It is almost time to meet our sweet Annabelle Grace!!
Jeff & I will be going to Legacy Emanuel tomorrow morning (Friday, April 29th!) at 8am to check in, which means a very early morning for us to fight the traffic, but I can't think of a better reason! :) The C-section delivery is scheduled for 10am, and from there it should only take about 15-20 minutes until we get to finally meet our precious girl! Then depending on how well she is doing, she will be able to stay with us in the OR for a little while as they continue the surgery, after which she will go into the R-Room with Jeff & the doctors to get assessed.
At that point Jeff will be able to go to the other door and bring in the grandmas, one at a time, so they can see Annie and spend a couple minutes with her. After that I will be taken thru the R-Room to see Annie on the way to recover in Labor & Delivery, and Annie & Jeff will go to the NICU where they will get her situated and continue to make sure she's doing everything she's supposed to. Annie should be all settled in the NICU by around 12 or so, around the same time I am moved to my postpartum room in the Family Birth Center (where I'll be staying until discharge).
My room will be on the 2nd floor, and the NICU is right across the main hallway. We are allowed to have visitors, but we are limited in the number of people who can visit the NICU at a time, so please call ahead before coming. You can reach us either through the hospital switchboard or on Jeff's cell phone 503.764.8776. Friday will be quite a hectic day so we are asking only immediate family to visit then, but Sunday & even Saturday should be fine for short visits from others. After that I will be doing much better & Annie will be able to handle more stimulation & interaction, so early in the week would be the best time to visit for longer than a few minutes.
At that point Jeff will be able to go to the other door and bring in the grandmas, one at a time, so they can see Annie and spend a couple minutes with her. After that I will be taken thru the R-Room to see Annie on the way to recover in Labor & Delivery, and Annie & Jeff will go to the NICU where they will get her situated and continue to make sure she's doing everything she's supposed to. Annie should be all settled in the NICU by around 12 or so, around the same time I am moved to my postpartum room in the Family Birth Center (where I'll be staying until discharge).
My room will be on the 2nd floor, and the NICU is right across the main hallway. We are allowed to have visitors, but we are limited in the number of people who can visit the NICU at a time, so please call ahead before coming. You can reach us either through the hospital switchboard or on Jeff's cell phone 503.764.8776. Friday will be quite a hectic day so we are asking only immediate family to visit then, but Sunday & even Saturday should be fine for short visits from others. After that I will be doing much better & Annie will be able to handle more stimulation & interaction, so early in the week would be the best time to visit for longer than a few minutes.
I will be staying in the hospital until Monday or Tuesday, recovering from the C-section (and bedrest!) and we expect Annie will be coming home sometime between that Friday to the following Friday. We are planning to be there each day that she is there, but the timing might vary, so to visit please check when we'll be there. There is a slight chance she might be doing so well that she gets released before the 1 week point, but most likely it will be between 1 & 2 weeks after she's born. She will be 6 weeks early, born at 34 weeks exactly, and itt is truly amazing that we were able to keep her growing this long! Because we made it this far as well as received the steroids to help her development, we don't expect Annie to have any long term health issues or complications due to her prematurity! God is SO good!
The main issues we expect her to be working on in the NICU are maintaining her body temperature and mastering the suck/swallow/breathe reflex that will allow her to take her feedings by mouth (either by breast or bottle, called nippling her feeds, as opposed to being fed thru IV or a gavage tube in her tummy). Once she is able to take all of her feeds by mouth and is taking in enough calories to gain weight, we'll be able to bring her home!
The main issues we expect her to be working on in the NICU are maintaining her body temperature and mastering the suck/swallow/breathe reflex that will allow her to take her feedings by mouth (either by breast or bottle, called nippling her feeds, as opposed to being fed thru IV or a gavage tube in her tummy). Once she is able to take all of her feeds by mouth and is taking in enough calories to gain weight, we'll be able to bring her home!
If you are wanting to help out with meals or things, we would certainly appreciate it! Being on bedrest does not allow for a lot of preparation, and we will be spending most of our time at the hospital even after I am discharged. Because we won't have a lot of time to thaw things out or cook, at least until we bring Annie home (and probably not for a while after that!), sandwich & salad making, picnic type food would probably be the best.
Jeff will be home by himself for the first 4-5 nights, and then I'll be home in the evenings and at the hospital during the day, so things that are easy to pack would be best- Roast beef or ham for sandwiches, rolls or soft bread, potato salad, fruit salad. Small containers of soup would be easy to take along to the hospital or eat in the evenings. Snacky food like cheese/crackers would be easy for Jeff. I have been loving baked goods lately :) so any sort of muffins, oatmeal cookies, brownies (Jeff loves rice krispy treats!) would be wonderful!
Jeff will be home by himself for the first 4-5 nights, and then I'll be home in the evenings and at the hospital during the day, so things that are easy to pack would be best- Roast beef or ham for sandwiches, rolls or soft bread, potato salad, fruit salad. Small containers of soup would be easy to take along to the hospital or eat in the evenings. Snacky food like cheese/crackers would be easy for Jeff. I have been loving baked goods lately :) so any sort of muffins, oatmeal cookies, brownies (Jeff loves rice krispy treats!) would be wonderful!
The thing that would be the most helpful of all, of course, would be if you could continue to be praying for our little girl! Specifically that the delivery will go well with no surprises (we've had enough of those with this pregnancy!), that she will be breathing on her own & showing good reflexes and signs of sucking/swallowing. We expect her to be over 4lbs, but the bigger the better, and we're praying she doesn't lose too much of her body weight over the first week. Being a good feeder & able to gain weight is what will dictate her hospital stay, so please be praying for good indications all around!
I'd also appreciate your prayers that I can recover quickly so that I am able to spend as much time as possible with Annie in the early days after her birth, and that nursing and pumping will go smoothly for me as well. Our biggest goal is that Annie gain weight so if we need to supplement her with something other than my milk we will, but I would love to be able to provide what she needs.
God is so good! He has been faithful throughout this entire pregnancy, every time the doctors brought up a new problem he healed our Annie and kept her growing! I feel so blessed that he has protected our daughter, and that we can trust him to continue taking care of her once we are finally able to hold her in our arms. God truly deserves all the glory for Annie's health & recovery, and because of him we are now preparing to meet our daughter in less than 24 hours! Thank you, Lord!
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