For those of you who want to know what I am talking about with Emmalee, here is the link.
Kaylee was schedule to come out of her comfy belly-home this monday the 7th, which is why her grandma Linda booked a plane ticket from Panama City to Tegucigalpa on the 6th. I prayed plenty asking God that my mom would be here for Emmalee's delivery, that I was sure He was going to do the same for Kaylee and didn't even bother to ask. To poor grandma's dismay, Kaylee came out 4 days ahead.
Luckily, I had the sense to pack the morning of Wednesday the 2nd. We had just returned from Emmalee's first time at the movie theater. She has gone before but to sleep on mommy or daddy's lap. This time she went to watch the movie. She really enoyed the animated film and clapped at the end. She is growing so fast. I came home to finish cleaning and organizing the guest room for mom and rearranging our bedroom to fit the playpen that has a nifty newborn station for Kaylee's first months. I don't know if all that exertion got me into labor or if it was just time but, at 1 am of that Thursday, I began with contractions.
Now contractions usually take some time before they become frequent and painful, indicating it is time to go to the hospital. You feel them in the middle of your belly and you can tell it is a contraction because your whole belly hardens. The pain I was feeling was only on the lower right side of my belly and didn't feel like contractions, but by 1:30 am the contractions where closer together and very painful, which got me scared really fast. I called my doctor and was instructed to go to the hospital immediately.
I don't know how many times I said "Rodolfo hurry up" in the few minutes it took us to get dressed and "ready" for the hospital. (The "ready" is because we had mine and Kaylee's stuff ready, but not Emmalee's). Needless to say, I was pretty scared in the car praying for Kaylee's safety. Our car was in the shop and we felt so blessed our friend George had left us a car to use until ours was fixed. (I seriously hate my car).
I was worried the doctor would delay in arriving, but he got there five minutes after us. I just wanted to enter his clinic and see Kaylee on the ultrasound monitor. The doctor was checking me and I yelled "Just show her to me already!!!" "The ultrasound is malfunctioning," he said. He asked me to calm down so he could listen to her heart beat. When I heard the words "She is perfectly fine," my heart started beating again. My in-laws live nearby the hospital and were able to arrive quickly and care for Emmalee.
I had google before calling the doctor the kind of pain I was feeling could mean placental abruption (which you can read about here).
Turned out, to mis dismay, that I was right and thus needed to go into surgery right away.
I was afraid waking up the staff necessary for my emergency cesarean would take a while, time in which my contractions would scalate quickly putting me inside the OR in extreme pain again. The doctor told me he would start operating in half hour, which translated to Honduran time meant at least an hour and a half. Turned out I was wrong. I was surprised how quickly they were there and ready.
When the time for the epidural came, I told the doctor of my complication the last time. He promised me that would not happen this time. I am glad he was true to his promise.
Before surgery the doctors and nurses got together in a circle and prayed. That made me feel really good. I was happy my doctor allowed Rodol to be in the OR with me, and he got to cut Kaylee's umbilical chord. He was so happy. Being inside, hearing me talk, and seeing Kaylee come out safely made him feel better than with Emmalee's delivery, where being in the waiting room not knowing what was going on made the minutes feel like hours. All I have to say is that he has a strong stomach. I was happy he was there and he stroke my hair until the surgery was over.
They took me to the recovery room and he left to check on Kaylee. Those 45 minutes on the recovery room felt endless. I was anxious to see Kaylee or at least be allowed to be in my room with Emmalee.
When I was finally sent to my room, I was immediately concerned with the look on Rodol's face. It turned out that Kaylee had trouble adjusting to the environment and was given oxygen to breathe (effects of the placental abruption). The pediatrician told us we were lucky she came early because she was showing signs of fetal distress.
She came out a lot smaller and thinner than Emmalee. Emmalee was three weeks older when she was born. It may not seem like much, but, in development inside the womb, it makes a big difference.
The nurses said they would be taking her to the room in a few minutes. Those did turn out to be hours.
My in-laws and my dad where all really tired from the long night, but no one would leave until we had Kaylee on the room. We got Kaylee three hours later, immediately requesting feeding. When I saw how strong a feeder she was, I knew she was going to be ok. I was so happy breastfeeding again! Everyone stared at her for a few minutes and went their way.
