Baby Mallory is Here :)

Mallory Lynn Braquet was born on Friday, September 10, 2010 at 1:12pm. She weighed 7lbs, 1 oz and was 20 inches long. Here's how it all went down :)



We reported to the hospital at 8:30am to get prepped for my C-Section. We quickly found out that the hospital was PACKED and we were put in an overflow room, which was tiny! They also found out that the A/C wasn't working on the wing.....but they quickly fixed it so they wouldn't have to listen to numerous hormonal women :) I wasn't too nervous about anything except the IV....I hate getting IV's! The nurse we had was very good. I filled out paperwork, answered questions, and then she told me that Dr. Killeen wanted me to have not one IV but TWO...one in each hand just in case. They weren't sure what all the fibroid would cause them to do and so it was a precaution. Megan (the nurse) was great and got both IV's the first try!!! :)



About 10:30am they began to wheel me back only to find out that a lady had just came in with an emergency situation and so she got my time slot. That wasn't a problem...however, they kept saying I would go back anytime so I just stayed in the wheelchair....and sat there for 2 hours! My feet were so swollen and my back was hurting!!



Finally about 12:15pm they came and got me! The nerves kicked in a little at this point. Once we got back to pre-op I was informed that my blood work that was drawn 3 hours earlier at been LOST--so a nurse had to come and try to draw more blood. She got an earful from me because she kept grabbing my hand where the IV port was located and squeezing! It hurt so bad and I ended up crying :( It was a combination of nerves, pain, hunger, and all of the emotions of my Mimi's death and Ryan's mom's death swirling around at once. They finally got my blood drawn and took me back to surgery. The spinal was inserted (which didn't hurt at all!) and they quickly got to work.



Once they let Ryan cvome back in everything went so fast!! It was so weird to be completely numb from my chest down. I did get nauseas during delivery but the anesthesiologist was amazing and gave me some meds to combat the sick feeling. Before I knew it I heard our baby girl crying!!! Ryan was crying, I was crying, she was crying..it was a beatiful moment that I truly believe only parents understand. I got to watch them clean her up and after she was warm and wrapped up they brought her over so Ryan and I could love on her. There was a nurse taking pictures the whole time with our camera...she was so great!



Ryan got to go with Mallory to the nursery while the doctors began deciding what to do with the fibroid. I kept hearing things like "Wow, that's interesting!" and "Man that's huge!" After a few minutes they actually sent a nurse back to get Ryan because he had the camera. They normally don't let the dad come back to the operating room so I knew immediately that they really wanted pictures. I found out why rather quickly! The fibroid weighed in at over 2 POUNDS!!! Dr. Killeen told us that day after that it was very close to some of my major arteries and also wrapped around the connection between my kidney and bladder. He said it was very risky removing it but they had to because of the size alone! It was way bigger than Mallory's head!!! I am so thankful I had two wonderful surgeons who took the time to make sure they were making the right decision and that I had many prayers being lifted up for me.



Most of Friday I was very out of it. The morphine they put in my spinal for pain made me incredibly sick and most of the day was spent throwing up and drifting in and out of sleep. I don't even remember the visitors we had or Mallory nursing :( They did come in at 8:30 that night and move us to a much bigger room! It was wonderful and we were so blessed with the best nurses!!!



It is now a week later and we are doing great! Mallory had her one week check-up this morning and weighs in at 6lbs 3 oz. They are not concerned because we now know that she was not getting the nutrition she needed from me--yesterday we had a formula day and there was an obvious difference in the way she acted. I am coping ok with not being able to breastfeed...especially knowing that I was basically starving her for the past few days. I am pumping as much as I can now but it's definitely not enough for her to get the calories she needs!! She has a little bit of jaundice as well but the Doctor isn't concerned with that either because her levels are low.



Thank you again for all of your prayers and support over the past few weeks. We are doing very well considering all of the sadness we have been dealing with. Our little blessing has arrived and is healthy! That's all that matters!!!! Feel free to come visit anytime :)