Caroline Rose

December 20, 2013 is a day to be remembered.

I woke up at about 5 am to take a shower, being sure to wash with Hibicleanse. Trent carried the girls out to the warmed up van in their pajamas and covered them with blankets. We were on the road by 6ish. We drove to Trent's parents house and dropped the sleepy big girls off to spend the day with Grandpa and Grandma.

Trent drove me to the hospital. We were very excited to meet our fourth baby and prayed for good health.  We arrived at Women & Babies Hospital shortly before 7 am. My cesarean section was scheduled for 9 am. Check-in went smoothly and I waited patiently through the routine procedure.

I was very vocal about my previous negative experience with the spinal, and wanted to be sure that the same mistakes weren't made again. I talked with the anesthesiologist and he assured me they would do their best. Before I knew it they were ready for me to go to the operating room. Trent waited outside as I walked down the hallway into the operating room. As soon as he left my side I could feel myself start sweating. The walk down that hallways brought back a flood of memories regarding Magdalena's c-section.

As they prepared me for the spinal the nurse joked about the fact that I was sweating and I told her how nervous I was. Everyone was really fabulous and patient with me. She tried one spot and I could feel pressure on my spine. Instead of continually trying the same spot (which is what happened last time), she took the needle out. The doctor came and had me sit differently. Because of my scoliosis when I arch my back it made it more difficult to get a wide space in my spine, and it actually closed off a space that would normally be open. The doctor recognized this and adjusted my body accordingly. The nurse anesthetist was then able to get the spinal in with no problem. I was praising the LORD!

Trent came in and the surgery began.  I felt like everything went much quicker this time than it did before. When they pulled the baby out one of the nurses said, "Ah, he's peeing! I mean - SHE's peeing. It's a girl!"

It was quite humorous because I was very confused as to the reference to "he". Even though we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl I was pretty sure we would have another girl.

 Caroline Rose Hess entered the world at 9:09 am, was 19 inches long and weighed 4 pounds, 14 ounces.  She is lovely and perfect.

Immediately after being born the NICU nurses who were in for the delivery began giving her oxygen. She had  fluid in her lungs. They took her over to the NICU and Trent went with them. I went into recovery alone. As strange as it may seem, I was extremely grateful that I had a previous experience with a NICU baby. I was much more confident and sure of her safety than I was with Maggie.

Trent came back to recovery to give me a Caroline update and to call our family. First up were big sisters. Trent called his parents house and asked to talk to Anne.
Anne said, "What is it?"
He said, "Well, her name..."
And Anne excitedly said, "HER?!?!"
and Grandpa and Grandma (who were on speaker phone) said, "Her??"
Anne said, "Well, what is her name??"
Trent said, "Caroline Rose Hess."
Anne said, "Caroline.... what a nice name."

The girls were all excited to hear about their baby sister.

Trent also called my mom who was waiting very impatiently at work to hear the news! She contacted my dad and siblings for me. A little while later we put the announcement on facebook to spread the word more quickly.

I'll try to write more about our 10-day NICU stay on another post!