On Wednesday October 13th I went to my doctor's office to have an amniocentesis done to make sure Hailey's lungs were ready for her to be delivered. The test was far less painful than people had described so I was thankful for that! Within a few hours we got the phone call we were waiting on... Hailey's lungs were mature and we were all set to deliver her the next day! I went to run a few more errands and stopped by Cold Stone for one last ice cream treat to celebrate. I savored ALL of my food that day because I had no idea what time the next day I would finally be able to eat. :) We ordered pizza for dinner that night and finished getting everything in order for the next day. We took one last picture of my belly that day! I ended up gaining a total of 30 pounds with this pregnancy.
38 weeks and 2 days
My parents arrived from Arkansas later that evening and Eli was so excited to see them! We had planned on them staying at our house on delivery day watching Eli until Hailey had arrived, and it worked out really well. He would have gone crazy being at the hospital all day, and I know he enjoyed spending the extra time with my parents instead of being in daycare.
We arrived at the hospital around 6:45am on October 14th and were checked into a delivery room shortly after. Marc had hand picked my nurse for the day which is one of the perks of working at the hospital as a resident. Our nurse was wonderful. She was very relaxed which is what I needed! They started my IV and medications that were needed for the external version. They gave me a medicine to relax the uterus (even though I wasn't in labor you could still see each of my contractions that morning on the monitor!) and a pain medication. Dr. H showed up and before I knew it the doctors were all set to try to turn Hailey. They started out applying pressure on my belly (one doctor worked on pushing her head down while the other doctor worked on pushing her bottom up) but she wasn't moving. After a few minutes they took a break to look at Hailey's heart rate to make sure she was tolerating the procedure. Then, they started with the second attempt. The second time around it looked like Hailey was starting to get stressed from the procedure (and I don't think I could have handled a third attempt at this point... it was beginning to hurt!) so we decided to stop. I just kept praying the whole time for God's protection over her. The last thing we wanted was to cause any harm to our healthy baby girl. I made Marc watch her heart tracing closely after the procedure ended to make sure she was still doing ok. It was a stressful time, but I am still glad that we attempted to turn her.
The c-section had originally been scheduled for 3:30 that afternoon if the version had failed but they were able to move it up to 11:30 that morning. I never really felt nervous about the surgery. I just wanted to meet and hold Hailey at that point! Everyone in the operating room was so nice and made me feel very comfortable. I didn't have any complications with the surgery or the spinal anesthesia medication which was an answered prayer. Hailey was born at 11:50 and let out a cry immediately. It was the sweetest sound I have heard in a long time! One worry I had about having a c-section was how soon I would get to hold Hailey and to be able to nurse her after delivery. Marc was so sweet to hold her by my face while they were closing my incision. I loved that time and will always cherish these pictures he took.
Hailey weighed 6 lb. 15 oz. which was exactly a pound smaller than Eli and was certainly smaller than I was anticipating her to be. I had guessed she would weigh 7 lb. 10 oz. and Marc had guessed 7 lb. 8 oz. She was a few weeks early so I think she would have been close to 8 lbs. if she had made it to her due date. They measured her at 18 inches long but at her check-up earlier this week she measured 19 inches. Since she most likely didn't grow an inch in 4 days we figured they had a hard time getting her legs to stretch out the day of delivery because her feet had been up by her head for so long!
We stayed in the hospital for 2 days. The nurses got me up and moving the first night after surgery and I am so glad! I think it really helped with my recovery to start walking around so soon after. We enjoyed having both sets of parents as well as my sister come and stay with us for a few days. It was a wonderful help having people to watch over Eli at home, and he enjoyed all the attention and new toys. He has done great with Hailey so far. He is very fond of her and has been so gentle with her when he touches her. My love for him has only increased over the past week while watching him interact with his sister. :)
I wanted to share a few more pictures from delivery day...
I will say that the recovery process has been more difficult this time around. I have had more pain than I did with Eli's delivery, but I can tell each day is getting a little bit better and I am hoping most of the pain will be gone in another few days. I am trying to be good and not do too much around the house but that has been the hardest part for me. :) Hailey has been nursing really well and also sleeping GREAT. We didn't think we would be lucky enough to get another great sleeper but we did! She feeds every 3 hrs. and would probably go longer at night if we didn't wake her up to feed. Once we get to 2 weeks we will quit setting the alarm for feeds and let her settle into her own routine. At her visit on Monday she weighed 6 lb. 13 oz. so by now she has probably already passed her birth weight which is really good! Here are a few more pictures of our pretty little lady.
