March 13, 2023

Julie’s breathing was labored during the c-section procedure.

Julie, 7:00 am 3/13

What a whirlwind these last 12 hours have been. Emmy was born at 6:08 pm. Apparently, she was pushing my lungs up into my rib cage, so during the entire c-section, it was really hard for me to breathe, which was truly terrifying. The anesthesiologist was next to me the whole time, and I kept telling him I couldn’t breathe, and he was assuring me it wasn’t the drugs; it was the positioning of my organs, and once baby E was out, it would all get better. He ended up being correct, but that was so scary! 

At this point, what we have confidently determined is Emmy definitely has some form of Down syndrome. What we don’t know yet is how severe it is. She’s got some facial features that mirror down, plus she’s had a hard time keeping her O2 saturation up so she’s been in the NICU straight from the delivery room 12 hrs ago. I got to see her around 2 am for an hour.

Julie saw Emmy for the first time since giving birth roughly 8 hrs earlier.

Gosh, she’s precious!! Very calm and docile, not a peep when the nurses were messing with her. They were also concerned with her muscle tone (common in Down Syndrome kids) and I had to hold her a very particular way (like cradling a football), so her neck tilted back and ensured she could get enough air through her whole body.

This was the one and only night that Greg slept at the hospital. We were thankful that we lived within driving distance of the hospital.

Greg and I were able to get a pretty decent 3 hr nap post C-section before the nurses came back in to check on me. That was an hour ago. Greg stayed sleeping through it all thankfully, and now we’re in a dark room again to continue resting. I’ll probably order breakfast in a little bit. The C-section pain is to be expected, I’m actually doing really well pain wise but bleeding a lot so they’re monitoring me for that. 

Can’t believe we have our girl here after all this time!

Julie, 8:45 am 3/13

We took another long nap. Feeling much more rested! Man we were both dragging at 2 am when they came to take us to the NICU. I forget how many disturbances we have in the recovery room! Emery was born at 6:08 pm and ever since then, they took her to the side and started working. She didn't cry for the longest time because I guess she drank a lot of amniotic fluid and they had to suction it out so that was terrifying not hearing her and you can hear the Drs saying "cmon baby, breathe baby, you can do it". They quickly established she was on the borderline for an emergency, initially not needing a NICU stay but was "in transition" so they were taking her away regardless. 

The wonderful nurses and technicians helped Emmy breathe after being delivered.

We didn't hear anything from a doctor til about 1:30 a.m., apparently my L&D recovery nurses are not associated with NICU and anytime Greg or I asked about Emmy we were told that we had to wait to hear back from NICU so until then just rest - ugh that was so hard not knowing what they were doing with our girl! 

All the emotions came out once Julie got to hold Emmy for the first time.

I cried pretty hard when we finally got to see her. I think it's a combo of meds plus labor/delivery shock plus confirming the Down Syndrome diagnosis plus her struggling to breathe right at birth. Lots of emotions for sure. This is very different from Callie or Savannah in that I've never been away from my baby this long. Praying her O2 saturation regulates so she can come in the room with us soon. The NICU nurses said one thing they want to test is putting her in the car seat for at least 90 min and see how she holds her neck, if she's too floppy and it cuts off circulation then that's something we have to consider with discharge. 

Lots of things. Lots of feelings. Greg’s on his way to check on her cause the NICU didn’t answer when we just tried to call.