Emory's Debut

On Friday morning, January 7 I received a call from my daughter in law who was on bedrest at Centennial Medical Center waiting for the arrival of daughter Emory.  Amanda sounded a little stressed and the first thing out of her mouth was... "Don't get freaked out or anything...."  ok, this can't be good. 

Amanda's blood pressure was extremely high and she was seeing spots and had blurry vision.  Baby was all balled up and she was cramping.  They were moving her to a labor and delivery room just in case.  Soon after that my son texted me and said I better head that way.  Left work at 10am and raced to the hospital. By the time I got there, the doctor had checked her out and her water had broken.  This little one wanted to be born right then.

When I got there the anesthesiologist was explaining some things to mommy and daddy.... he was waiting on some labs to see if he could start an epidural.  Amanda was on oxygen and was needless to say, a little frazzled.  Her nurse, Lisa was awesome allll day!!!  They needed to move Amanda over to a smaller delivery bed so I stepped out.  The next thing I knew Lisa yanked the door open and hollered for another nurse to help and to call Dr. Harper. The placenta had ruptured and Amanda had passed out... things were going fast and wrong and very very scary.

When the doctor got back to the room it was decided that an emergency c-section was warranted and Amanda would have to go under general anesthesia, (completely out). This also meant that daddy could not go in.... so we all stood at the doors... waiting.  Within minutes they came out and said our little Emory Elizabeth had delivered, crying wiggling squeaking.  The wheeled her out in her little incubator.  She was so tiny, but all pink and eyes open for a minute.  Beautiful.  Clay went with her to the NICU and Grandma's, great grandma Alice and aunt Sheila waited patiently for Amanda. 

It took them over an hour to get Amanda all fixed up, awake and back to her room. She was shivering and hurting.  With no epidural to block the pain, the c-section gave her pain all afternoon.  Her eyes were still blurry and they called in an optomologist and retina specialist.  Her fluid build up had gotten to the backside of her retinas. This could go away in 2 days or 2 weeks. 

It was a long afternoon, special meds, two units of blood and lots of TLC by the nurse before Amanda felt some relief. 

Baby Emory was doing well as of late Friday night.  On a breathing tube to help her little lungs but the neo doctor felt like she was doing remarkably well for the trauma that she had gone through.  

One of the scariest days but one filled with hope and joy.