Sunday, July 4, 2010

Here's Baby

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to put up pictures - I have been waiting for us to choose a name, and although it's very close, the final decision has not been made, so bear with us.

Names in the running are:

Christopher James
Edward James
Michael James or James Michael...

Christopher James is the favorite so far, but we always take forever to name our babies. I'll announce it formally as soon as we know for sure. (Oh, and the nickname in Spanish for James is Diego.. cute, huh?)

Without further ado, for those of you who wish to know, here is a short retelling of the birth of the baby of our family. (Warning - Placenta's, uteruses and other body parts will be discussed, so discontinue reading and skip to the pictures if you're faint of heart.)

We originally scheduled baby's birth for July 9th. After much back and forth we decided on a c-section, for a number of reasons. There was a possibility of trying to deliver the baby naturally but when we prayed we both felt very strongly that we were supposed to have a c-section and that was also what the doctor was recommending (because of the size of the baby, my health history and the fact that the rascal kept changing his position in my tummy, so there was no guarantee he would be in the right position come his due date.)

We have a good friend who supports our work and runs a diagnostics clinic here, who had helped with all my lab work and he offered to do a more elaborate sonogram for me, so we took him up on it and went in last week on Friday to have it done. He said everything was fine with the baby, but urged us to go see our doctor on Monday, as the scar from my previous section was very thin and there was danger of uterine rupture.

We saw our ob-gyn on Monday and he immediately moved the surgery to Wednesday, June 30th. We checked in Wednesday morning (have you every gone 24 hours without eating or drinking!!! Thank God for IV drips is all I have to say!) and the surgery started around 12:30 noon. Everything was pretty casual, they numbed me from the chest down (I hate that part - so claustrophobic)and Stephen sat next to me and held my hand. The baby was out at 1:19 and was fine. He weighed 3.3 kilos and was 49 cm long. I cried tears of joy to hear his lusty cry, as I had had a premonition that something was wrong, and I was so thrilled to see that he was fine!

However, as we were there admiring the baby, Stephen said he looked up to see the doctor turning white. He said we needed to make a decision fast and showed Stephen how the placenta was completely adhered to the uterus, making it impossible to separate the two without me bleeding to death. Already I was starting to hemorrhage, although I didn't realize it at the time.

We had about 10 seconds to decide, so we told him to take it out, as that was the only option we had (he wanted our consent, however). I told Stephen to go with the baby as we had no idea how long the surgery would be and they proceeded to do a hysterectomy on me which took about 2 hours. I was awake the whole time, although I was on a lot of "happy juice" and drifted in and out of sleep. Poor Stephen had it much harder than I, sitting with the baby and waiting to find out if I made it or not. He had a bad scare when one of the nurses rushed in, asked for my full legal name, (hands shaking) and then rushed out and wouldn't tell him anything. Poor guy! All the while I was blissfully in a drugged out state. Thankfully I was able to nurse the baby as soon as I got to the room and we left the hospital 3 days later.

Our dear doctor came in to check on me and when I thanked him he said, "No, thank God, it was a miracle. It was so close! Thank God you're here!" He is not a very dramatic, nor a very religious man, so that tells you something. Afterward I had a number of my friends tell me that they had a bad feeling about my surgery and were praying for me, some for days beforehand! I really believe that had something to do with how well things turned out.

Baby is fine - sleeps pretty well, although he thinks that 1-5:00 am is a good time to play. I am making it to the bathroom and back now without help (hurray for small favors) and each day the pain is a little less, but it's going to be a much longer recovery as it was a much bigger surgery.

I am still reeling a little from it all, emotionally I am a little bit in shock about such a big thing happening out of the blue. However, I have done a bit of research on the condition (Placenta Increta) and have found I have a lot to be thankful for:

* This condition is very rare, and it usually means very premature birth of the baby. Thankfully I carried him full term (38 weeks) and he is fine.
* Many women who have had this lost a lot of blood and had to have transfusions. My blood type here is very rare, and it would have been a big problem. Because we were both in the operating room, we decided immediately and the surgeons got on it immediately, I didn't need a transfusion.
* We decided to have a planned cesarean. (The doctor said that there was no way I would have lived should I have tried to have the baby naturally.)
* The doctor was a good surgeon. He had just done another hysterectomy that morning. We had tried to find a more natural doctor for this baby's birth but again, after praying, felt we were supposed to go with him, even though surgery is his strong-point. He really isn't very interested in much "natural" and that kind of goes against what I wanted in my ob-gyn, but boy was I comforted that he knew what he was doing when I was undergoing the hysterectomy.
* So far no surgery complications and I am healing, albeit slowly.
* The baby is fine and we have a beautiful, well balanced family.

I am sure there are lots more things to be thankful for, but those are some of the biggies. Now, without further ado, here are some pictures of our newest addition. (More photos coming soon - I don't have any good close-ups of him yet):





8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh gosh, that's intense! Sooo happy to hear you made it through, and that you & baby are okay. Congrats on your newest little one!!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! So happy that things worked out in end, despite the setback, and that mommy and baby are healthy. Was praying for you! Love, Francis.

Naty said...

Congratulations on the arrival of the newest Larriva!! The pic of Bub holding him is sooo cute!!
Praise the Lord that things worked out well; what an ordeal! We're really praying for your full recovery Amber.
Oh, and good names! I personally like Edward the best; it's kind of sophisticated-sounding, like Bub's "Lawrence", though Chris would definitely root for 'Christopher', heh. Love you!

CurlyCel said...

Aw, he's adorable (in that grumpy little old man sort of way). So glad things turned out fine in the end. Whew! Praying for your recovery, Amber! And congratulations! :)

Dossy and Bossy said...

He's so cute. He looks just like Stephen to me...and in one of them he looks just like Bub, when he's in a bad mood and making a face! :)
I'm so glad you're ok...we can't spare you! Thank God things turned out alright...I feel pretty shook up myself, and I wasn't even there. Take care of yourself and get better.

Jabberwocky said...

Oh Amber, I'm so sorry to hear about the scary birth, and so relieved to hear you and baby are ok. I was so worried when Susy called to tell me what happened. :(

I hope you continue to get better, and that there are no more complications.

and btw, I vote for Christopher James. :)

King Freddy said...

What a relief that you made it through that close call. It scares me to think what could have happened. I'm SO glad that everyone is ok. Stephen is probably the most traumatized of anyone, poor guy. You've got such a beautiful family. Three cheers for Christopher James!

James Rudow said...

Needless to say... TG for the power of prayer. It's those faithful nudges from beyond that can make or break (when avoided)! Good for you for obeying the checks! What a victory! What a beautiful family you have. I couldn't be prouder, and, writing this after the fact, I do have a certain liking for the name! You look great, honey! XXXX Love to Stephen and the clan!