She’s Arrived!

So, it has taken almost a week for this post to happen – guess things go a little slower than with the first… for the record – Jeremy posted pics very quickly on Facebook.  Baby Yoh #2 arrived with fanfare!  Here is the story (pretty wordy, so you can scroll to the bottom if you just want the info) and the stats:

I started having some contractions (a couple every couple hours) on Tuesday evening.  I went into school on Wednesday because they weren’t consistent or too bad, and frankly, I had things I wanted to get done!  So, I headed in; on the way, I had a few contractions while driving, but when I got to school, I got to work.  Besides moving pretty slowly, I felt okay til about 10:30 when I went on the long walk to the office to work with a student.  When I got there, I felt a pretty strong contraction while moving between the student and the desk.  My principal saw me and told me to go home – she would call my long term sub to come in and I needed to go home.  I went up to my room, packed my things, sent a few last minute emails, and told my sub the last few things on my mind.  I drove straight to the doctor (they bumped my appt up) and met Jeremy there.  The doctor said that I was still only 1-2cm.  He asked if I wanted to have the baby today – and I said yes, I didn’t want to feel this way until my scheduled c-section on Friday.  So, he called the hospital, and we were on the books for baby #2 at 4:30pm.  We came home and packed up our things in the two hours we had.  Throughout the afternoon, my contractions got more frequent and more painful. 

We checked into the hospital at 3pm.  While laying on the triage table waiting to go to the operating room, the contractions became more uncomfortable… it definitely didn’t help that I was laying on a not-so-comfortable bed.  By about 4pm, it was no longer anything to laugh about.  Jeremy stepped out to go to the bathroom, and the nurse stepped out to check about the doctor’s status.  While they were out of the room, everything went bad.  My contractions intensified and came in waves for longer…. and no one was there to hold my hand.  At one point, it was no longer intense pain; the pain was accompained by a fire in my belly – hot waves radiating across my entire abdomen… awful!  This started about 4:15 and continued until I got my spinal.  Before going to the operating room, the nurse said we were going to walk there.  I really thought she was kidding.  I said I couldn’t do that.  There is no way in all of creation that I was able to move my legs let alone stand and walk anywhere with the pain that I felt.  So, they wheeled me in, and I rolled over to the operating bed.  I sat up for the spinal while the nurse held my hands; Jeremy had to wait for the surgery prep to be finished before joining me. 

The c-section began like my last.  When they cut the first incision, things were fine.  When they went to cut the uterus to bring the baby out, it had ruptured.  I heard them calmly say “There is a uterine rupture.”  It was calm in the room, but people became serious as well.  I didn’t really know what all this meant, except that it didn’t sound good.  Thankfully, the rupture was along my previous c-section’s scar line, so there was not additional damage.  At 5:08, our second little girl was born – beautiful and crying with a good set of lungs.  After closing the uterus up, the doctor said that my appendix looked enlarged, and he was calling down the general surgeon.  Normally, he said, the appendix doesn’t show itself, but to my benefit it did.  So, the general surgeon came down and removed my appendix, which he said was about 2-3 times the normal size.  Jeremy took a picture of the appendix next to our new baby and joked that we had had twins :)  Jeremy got to cut the umbilical cord this time, which I think is pretty cool.    I was closed up shortly after, and taken up to the recovery room. 

This time, our little addition was in the room with me as I recovered.  Last time, they took Madison upstairs and I had to wait til I was good-to-go before seeing her.  I was glad to see and hold this one much sooner.  From there, we headed up to our new “house” for the next 4 days.  So, that is the story.  here are the stats:

Name: Eliana June (we call her Ellie most of the time)

Birthdate: Wednesday, January 11 at 5:08pm

Weight: 8 lbs, 9 oz

Length: 20.8 inches

State of Emotion – elated parents :)

Pictures: