Melina Arrives!

After a long induction with an anemic baby and little progress, we opted for a cesarean about 16 hrs. after Tish's water broke. Melina's heart rate dropped with each contraction, so we were left with few options for more intense labor to come. Once we decided on a C-section we began to focus on the imminent arrival of our new family member. Would it be a boy or girl?

It's a girl! Morgan got to stand up during the surgery and "declare" the sex of the baby. Immediately, out baby let out a big cry that made everyone involved so happy. She wasn't having the immediate difficulties we feared.Didn't look too blue either.

The pediatric team whisked her over to a table for some quick tests and took some cord blood to verify the status of her jaundice and blood cell status. A quick weight on the scale.

And off to mom, who was finishing up her surgery. First family photo!

Special thanks to Dr. Vanderhoeven, our perinatologist and fantastic doctor. After weekly visits with Dr. V for the last several months we felt that he understood our situation, and valued his opinion every step of the way.  We were relieved when he said that he would be the one to perform the C-section too. After the surgery he stopped by to see Tish and Melina (on separate floors of the hospital) several times a day.

After a textbook surgery we were back in the room less than an hour after Melina was born. To everyone's surprise she immediately latched onto Tish and began feeding.

Dad got some time as well

Some measurements: 20.5" long, 35cm head circumference

Unfortunately, after several hours in the postpartum room, our blood test came back (actually it came back a couple hours late because of a clerical error). We valued that time with Melina, but didn't realize it was all we were going to get for a while. Turns out she had very low hematocrit, and her oxygen saturation was pretty low. The pediatricians decided to get her some light therapy and insert a couple of catheders into her umbilical vein and artery in case she needed an exchange transfusion. Kind of a lousy way to see your kid. All of the medical intervention resulted in us taking a while to name her. We were only able to pull her off light therapy for a few minutes a day at first.

Here little Melina has a mask to protect her eyes from the light. A nasal canula for oxygen, an IV in her right hand, electrodes on her chest that measure respiration rate and heart rate. Two catheders in her umbilical vessels, and an oxygen meter on her foot. Her diaper is pulled back to allow as much of her skin to be exposed to the blue light as possible. We didn't realize she was too jaundice until we took the mask off and there was a little yellow raccoon patch of yellow skin around her eyes.

Her station were we camped out for the better part of her 5 days in the NICU. We told Melina to enjoy the light because it was more than she would ever get in Seattle.