She's here!

Ainsley Lily-Isabel was born Friday May 2nd, 2008 and was 6 lbs., 1 oz., 19.5" long.

Some of you have already heard/read this story, but for those who haven't you may be wondering what happened and why I needed an emergency c-section ...

I started having contractions at home around midnight on May 2nd ... I timed them and they were about 6 minutes apart. After an hour, I woke up Peter and he started timing them and we quickly realized that they were now under 5 minutes apart. I called the hospital and we were told to come in; once there they hooked me up to the fetal monitor and determined that I was in labour - my water had partially broken by this point so we were staying! After several hours I decided to have an epidural .... we had one doctor come in and he tried twice to get the epidural in with no luck. At that point we figured it was a done deal and that an epi wouldn't be possible ... then the magic doctor came in!! He was wonderful and had the epi in in no time and I didn't feel any of the insertion pain that I had felt with the first two attempts. It was a relief ... and a miracle, but we didn't know that yet. Within about 20 minutes of having the epi the baby's heartrate dropped dramatically during a contraction ... the nurse had to quickly start massaging her head to try and stimulate her. This worked and it seemed we were on the right track again ... then, about 2 hours later it happened again, except this time it was harder to get it back to a normal rate and it was consistently dropping. At this point the nurse called in my doctor, who then called in the on-call obstetrician, and the chief of the medical staff! We had everyone in there trying to stimulate baby by massaging her head, and they were all checking the fetal monitoring and trying to decide what to do. It didn't take long before they said I would need a c-section. Before I knew it I was being wheeled into the Operating Room and being taken away from Peter ... that was a hard moment for us both but we knew I was in good hands. Poor Peter had to wait out in the hall for about 15 minutes while they prepped me for surgery. I was nervous, but because I'd had the epi already the surgery was started really fast as they didn't have take more time to give me anything. I was awake for the entire surgery, which was weird but not at all painful. Soon, Peter was by my side and the baby was out - they discovered that the cord was wrapped around her neck 3 times! We were so thankful that the doctors had made the decision they made and that Ainsley was delivered before things got worse. The other amazing thing was that our friends from church (husband and wife who are both doctors) were called in to assist in the surgery. They didn't intially know that it was me who was having the c-section so they were really happy to be a part of it. One of them helped deliver her, and the other 'caught' her and helped to get her cleaned up etc. afterward. After Ainsley was delivered I only remember hearing the word 'blue' .. I kept asking Peter if she was okay and soon enough she was crying and Peter was able to go over and help trim the umbilical cord. He said he could see her changing from blue to pink! After waiting for what seemed like forever, Peter brought her over to see me and I was able to touch her and see that she was doing well.



So, that was the drama of last Friday! My recovery since then has been going really well and my pain is subsiding a little bit each day. I've been up and about quite a bit and thanks to the help of my amazing husband I haven't really had to worry about anything. He's done it all: cooking, tidying, diapers and more! Incidentally, he is taking 4 months of paternity leave so he has plenty of time to wait on me hand and foot ... and he hasn't complained once : )
As for Ainsley, she is doing really well and is quite the little eater! She loves to be snuggled and Peter sometimes has to gently remind me to put her down ... its hard : ) Yesterday the public health nurse visited and we were happy to learn that Ainsley has gained about an ounce a day since being discharged from the hospital, so we know she is eating and growing despite her tiny size. She now weighs in at about 5lbs., 9.5 ozs so she is steadily climbling back to her birthweight.

Oh, and her 'brother' Fletch has been doing very well with the adjustment too ... though, he usually gets up and leaves the room when she's crying in the middle of the night : )

We'll keep the pictures coming!
Team PM & Ainsley