Happy Hannah

This is what our baby is usually like when she's awake. We are the luckiest first-time parents I know! She truly only cries (a very little) when she needs something: food, warmth, diaper change or burp. I sympathize with parents who have colicky newborns, because Hannah is so easy and happy most of the time.

Sorry about the sound quality in this clip. My teapot was whistling and I didn't know Ryan was taking the video.



I tried to post this a few days ago, but Blogger was having issues uploading. Fortunately, it looks like the problem was solved.

Sad Hannah

Whether she is happy or sad, Hannah is always so adorable! Here is a video clip from bath-time with Grandma (one of her first baths). I love the tiny newborn cry. We really hear her cry so seldom that I can actually enjoy the sound of it.

The 2 Week Report

Yesterday I went to the doctor.

The Good News:
My incision is healing well with no signs of infection. My blood pressure is finally going down, and my swelling is also subsiding. I look like I have ankles again! I can go off of two of my meds, and hopefully only have one doctor visit left.

The Bad News:
I am still supposed to take it easy, not lift anything heavier than my tiny baby, not walk more than a mile, and not do heavy housework. This makes the move coming in less than a month a somewhat daunting prospect. I am also having vision problems. My left eye has trouble focusing and that doesn't seem to be improving.

Oh, well. At least my baby is perfect.

Funny Face

Babies have a quiet, alert state that fascinates me. Hannah makes this face all the time when she's scrutinizing something. What can she possibly be thinking?

Eyelashes!

Daddy is so proud that Hannah got his long, long eyelashes. He stops everyone and makes them ogle our pretty baby's lashes. Even seasoned veteran nurses agree she has the longest eyelashes they have ever seen. She's going to be a heart breaker when she grows up!

Click on the picture to enlarge (for better eyelash viewing).

Hannah's Fan Club

Here are some fun pictures of family with Hannah. Everyone loves to hold a tiny newborn baby, especially when she's so good-natured and never cries unless she's hungry. We love our little bundle of joy!


Grandma and Grandpa and 6-month old cousin Lucy.


Sleeping with Opa. He held her for two hours while she slept and he finally dropped off himself!


Oma's hands frame Hannah's head perfectly.


Uncle Brooke loves his tiny niece!

The Birth Story: Ryan's Viewpoint

I woke up to Marilyn telling me that she had been having contractions since midnight. We started timing contractions and getting packed up for the hospital.

We had prepared and hoped dearly for a natural birth for the baby, for Marilyn's recovery and also for the phenomenal experience of natural birth. Sadly, minutes after reaching the hospital we learned Hannah was totally feet down. But better a cesarean than losing the loves of my life! That far along they do not try to turn the baby since there is too much danger of the cord prolapsing (entering the birth canal before the baby). We had an appointment to try and turn the baby just the next day too! Our doctor was called and he scheduled a cesarean as soon as possible. The hospital was swift about it, that's for sure!

I was told I could watch the operation so long as I did not faint. So, I split my attention between comforting the anesthetized Marilyn and watching the birth operation over the screen. Our relaxation training really paid off, despite the fact that we had a c-section.

The Surgery

Supposedly an average cesarean incision is only 6 inches long (I just measured, Marilyn's is 6 3/4). But it looked a lot larger, especially when pulled into a rough circle by clamps so the doctors had space. Our doctor talked me through the operation and gave lots of advice to the assisting doctor. The shop talk was interesting, apparently common mistakes include cutting too low and pulling the baby out through an incision in the vagina, not the uterus, or cutting open the bladder on the way in (yikes). Pretty soon Marilyn's stomach looked like little more than a pool of blood and iodine.

I spent a lot of my time with Marilyn reassuring, deeply breathing and telling her how things were going (without bloody details). As Marilyn mentioned, she doesn't remember the anesthetist rather ironically telling her she'd forget a lot of what was happening.

Soon, the doctor told me they were going to pull little Hannah out. Her feet came easily and the doctor gripped them in the standard two-fingers-and-a-thumb diaper change position. Her body also came easily, along with a truly thin umbilical cord. Hannah's hands were over her head and the doctor spent some time fishing them out with two fingers. The trouble started when the uterus began post-birth contractions, right on little baby's head and neck! I watched for probably a minute and a half as the doctors twisted, tugged and wrestled with the headless body of my baby emerging from Marilyn's massive wound. The situation was tense, but the doctors stayed calm and efficient. Hannah was dripping with blood and deep purple when they briefly showed her to me before sending her to be cleaned.

