Birth of #2

Millie has covered the majority of the basics in her posts, but I wanted to give my version of the events as well as fill in what she left out.

First of, Aayla Makenzie Webb was born at 1:37am on December 28, 2009 at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center (UVRMC) in Provo, Utah. Although Aayla was not due until Jan. 6, Millie and I polled family to predict the actual delivery date - not too surprisingly, Millie and I both predicted the 28th of Dec. so we won.

Contractions started about 4am on the 27th. Millie stayed home from church and that afternoon we all went to her parent's for dinner (as we do every Sunday night). The family was anxious for the new arrival and after excessive coaxing, pushed Millie and I out the door (with #1, Ellery, left for a sleepover) - we headed to the hospital. We stopped off at our place to pick up a few essentials then arrived at UVRMC labor and delivery floor around 9 or 10pm. The contractions were pretty consistent but weren't lasting very long (maybe 30-40 seconds). Millie was only dilated to a 2 at about 60%... in layman's terms - not very close to birthing. Millie was pretty ticked off at hearing that and thought she may be sent home if she didn't do some major progressing after an hour of observation. That must have been the incentive she needed. An hour later she was just about ready. The nurse broke her water and out came meconium - fetal poop. Not a good sign - dangerous if aspirated - but there was very little of it so the probability of problems was fairly small.

Millie was given an epidural and had to get several consecutive doses due to the speed at which she was progressing. By about 1am the nurse had her start to push for the fist time. Just after three pushes Aayla was crowning. Millie held off on pushing until the doctor could arrive. When he showed up, it was a matter of him putting on his sterile smock and gloves, a couple more pushes from Millie and out came Aayla... limp and unresponsive.



The medical staff worked flawlessly. I have to admit during the entire time, I didn't realize just how much time was going by without Aayla breathing, nor did it ever cross my mind that she wouldn't make it or that things would be just fine. I was a bit surprised when they announced she was to go to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for nasal CPAP (NCPAP) - Oxygen - and observation.

Millie actually works in that very same NICU so all the staff knows her, and although they seemed very excited to get to see Millie's new baby - and gave her the VIP treatment, they were all obviously concerned (and a little sad) for the baby to have to be sent to them for care. They did all they could to get Aayla's stats up to par to transition to the well baby nursery without having to actually admit her to the NICU, but to no avail. She was intubated once again and given surfactant to help her lungs. Apparently, the meconium she swallowed and aspirated had done quite a bit of damage.

The NICU staff continued to do just what they're trained to, and a couple days later we got to bring both mommy and baby home. Since children are not allowed to visit in the NICU, this was the first time Ellery got a chance to see her new baby sister, although, she didn't know that, since every time she came to see Millie, we would take her (Ellery) by the well baby nursery and just point to whatever baby happened to be. Ellery didn't seem to care what color the baby's tag was (indicating boy or girl) and it didn't seem to bother her when some strange guy (most likely the baby's dad) was sitting at the crib side. Ellery would just say "oh look, it baby siser!" She got to see a baby, so that seemed to be good enough for her.

Since we've all been home Aayla's bilirubin level shot way up (into the 17's). For those of you who don't know what that is or what it means, just know it's bad, and it's way high. This meant she would have to spend the next couple of days (at home at least) under bili-lights - looks kinda like a tanning bed - and get up every morning to have her heel pricked for blood work - her favorite thing. She has probably already been poked with more needles in these few days of life than I had been by the time I reached high school! But she's taken it in stride and improving everyday. She was allowed off the bili-lights today (her bilirubin count is down to 8 - still high, but in a safe range). She has to go in tomorrow morning for more blood work, but things seem to be on the up and up. She has ten fingers, ten toes, is eating, pooping, urinating and sleeping well. She's not one for opening her eyes much, and seems much less interested in her parents or this world than Ellery did at her age, plus I'm not much of a fan of her little butt-chin, but overall, not a bad addition to the family and I think we'll keep her around... for now.

Here's Aayla in her bililight bed.



Here's her coming home picture: outfit provided by Tevia Wall (sorry you can't really see it, but it is way cute!) and Headband by Julie Neil (her company is polkadots and daisies - I'll get a link for it soon).


Millie and I appreciate everyone's concern, thoughts and prayers. It's strange to think that without modern medicine Millie and Ellery would never have survived Ellery's birth, and Aayla would most likely not have made through hers - yet in both cases, with all doctors do everyday, and the babies Millie takes care of in the NICU with much worse conditions - Aayla has never been in real danger. It's just one of the ways miracles go unnoticed every day.

Thanks again to everyone for prayers, meals, childcare, etc... from family and friends, to medical staff (except for the idiot phlebotomist that couldn't tell the difference between her rear-end and a hole in the ground... but that's a story Millie will have to blog about, I wasn't even there for it - good thing too - because those of you who know me, know I wouldn't have handled it quite so nicely as Millie did).