By now it was around 6 am. On my surgery with Emmalee I remember coming out of surgery with a foley catheter on that was removed until the next day. With Kaylee's surgery, my catheter was removed in the recovery room around 3 am. I found it strange, but they said it was ok to remove it, so I didn't inquire any further.
I was happy with Kaylee and Rodol in the room recovering from surgery (Emmalee left with her grandparents). I really wished my mom was there. Time passed and the effects of the anesthesia were wearing off as I could feel the pain from the cut. The nurses administered some analgesics the doctor had prescribed. It seemed weird to me that the pain in the cut subsided, but not my general pain. The hours kept passing and my pain only became stronger and stronger. Around 1pm I was complaining heavily about the pain I was feeling.
They sent a doctor to check on me. You could tell from a mile away he was just a medical student.
He asked me where I was feeling pain and I told him it was in the abdominal area. He gave me the dumbest look ever and said "Well, you just had surgery. It is normal that you feel pain," to which I responded in my most aggravated tone "It is normal that I feel pain. It is not normal that the analgesics are having absolutely no effect and my pain is actually increasing!" He just bowed his head and agreed, but of course did nothing.
Time kept passing and I kept telling them I was feeling too much pain. They changed me to a stronger analgesic. I started calling them telling me to give me something stronger, to which all just replied that I should wait for the new analgesic to come into effect. I started calling my doctor continuously on the phone demanding him to come see me. He sent the on-call doctor at the ER. He checked my pulse, my pressure, my wound, my bleeding and concluded that everything was ok. He called my doctor and told him I had a "low pain threshold" to which I, infuriated, replied with a "This is not my first c-section! Something is wrong, help me!"
They did nothing again so I did the only thing I could. I started screaming. It was really hard to scream with the intense pain in my abdomen, but it was all I could do. I looked so bad not even Rodol tried to stop me from screaming. My screams where heard all throughout.
Finally my doctor came to see me. I was in so much pain I was shaking the bed.
He asked me if it was my wound that hurt. I said yes but that what really hurted was my abdominal area. He asked the nurses if I had peed all day and they said I had. He asked for a catheter just to be sure. As soon as he placed the catheter in, I stopped screaming and laid peacefully on the bed. They took out three liters of urine from a bladder that holds 600ml!
By the look on their faces I could tell they had really screwed up. They even treated me with a lot of care after my screaming show. Had I not screamed for help, they would have had a very complicated gallbladder surgery on a recently operated patient. I could have died of complications, my bladder was about to burst!
And just like with my post-dural-puncture headache, all doctors and nurses kept telling me "That had never happened before."
I was just thankful that after that, I felt a lot better. I didn't even need the analgesics anymore and the pain from the cut was more than bearable.
We stayed in the hospital until Saturday and I was happy my mother-in-law came to spend the night with us, since my mom was arriving until Sunday.
The pediatrician told me Kaylee suffered from Jaundice but that I could take her home and just expose her to the sun in the mornings and afternoons. There was something bothering me about her jaundice, though my mom and my mother-in-law said she was fine and the jaundice was mild. I couldn't shake the feeling it was more than that and took Kaylee to the pediatrician on Monday. We went to draw some blood to check her bilirubin levels beforehand. The nurses and doctors at the Lab said she was fine and that they had seen babies a lot more yellow than Kaylee. The test results were not done yet and we had to be on time to see the pediatrician, so the lab said I could call to get the results. As soon as my pediatrician saw her he said she was ok, like everyone else, and that the jaundice was mild. He did the check up on her and was about to dispatch us when we got the results from the lab.
Her jaundice was not mild and we had to stay in the hospital for two days.
He even admitted "mom knows best."
It was really hard to hear we had to stay in the hospital, not to mention the huge financial hit.
Thankfully, God gave provision through my mom and Kaylee got better.
We are finally home and together.
We are happy to have my mom with us and as our guest.
Emmalee could not be a cuter big sister. All she wants to do when she sees Kaylee out of her cradle is give her kisses. She kisses her arms, belly, and forehead.
Thank You for Your provision, Your care, Your protection, faithfulness, and love, my dear Lord.
She is more Red than yellow
Party of Four!
Happy grandma
Sister kisses
loves of my life
