Holt Family: June 2010

The anesthesiologist at the hospital told me that men's fishing stories are like women and their labor stories. I thought that was very true! So, here goes our story.
May 31, 2010.
Went to a Memorial Day BBQ at Holt's. was having more contractions than usual, but continued my medicine as usual. Washed the car seat just to make sure I had things ready for whenever this baby decided to come. Went to be at 10PM.

June 1, 2010.
Woke up at 1:30 AM feeling like my water broke. Went into the bathroom and had blood all over myself and the bed (sorry to grosse anyone out!) Decided to go into the hospital. Took girls to Holts and got to hospital about 2:30AM. Hooked up to monitors and checked for what caused the bleeding. Doc decides to watch me for a while since I was contracting. Group B strep test done. I was supposed to have this test done the next day at my dr. appointment. Around 4AM they move me to a labor room. Dave was able to sleep a little bit. I just layed awake watching the clock and my contractions.
7:30AM My Dr comes in and discusses our options of letting labor continue or go home and see what happens. He felt the same way we did- it was too scary to go home and enough is enough. The preterm labor had been going on for 4 weeks- to the day. We decide to just let the labor continue. Dilated to a 5, the get an antibiotic going for the Group B strep.
8:oo AM. Pitocin started very slow to keep contractions coming
8:30AM Dilated to a 7
9 AM Get epidural
9:30 AM Dilated almost to a 10. Push a few times to get fully dilated. NICU staff coming in to prepare for a preterm delivery.
10:14 AM After a few pushes, Elin is born. Comes out crying and perfect. I am able to touch her hand before they take her over to be checked out. She is assessed by the NICU staff and they didn't have to do one thing to help her with breathing or anything. She is perfect! 5 lbs 9 oz and 18 1/2 inched long.
While looking over my placenta, my doctor found that the placenta had pulled away from the uterus some time ago and had formed a blood clot in the placenta. The space between the placenta and uterus, where they had separated, is where the bleeding had come from the night before. Could have been really bad for both Elin and myself. I am able to hold Elin skin- to -skin and begin feeding her. She starts eating right away and hasn't struggled with it since!
I stayed in the hospital until Thursday June 3. I love the hospital! I enjoyed every minute of it, with my baby girl in my room. She amazed the staff at how well she did with her breathing and eating. She is amazing.
I can't believe this pregnancy is over. From the beginning it has been hard. Many ultrasounds, heparin injections 2x a day causing bruising all over my body, and 4 weeks of bed rest and contractions even with medicine to stop them. I have found over the last couple years with pregnancies not going the way I planned, that I am truly blessed. Things don't go the way I planned, but they always work out. Even being put on bed rest worked out. I had so many friends and family and ward members helping out. Managed to get through my school finals, Dave's track season, end of year programs for the girls, and end of the school year. I had been able to keep her in 4 extra weeks since the preterm labor started, and got the steroids for her lungs. All of those things played a huge part in Elin being born healthy. 5 weeks early and perfect. I am so blessed. She is beautiful and it is so fun to have her part of our family. There is absolutely NOTHING sweeter than a brand new baby. I am so happy.