Saturday, April 17, 2010

Welcome Baby Sophie!!

I guess I need to come up with a new blog title since we are now Marleigh, SOPHIE, and their brothers! I need to back way up though. We began our exciting spring break week with our kids back on April 3rd with a great conference/ Easter weekend. Unfortunately, the kids and Nate were sick all weekend. Nate had a burst eardrum, and the kids all had a random assortment of coughs, fevers and ear infections. We had a fun itinerary planned for every day of the kids spring break, and Nate even managed to get the week off of work. We woke up Monday morning to cold rainy weather, and decided to have a jammie day, order chinese food, and ended up staying home. Marleigh had a fever and slept literally all day, and was sounding really wheezy. I took her to the after hours clinic at 9:30 that night, and within 30 minutes they were giving her a breathing treatment, and had her hooked up to oxygen. Her oxygen levels were dropping, so the doctor said we were going to have to admit her to the hospital. The nurse and I traipsed out in the snow next door to the hospital, me in flip flops, 8 months pregnant, though 4 inches of snow, carrying a sick little Marleigh. They took chest x-rays and got her hooked up to an IV and oxygen, and determined she had RSV, pnemonia, and the beginning stages of asthma. Nate came and took over for me around midnight so that I could get a good nights rest. Tuesday and Wednesday showed little improvement. Nate took the boys out for the day on Wednesday, and I stayed with Marleigh, and slept Wednesday night with her at the hospital. 5 am Thursday morning, I started having contractions. They were close together, but not very strong, so I went back to sleep and tried to ignore them. By 11 am, they were pretty painful, but still not very regular, but not going away. I tried drinking lots of water, walking them off, nothing was working. I called Nate and he arranged a babysitter for the boys and came up to the hospital. I went down a floor to labor and delivery to have them check me, and I was completley dilalated with a baby sitting sidways. My midwife was stuck in Salt Lake, so they called in another doctor. He came in around 1:30, and told me they couldnt safely turn her, so they quickly wheeled me in for an emergency c-cection, and little Sophie Jane was born at 2:31 pm, 4 1/2 weeks early, weighing in at 4 lbs. 6 oz, and 18 inches long. Nate referes to that day as the biggest WTF day of our life. It was. Later that day, I was laying alone in a morphine fog, Nate upstairs with our sick little 18 month old, and our new little Sophie in the NICU hooked up to oxygen, and the boys at home with grandma, not realizing the extent of all that had happened that day. Wonderful neighbors stepped in and took care of the kids, cleaned our house, and began organizing meals. We were truely blessed through our trial. I will never be able to repay my friends, neighbors, family- especially my amazing mom!! She stepped in and helped so much, and stayed and helped me through my first (and last!!!) c-section recovery. At the moment, I am doing much better, Marleigh is healthy and strong, and suddenly so grown up and self-sufficient, and Sophie, still in the NICU is getting bigger and stronger every day. We are so excited for the day we will be able to bring her home. She needs to be able to drink from a bottle at every feeding, and retain her body temperature. Updates to come soon! Thanks to everyone for thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

yay for a new post :) I miss seeing you guys on facebook, but I was on it way too much and it was causing us stress, so I deactivated my account. Sorry to hear that Sophie is still in the hospital, but I hope that she gets stronger and will be able to come home soon. I hope Marleigh is back to 100% too :) Good luck coming up with a new title for your blog, can't wait to hear it. Hope everyone is healthy & can't wait til we can get together and make Hmong food sometime :) Hopefully for sure this fall!!

Erica said...

Wow, that WAS a lot to happen in just one day! Congrats on the safe arrival of sweet baby Sophie! She is beautiful! Hope everyone is doing well and I hope Sophie can come home soon! Best wishes!! :o)