Shortly after the epidural, the resident (who had never delivered a baby as a resident) stopped in & checked me. I was dilated to 10 & I'm pretty sure he felt her head. Everyone kind of laughed at the look on his face. I was still in some pain, so I didn't really see his expression, but I think it was a look of shock. Well, then things got a little chaotic because Dr. Gates got stuck in surgery!! I was feeling pressure & was really wanting to push, but they had to get ahold of another doctor to be there for delivery, so I had to try real hard not to push. I'm not sure the epidural took too well because I felt my contractions & felt alot of pressure. I felt nothing after my epidural with Jillian. Finally, Dr. Stevens showed up. I was put into stirrups pretty quickly. Dr. Stevens checked me & said something about not wanting to make me laugh because I think she was afraid Carleigh would pop out. Well, I had 3 contractions & pushed for 4 minutes & out she came! She was born at 2:42 pm. Weighing 7lbs 4 oz. I didn't think she looked anything like Jillian at the time. She cried fairly quickly, but was kind of purple. You could tell she was having trouble breathing. Our nurse, Joyce, rubbed her quite vigorously, but it didn't seem to be helping much. So, they took her over to the little incubator thing to suck her out better. They even had a doctor come check her breathing out. They figured it was just because I only pushed for 4 mins & she would be fine. She just had some fluid that didn't get "pushed" out of her during birth. Chris, of course, was very stressed out because she wasn't breathing well. I was more calm thinking the same thing the doctors & nurses were, that she just didn't get all the fluid pushed out of her during delivery. They gave her the all clear & we finally got to hold her a little bit. Everyone in the room left except Chris & I so we could move to our room. Dr. Gates finally showed up & scooped Carleigh up to see her. We gave him a hard time for missing the delivery because I really wanted him to be there & I think he did too. He had Chris call Darcy because he missed her every time he came into my room for one reason or the other. We had a good laugh about it. And she gave him a hard time for missing the delivery too. I guess he got stuck in a surgery that became complicated.
My mom dropped Jillian off for a little "family" time. Jillian really liked Carleigh. She wanted to see her right away. Carleigh bought Jillian a Strawberry Shortcake car & Jillian ran over to her & thanked Carleigh without us even telling her she had to say thank you. Uncle Rick & his family showed up for a visit followed by Dana. After they left we started to get settled for the night. Carleigh still hadn't eaten since her birth so I was a little concerned, but none of the nurses didn't seemed too concerned. Finally about midnight I decided I should try to nurse her. She latched on for a little bit on each side, but that was it. I tried periodically through the night to nurse her, but she didn't latch on.
Around 11:00 a.m. on Thursday the nurses came in to check on me & to take Carleigh for a check of her vitals. I told them I was going to take a shower & then they could bring her back to the room (Chris had left to go into work for a little bit), unfortunately, that never happened:( The nurse came back & said Carleighs breathing was still labored & the pediatrician wanted one of the doctors on staff to look at her. A doctor came in & told me that they were going to move her to the continuing care nursery (CCN) to be monitored. And that Dr. Weaver would be coming to talk to me more. I called Chris telling him all of this information, we both were very concerned, him more than me because he is the one who worries more than me. Dr. Weaver came in & calmed my fears a little, she was very reassuring. She said Carleighs breathing was 80 bpm & they get concerned when it is over 60 bmp (I think those are the right numbers). She said she thought it may just be her having trouble transitioning into the world or it could be pneumonia. They would take an xray & put her on an antibiotic for at least 48 hrs in case it was pneumonia. I told Dr. Weaver that Carleigh was not eating & I was concerned with that. She said it was probably a self preservation act because since she wasn't breathing well, she could have aspirated, which would have been bad! They brought me a breast pump since I was wanting to breastfeed & told me we could visit Carleigh anytime at the CCN. They also said since she would be at the hospital until at least Saturday that after I got discharged I could move to another room closer to the nursery & be a "Parent Overnight". When they got the xray back it showed she had a pnuemothorax, which is an air bubble between the chest wall & lung. Dr. Weaver said it could get bigger & put more pressure on the lung which would in turn put pressure on the heart. They would monitor her to see if the bubble went away on its own. If it did not go away on its own they would either have to extract it with a needle & if that didn't work, they would have to put in a chest tube! I had to get all this information by myself because Chris was still at work since I told him he didn't need to come back right away. Thankfully, Dr. Weaver explained it all to him again when he got back. So, it was just a wait & see game. We went to the nursery at least every 2-3 hrs to drop off my colostrum that I had pumped & to see Carleigh. She looked so pitiful with an IV in her head & electrodes all over her small body. She was naked other than a diaper & you could just see her drawing in her little chest trying to breathe. She was also under an oxygen hood. It made me very sad. I left the nursery numerous times fighting back tears. The prognosis was good, but it was tough seeing her that way & barely being able to even touch her. They said touching her stimulated her & made her breathing worse. All the nurses & Dr. Weaver were wonderful & very informative.
I got discharged on Friday around 1:00 & got moved to another room down the hall from the CCN. They said I could be a "Parent Overnight" as long as they had a room available. The room & food were free of charge(Carleigh was racking up the hospital bill enough. LOL).Friday night Jillian & Chris came up to the hospital to stay the night. It was a little stressful because Jillian didn't want to go to sleep & cried loudly. I just wanted to sleep, but that didn't happen until after midnight. Chris & I kind of bickered because of it too. But, she finally fell asleep with me in my bed & we got a decent nights sleep. When we got up we were told that Carleigh wouldn't be going home that day, but she would be able to come to our room later in the afternoon for a little bit. Jillian, Chris & I went to Bob Evans for breakfast so I could just get out of the hospital for a little while. When we got back, we got to have Carleigh in our room for an hour. It was wonderful to be able to hold her & love on her. Chris eventually took Jillian down to Uncle Ricks house to swim for a bit so he could come home & clean the house a little. He & Jillian stayed at home that night, but came up to the hospital early on Sunday. Carleigh came to my room for an hour every 3 hours. I tried to nurse her, but she just wouldn't latch on, so I just fed her whatever I had pumped & supplemented with Similac. At some point on Sunday morning, they said I could just keep Carleigh in our room & that she would be going home. YIPPEE!!!! We finally got to leave around 4:30. We could have left a little earlier, but Aunt Brooke & family came up to see Carleigh. We got home around 5:30 & started life with 2 kids!! That was just over 3 weeks ago & things have been going pretty good.