Half the time of the surgery was sewing things back together. Did you know they actually take the uterus from the body and lay it on the woman's stomach to sew it up? Tellingly, Marilyn struggled to keep herself aware against the medicine until she was told the baby was fine. After that she immediately slipped into relaxation and wanted me to sing her lullabies. The last thing she remembers is hearing Hannah cry from the other room. I spent quite a bit of the surgery singing to her and stroking her hair.

Post Birth

Hannah's first Apgar score was critically low, a 1 of 10. This means:

Appearance: Totally blue: 0
Pulse: Over 100, faint: 1
Grimace: Unresponsive: 0
Activity: No movement: 0
Respiration: None: 0



The uterus clamping down on her head ("it felt just like a vice" the doctors said over and over) really traumatized our little one. But her 5 minute score had improved to an 8. She spent about 4-5 hours in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) on a breathing machine.

Even in the NICU, she was just beautiful. Although she looked a lot better once the breathing machine was out!


(I bet you are glad for some pictures after the wall of text about the surgery!)

Marilyn was very sad about not seeing the baby for that many hours. I assumed they would show her the baby before taking her to the NICU, and the NICU also said they'd get us the baby in an hour. I wish I had been more proactive about getting the baby shown to Marilyn, but she got to us eventually and we spent a lovely time together in the hospital.

The Birth Story: Marilyn's Viewpoint

We knew Hannah was breach (feet first), but there is a procedure to try and turn a baby head-down before labor begins. Unfortunately for that, Hannah decided not to wait and I went into labor the day before the procedure was scheduled. Once you go into labor, they do not try to turn a baby, so we had to have an emergency C-section.

I had been in labor for about 12 hours when we got to the hospital, but we were only dilated to a 4. This means that the contractions, while happening every 7 minutes like clockwork, had not been severe. The reason we went to the hospital was that my water broke on the way out the door to church. Fortunately for us, our OB/GYN was the doctor on call for the weekend and everything went quite smoothly once we got to the hospital.

We checked in at about 12:15pm on Sunday July 6. They immediately did the normal vital signs checks for mom and baby and put in the epidural, which needed an hour to take effect. The surgery was scheduled for 1:30pm, which was exactly when they wheeled me into the operating room. I have discovered that operating rooms are really COLD! I was shaking really badly, but the anesthesiologist got some warm towels and after a few minutes I was fine.

I don't remember much of the surgery. Ryan laughs now and says the anesthesiologist told me he was going to give me a drug that would dull my short term memory. I really don't remember that. What I do remember was the doctor kept saying "You little character!" to the baby, as he tried to get her arms, which were above her head, and then the uterus began post-birth contractions as they tried to get her head out. Ryan says it was about as tense a situation as he had seen in a "normal" procedure. They finally were able to extract the head, and Hannah Marie Smith was born at 1:59pm.


Her initial vital signs were not good, she had a faint heartbeat and that was all. But after five minutes she was recovering from her traumatic entrance to the world. They immediately whisked her to the NICU (without even showing me the baby!) and put her on a machine to help her get more oxygen because she wasn't breathing well.


After a short stay in recovery for me, and a little longer stay in NICU for her, we were reunited and from there she's been absolutely fine in every way.


(Please note that I look like I just had a wisdom teeth extraction, not a baby. My swelling was extreme, and I was swollen EVERYWHERE!)

On Thursday afternoon, after a wonderful four days of expert care, they helped us buckle her into her car seat and we checked out of the hospital. I was swollen, sore, and exhausted but the happy mother of a beautiful, intelligent little girl. She sleeps and eats and sleeps some more, never crying unless hungry or cold. In other words, she's perfect! We are so thrilled.

We're a crowd!

You know the old saying: "Two's company, three's a crowd"? Well, one week after our third wedding anniversary, we officially became a "crowd." We are the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl!

Hannah Marie Smith joined us at 1:59pm July 6, 2008. She weighed 6 lbs 3 oz and was 18 inches long. (Actually, she was 6 lbs 2.7 oz and 17 3/4 inches, but the doctors rounded up.) She had a little stress getting here, but quickly recovered.



After saying to myself a hundred times, "I'll keep up the blog when we have a cute baby to post pics of", I now no longer have any excuses.

So, here are a few pictures to whet the appetite. More posts (and tons more pics) to come!