1 Month Later

First, let me say thanks to all of you for your comments and helpful hints. You moms rock! I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future too.

Rylee had a rough night and day so who knows about the Nutramigen. Maybe it's too early to tell. I'll keep you all posted. (Oh, and you're right. Nutramigen stinks! I kept asking Jon why Rylee smelled like "dirty potatoes" even though we had just given her a bath. Finally, I realized it was the formula!)

Now back to my post...

It's been one month since the adventure of Rylee's 3 day birth. I've been meaning to post about it for a while now, but I've been a little distracted. :) I'm breaking up the story into the three days. (Sorry some of Thursday is redundant as I was able to post a little about it at the time.)

Thursday, Sept 4th, 2008
When Jon and I went for my weekly appointment on Thursday, Sept 4th, we had one thing on our minds – the arrival of… Hurricane Ike! The huge storm was strengthening and South Florida was potentially directly within its path. How would we get prepared? Would we be able to get the hurricane shutters up? What should we wish for? Option 1: delivering and having a new baby at our house during the hurricane or Option 2: not delivering and being forced to spend the hurricane in lockdown at the hospital. (The idea of being stuck in an overcrowded hospital and delivering on a cot in the hallway was not my favorite idea. Nor did my Mom like the thought of riding out the storm alone, taking care of the dogs, and trying to run the generator by herself.)

It was always a long wait at my doctor’s and this day was no exception. Stripped down from the waist, I sat uncomfortably on the table in the too hot room with that lovely paper sheet across my lap. When the doctor finally came in for my exam, my butt had sweat through the little paper lining on the exam table. Thus, when I went to move, the paper tore and stuck to my ass. Jon thought this was especially funny. I can’t complain too much though as he did help pick the paper pieces off my butt afterward.

All these things considered, it was not surprising to me then that my blood pressure was high when they checked it. Dr. Green asked me to lie down and relax so my blood pressure could be checked again. Another thirty minute wait and guess what? No change. This high blood pressure, combined with bad swelling that I’d had the last few weeks of my pregnancy, concerned her. Consequently, it was off to the hospital for observation. (Ironically, we were intending to go there that night anyway. My Mom, Venessa and I had signed up for infant CPR class. Jon had already been CPR certified as part of keeping up his Dive Master license.)

Since Jon does not do well on an empty stomach and I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast myself, we made a quick pit stop at Panera. I was too nervous to enjoy my salad however! We all really thought this might be it. Phone calls and plans were made. My Mom would head home to watch the dogs and bring our hospital bags back if needed.

After checking in at the hospital (around 5pm), we sat down to wait for my wheelchair transportation. After a few minutes, we heard someone calling for “Liebechek.” We looked back and nodded our heads no, but no one else seemed to be responding to Liebechek either. After the nurse called it two more times, I finally realized she was saying “labor check.” Oops, that was us. (Dang those island accents!)

They wheeled me upstairs, had me dress in a gown, and got me set up in a tiny triage room with three beds. There wasn’t even a place for Jon to sit down and wherever he stood seemed to be in the way so he was moving constantly. They hooked me up to the monitors, ran some blood work, and sent me over for an ultrasound (that was the best part of the whole evening). Rylee wasn't in any distress and my blood pressure came back down after several hours so we were released about 9:30 pm on one condition, I was to be on strict bedrest.

This was ironic as I had been on semi-bedrest all of August due to swelling in my legs and feet (you should have seen my cankles!). Finally, the week before I had been given permission to get out there, walk, get things moving. Now I was back to bedrest! I was not looking forward to that.

Stay tuned for day 2 tomorrow... :)