Unexpected Gift

A lot of you already know how difficult and different this pregnancy was for our family. The issues with antibodies seemed to take care of itself only to be replaced by other issues.

We went in for a routine fetal growth ultrasound around 30 weeks. Our baby girl was still breech and her measurements were pushing our due date back later in the month of January.

When I went in for my next appointment, my doctor was very honest with me and informed me that Lizzie had the cord wrapped around her neck and wasn't growing. The fluid around her was also decreasing each time I had an ultrasound. We decided to give her a few more weeks and do another ultrasound. When I hit 37 weeks, we did a final ultrasound on Friday afternoon, December 16. Our doctor said based on the results of that we would either have her by the latest on Monday or Tuesday or earliest on Friday if the results were terrible. The due date was later still and my fluid levels had gone down again. My doctor called us Saturday morning around 6:40am while we were at Bountiful Baskets and said he wanted to do a c-section that day and get her out of me.

We found a sitter for Gabbie and Noah until my parents, who were driving down to spend the week with us, arrived and headed off to the hospital for a c-section.

Getting his awesome shoes on before we headed into the operating room.

Kyle got to sit outside while I went in to prep. I can honestly say that I spent that whole time praying that everything would be okay. I had never had any kind of surgery and I was freaking out a little bit when I walked in the room and saw it all laid out for surgery. They administered the spinal and then asked me to try to move my legs and see if I could. I couldn't help but laugh to myself as I tried to move them and couldn't. It was either that or cry. The surgery part went very quickly. My doctor came in and said he was going to start then all the sudden I hear Lizzie crying.

Elizabeth Anne Christensen was born at 11:15 am on Saturday, December 17, 2011. She weighed 5 pounds 12 ounces and was 18 inches long.

Kyle said she literally looked like a blueberry when she came out. I'm grateful I didn't have to see all of that. She was put on oxygen and they took her over to the NICU because she was struggling to breathe.

I did get to see her before she left and we took a few pictures.

She was admitted to NICU shortly after birth while I was wheeled to recovery. As the drugs started to wear off, I started to itch like crazy. Kyle laughed at me because I asked him to help me itch parts of my body I couldn't reach while laying down. I was pretty mad at him at the time because he didn't help me. Apparently during my surgery, I lost some blood and ended up anemic so the first time I got up out of bed to use the bathroom post surgery, I blacked out on the toilet. Embarrassing memory. I was told as soon as I could get up and walk around I would be able to go to the NICU and see Lizzie. So I tried again a bit later in the day to sit up in a chair. I made it a bit longer but started to get dizzy and black out again so I got sent back to bed. I think the hardest part for me of recovering was not being able to see my baby. I got to see her for the few minutes after surgery and then didn't see her again until Monday. Not my favorite experience. I was released on Monday but we had to leave our little girl at the hospital for a day. More on that to come. I had some issues with uncontrollable shaking and pain in the first few days after I got home which we think was because of the meds I was taking.

I'm so grateful that things went as smoothly as they did. I know I was imagining the worst and am grateful for a worthy husband who could give me a blessing in the hospital when I was struggling the most. We are so blessed to have our sweet little girl in our family. Thank you to everyone for all your love and support during these past 9 months of pregnancy.