We had a fairly uneventful night Thursday after my medicine was stopped. Friday I spent in bed, as ordered, being entertained by Caitlin, Laura, Jeremy, and Adam. I showered and felt halfway normal. I thought I had a few contractions late in the evening, but nothing showed up on the monitor and we talked about moving me out of a labor room and into a regular OB room to be monitored until 34 weeks. I fell asleep around midnight.
At about 4:10AM on Saturday morning I woke up having contractions. They were mild, but worse than I had been having. I walked around the room, drank some water, tried to read for a few mins to see if they would stop. By 4:30, they were still coming, so I woke Jeremy up and he tried rubbing my back, again, the goal being that we keep baby in and not try to go into labor. Within a few minutes, I knew the labor was back.
Labor and delivery was a mess --- I knew she was coming from the first contraction. Somehow your body just knows. An epidural was now out of the question and the really bad news was it was now 7 AM, shift change, and the doctors were in morning meeting. I told my nurse I had to push but she didn't really believe me until she saw the baby's head. Next thing I know, there are 100 people running around, trying to push us to an OR delivery room. Everyone yelling at me not to push and me yelling "I'm pushing!" in true TLC Baby Story style. We barely made it in -- one push and she was out.
As insane as the delivery was, praise Jesus the baby was as next to perfect as you can be. Jeremy got to hold her and bring her over for me to see before they took her to the NICU. Luckily, I was up within an hour or so and got to walk over to see her as well.
Everything happened so fast, it is still all very surreal. She was born at 7:46AM, weighing 4lbs 1.5oz and 17inches long. She is in an incubator to help regulate her temperature but so far has required no additional oxygen or treatments. She has a small feeding tube in her nose since she is too small to suck, swallow, and breathe at the same time. She currently has an IV through which she is getting prophylactic antibiotics and is under a bili light for a slightly high bilirubin. She is peeing and pooping on her own, big milestones in the preemie world, lol! We met with the NICU team today and they said other than her size, she is in great shape. They will start a 48 hour trial wean from her incubator tomorrow and she will hopefully lose her IV in the next 2-3 days. The nurses said she is "quite the firecracker" and that she "thinks she is a full term baby". We still haven't been able to hold her, but are patiently waiting. I was finally able to get her some breast milk today, which should of course help her grow and help prevent her from having a serious infection in her gut that is common in preemies.
I will likely be discharged tomorrow and will be going to stay with my Aunt who lives in the area. I'll drive back and forth daily to visit baby and meet with her care team. Jeremy will be going home to start working on getting the house ready for us to come home, plus returning to work. He will switch off with my parents and Jeremy's parents in taking care of Jaslyn everyday and trying to keep her routine as normal as possible. She will also come stay with me at my aunts house so we can spend some time together. Jazzy came to see me in the hospital yesterday, but she was more interested in playing peek-a-boo behind the curtain with daddy. She won't be able to see the new baby until we come home, so it will still be quite a few more weeks before she understands her new baby is here!
Everyone has been so supportive and kind during this very difficult time. We have been so overwhelmed we didn't even name the baby until about 3pm this evening (Sunday). We really appreciate everyone's continued well wishes and prayers. We aren't out of the woods yet and we have such a long way to go, but every bit of support helps pull us along. We haven't been able to keep up with all the texts and messages, so we apologize if we forgot to reply, we aren't ignoring anyone! We will try to keep everyone updated on her progress as we can.
Until then, here are a few sweet shots of the littlest princess, Juliet Todd Wooten <3
** Juliet is named after her daddy's grandma Julia and her granddad Jefferie Todd, uncle Jacob Todd, and her Day who got her entire family calling her mommy Jessie Todd. <3
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