The newest member of our family

I haven't gotten around to loading the pictures from the 'fancy camera', so there won't be many hospital shots, but I thought I'd at least get my thoughts out while they were somewhat fresh about the birth.

When I found out at my 38 week check up that the baby had turned into breech position, I got REALLY nervous. I was worried about her cord choking her, I was afraid she wouldn't turn back and I'd have to have a c-section, I was afraid no matter what happened, things wouldn't end up well. I was a little bit of a basket-case (again).

Since having a breech birth is against the law at my hospital, and against the malpractice insurance my Dr. has, there was no way we'd go that route. Even if it wasn't against the law, I'm fairly CERTAIN I couldn't have delivered her vaginally from my history. Our first baby had a larger than normal head, if that was going to be the case with this baby, it would make for an even more dangerous delivery, something I wasn't willing to risk.

I went in to the hospital just before I was 39 weeks to try an External Cephalic Version (ECV), basically externally turning the baby. After lots of painful attempts to turn her or twist her or push her, she wouldn't budge. But she could still turn on her own.

So we prayed, I got a blessing from my husband, and I freaked out even more. I tried talking to her about moving, I tried taking warm baths and putting frozen peas on my stomach where her head was (to hopefully get her to move to a warmer spot), I tried inverting my super pregnant self. The only thing that seemed to get her to budge a little was the bath. I could tell she was trying to move but something was keeping her from getting to where she needed to be. I'd done what I could, whatever was going to happen was out of my hands.

I got a blessing from my dad and Jer and I felt some peace that things would end up going the way they were supposed to to get our sweet baby here, whatever way that may be.

39 1/2 weeks I had my final maternity appointment. It was the moment of truth, either she'd turned on her own and we were waiting for labor to start, or she hadn't turned yet and we'd make an appointment for a c-section.
Most of you know which it was. We scheduled the c-section for the next day, 2 days before my due date. I didn't want a c-section, but I was at peace with it, I knew it was what needed to happen.

Feb. 5 at 10 a.m. we went to the hospital to get checked in and prepped. At 12 I was in the O.R. just getting the prep finished up. I was nervous, but calm at the same time. Scared for myself, but excited to finally meet our baby. I'm guessing Jer was feeling pretty similar.
I was scared about having surgery while awake, I was scared that I'd be one of the minority who had complications during surgery. Or even worse,something would happen to the baby.

Luckily, I have the BEST Dr. (even the nurses all say so) and everything went fine. Our baby was 'born' at 12:22 p.m, 6 lbs. 10 oz, 20.5 inches long. Jer didn't want to watch any of it, but he said it was like a car wreck, he just couldn't look away. He glanced toward the incision, then back at me all excited, "There's a foot!". She took a little extra to get out because she was pretty tangled up. Her legs were crossed and her arms were wrapped to her upper body/head with her umbilical cord. I didn't see any of this, it's just what they told me. Yet another reason having her breech was out of the question. Thankfully I'd had blessings which gave me the comfort and peace I needed to trust things would go well.

Obviously I'm still recovering, it's only been a few days, but I'm so happy to have our sweet baby here safe and sound. And even though she's pretty much perfect in every way, they did detect a slight irregularity in her heart beat, so I'll be taking her to a cardiologist to make sure it's nothing serious. The Drs and nurses at the hospital said she'll probably grow out of it in a couple of months, but it's better to be 100% sure. We'll also need to take her in for an ultrasound of her hips because of being in breech position so late in the pregnancy, that can sometimes cause problems with the joints.

I'm so in love with my little family, I couldn't feel more blessed. Thank you so much to everyone for the love, support and prayers; they were felt.

Oh yeah, and apparently our girls are just twins born a few years apart :)