And then there were 3
Rozie came into our lives earlier than expected, 6 weeks earlier to be exact. But before I jump into her birth story let me back up.
Pregnancy. Just hearing that word makes me shudder. I love the outcome of pregnancy (I mean who doesn't love beautiful babies!?) but besides that, there is NOTHING I like about it. Not even a little bit. I was pretty sick my whole pregnancy. I remember I was already feeling too sick to even work out before I could even get a little + sign on my pregnancy test. I'm hoping I can cope and handle my next pregnancy better (I'm guessing my next pregnancy won't be any easier, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised) but I really did feel like I tried to handle it well. Throughout my entire pregnancy I did continue to teach. It was rough, but I was actually thankful for it because it forced me to put on a "happy face" and try to fight the sickness.
Anyways, as expected I was feeling pretty crappy the weekend she came. I had been at a women's conference and had used about all my energy fighting sickness that by the time I got home that Saturday evening I crashed in bed. Things were normal until I started peeing my pants here and there (or so I thought). At this point I was furious. Thoughts like, "If I keep peeing my pants for 6 more weeks I'm going to kill someone" and, "this is like the 1000th terrible thing about pregnancy" were furiously floating around in my mind. It wasn't until a bigger gush came that I finally thought, "WHAT IF THIS IS MY WATER BREAKING!?". The thought hand't even crossed my mind seeing that I still was not due for 6 more weeks.
Well, Rylee was a couple of hours away fishing at this point, so my lovely in-laws drove me to the hospital. At that same time, my mom and sister were on their way back to Salt Lake from Idaho. So pretty much all 6 of us were planning on meeting at the hospital (like seriously, why so many people!?). At this point, my fear was that all of us were going to get to the hospital just because I peed my pants.
Just like a movie, we somehow all showed up at the emergency room at the University of Utah hospital at the same time. Thank goodness I had NOT peed my pants, but my water had indeed broken. Throughout that night I slept here and there as my contractions became more and more painful. Regretfully, that next morning I realized I had asked for the epidural MUCH TOO LATE. After about an hour of me screaming and crying, and the epidural not working quite right the first time, I successfully no longer could feel my contractions (or my whole left leg. No joke, I couldn't walk for 2 days that leg was so numb).
Usually you would think that having a baby 6 weeks early would be a bit scary. Instead, the doctors and nurses were so calming the whole time assuring me that a 34 week baby was completely fine. I was oddly at peace the whole time and felt so thankful for those amazing doctors and nurses. Their goal was to keep me in labor for at least 24 hours so they could get 2 doses of some sort of steroid that would help strengthen the baby's lungs so she could breath on her own. I didn't end up making it the full 24 hours. That Sunday at 2:37pm Rozella came into our lives. I only had to push a few times for her to come out (she was pretty small, weighing 5lbs 6oz, which is actually kind of big for how early she was. If she had gone full term she would have been HUGE!). Anyways, she came out screaming (yay!) and breathing well. I was able to spend a minute with her before they sent her to the NICU.
I soon found out this was day 1 of our 10 day stay at the hospital. Even though Rozie was healthy and unusually strong for her size, I do not recommend to anyone to have their baby this early. It was not easy staying in the hospital that long. All I wanted was to have a normal baby that I could hold whenever I wanted and take home. Instead, she slept in an incubator thing in a nursery that allowed very few visitors. Rozie had her ups and downs those 10 days, but overall she astounded the doctors with her health. She soon learned to eat (kind of) with the aid of the "SNS" (supplemental nursing system). Despite me being extremely impatient, she finally was released (again to the doctors surprise) 10 days later and we made it home.
Month 1,2, and 3!
Since then, she is now 3 months old and has doubled her birth weight. She continues to be abnormally strong and is really starting to show off her smile. Sadly, she has acid reflux causing her to be in pain often. Baby Zantac helps some, but usually around 7pm each evening she starts twitching and crying in pain. We pray she'll grow out of this soon!Despite the acid reflux, along with the feedings through the night and all the not-so-easy-things that come with babies, I can't believe how much I love her. Just the other morning, Rozie woke me up at 5;30. I am NOT a morning person, but she was full of smiles and I could not believe how this tiny little girl could actually make me happy at 5:30 in the morning.
I guess now that I'm a mom, I felt that I should share our story. And I also want to thank SOOOO many people (most especially our family members) for the constant love and support we receive from you guys. This parenting stuff is no joke and I really do appreciate you all.
