay in that room. The contractions were about 2 minutes apart... but my water still had not broken. At 8:25pm, the doctor broke my water, 21 minutes later, at 8:46pm, Nicola Kathryn was out. She did not do so well right away. She scored a 3 on her first APGAR at one minute old... and an 8 on her second APGAR at 5 minutes old. I was freaking out, because I was not hearing her cry..... and the doctor was trying to keep my attention on gettting the placenta out. This was the first time (being my 3rd vaginal birth) that I had to push the placenta out. Nicola was rushed to the NICU, to do her first assesment. They got her weight, and all that fun stuff after making sure that all was okay. I basically got up and out of that bed and into the shower as quick as I could. That had to be the best shower I ever had. Followed by a visit with the new little bug! So, that is the birth story.... as of today (April 13) Nicola is still in the NICU. She has been off the oxygen now for 12 hours and is no longer under the billie lights. YEAH! We may go home soon!

Birth weight 3000 grams (6lb 10oz)
Birth length 48 cm, about 18 5/6 in