Abigail Anne Graebner
November 6, 2012 @ 9:51pm
5lbs 11 oz, 17.5 inches
Our baby girl was born a little earlier than expected. We were schedule for a c-section at 5:30pm on November 9th. Starting on Sunday, November 4th, I began to have consistent contractions. On Monday, November 5th, I went to my weekly OB visit and had progressed to being 1cm dilated and 80% effaced (which I know isn't much). Monday night and through Tuesday, the contractions continued, 5 - 10 minutes apart for 1 - 2 minutes. By Tuesday night, Dr. Graham wanted to get me checked. He was worried that since I had a placental abruption, had previous c-sections and my "history" of pregnancy related issues, that he absolutely did not want me going into full labor.
Kyle and I headed to the Hospital around 5:30 on Tuesday night. We questioned weather we should bring our hospital bag (and I even told Kyle to stay at home with the kids and I'd call if they admitted me). But, after talking to Betsy - she said - have Kyle come, and I am so glad I listened.
We are so fortunate to have family near by. Connie came over as soon as she could and my mom and dad hopped on the plane from Palm Desert. Grandparents to the rescue!
Once we got to the hospital, we were hooked up to all of the monitors, and they confirmed that I was, in fact, having contractions 5 - 7 minutes apart. After an hour of monitoring and all of the administration of checking in, etc., they called Dr. Graham. He said, we're taking this baby tonight and let's schedule it for 9:30pm, I'm on my way. At this point it was a little after 8pm.
We only had about an hour to process that we were in fact having our baby girl that night. That hour sped by with medication, IV's, talks with nurses, doctors, etc. and then I was being wheeled into the operating room. Soon enough, half my body was numb, and watching my belly get cut open through the lights in the ceiling. I was able to watch most of the surgery, with a little interruption of some throwing up (when Kyle held the throw up bag to my ear and I ended up throwing up INTO my ear). Otherwise, Kyle was THE BEST. He kept me calm, held my hand, smiled through his eyes under his mask, and encouraged me.
When this baby girl was pulled from my belly, I felt a huge sense of relief. We had a long stretch of being worried about her during the pregnancy. Starting with learning about the placental abruption at 12 weeks, I worried the rest of the pregnancy. She was very active in my belly - way more than Andy or Katie. When she came out she was kicking all over. When the nurses were checking her stats, the first word they used to describe her was "fiesty" and that name stuck. Although she was tough, she was struggling to breath on her own and they determined that she needed to go to the NICU. My heart sank as I watched Kyle follow them to the NICU. It's so hard to not know anything and sit helpless and numb on the operating table. I wanted to jump up and chase after them. We later learned that she was experiencing distress in the womb, and that we were lucky to have delivered her that night. At first they thought she had immature lungs, but later determined that it was more likely water in the lungs on top of being distressed, which caused her to breathe quickly and struggle.
Luckily, my sisters came in the room shortly after and were able to translate what the doctors and nurses were saying about Abi. They both had one child in the NICU and helped me out tremendously. Nothing like older sisters to bring comfort during a scary time.
After some evaluation, they decided to admit Abi into the NICU, which I knew meant we were in for a longer stay, but I also knew she was in the best hands. They gave Abi extra oxygen as she was breathing fast and grunting (natural way to keep the lungs open longer). Again, as they hooked her up to tubes and IV's she was labeled "fiesty."
I finally was able to see her a couple hours later - which was so hard - as I wasn't able to hold her, just look and watch her struggle to breathe. We said a lot of prayers that night and through the next few days. Abi stayed pretty consistent with her stats for about 3 days, but needed less and less extra oxygen. I started pumping so they could supplement with my breast milk. By day 5 she was eating normal amounts, breast feeding a little, and breathing all on her own. Hooray for little miracles!
We are so thankful for our little girl. Although having our three children has been a journey for us, we know that each of our children was meant to be in our lives and they each have a guardian angel watching over them.
We love you baby Abi and look forward to watching you grow.
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