Some details about Autumn's birth

PLEASE NOTE: This all happened 2 years ago, I'm simply copying it to my blog since I didn't have a blog back then.

Originally written Oct 27, 2007 06:44pm (EST)

This is the email I sent to my friends and family, I copied and pasted it here for my convenience.
Autumn Elizabeth Tottle
was born via cesarean section
October 21st, 2007 at 11:57am
11 weeks early
2 lbs, 11 oz
15 1/4 in

Here's the quick details of what happened before Autumn's birth.
On Friday, I started bleeding and having very small contractions I couldn't feel but they were registering on the monitors. Baptist hospital transferred me to Sacred Heart just so I would be there if I went into full labor. I stayed in Labor and Delivery at Sacred Heart all weekend, the contractions mostly stopped but the bleeding increased. By Sunday morning, the doctor suggested we have a cesarean as the bleeding might mean that my placenta was tearing away from the uterine wall. We went ahead and agreed to the section since we did not want to take the chance of a full placental abruption. Once they delivered her, they found that my placenta was almost 50% abrupted so it was a good thing we got her out then. She came out crying and looked good to me. She was born at 11:57 and they told us KJ could go see her at 2pm. We thought things went pretty well.

They ended up not letting KJ come see her until about 4:30. It was not good news. The neonatalogist took KJ aside to talk to him before he saw her. They said they had been working with her all day since she was born and that they really didn't expect they could do anything else. Then KJ went to see her and came back to the room where I was "paralyzed". I was still numb from the waist down and couldn't get out of bed. The neonatalogist came to talk to both of us then. He said there was one thing they could try as a last resort and that it wasn't used often in preemies and that it didn't have a very good success rate. We gave consent for them to give her nitric oxide. Then we prayed and cried a lot. I just kept saying I didn't care what they said, I knew she was going to be okay. We prayed for a miracle and we got it! By the next day, she had SHOCKED everyone and was doing way better than they expected and she's just been slowly progressing from there. They're still taking it day by day but their attitude is way different now. Sunday night when I asked the neonatalogist about pumping my breastmilk, the way he responded was sort of like don't bother. And now they talk about her future in days and weeks.

I am successfully producing breastmilk for her and freezing it which I am really happy about. She won't eat it yet for a few more days but I'm so happy I did not have problems with expressing as many moms of preemies do. She is currently getting IV fluids for nutrition right now. They won't feed her milk until she's a bit more stable.

Her lungs are premature for her gestational age. She is not like a normal 29 weeker because I had been ruptured for so long. The low fluid has a significant impact on lung development. The first day they did a chest x-ray which showed her lungs down to her 7th rib, they are supposed to be down to her 10th rib. The next day her lungs were down to her 8th rib and that's where they are currently. So they did expand some which is great. Hopefully they just continue to mature. Please continue to pray for her growth and development. She is in the 50th percentile for weight at gestational age.

As far as me, I am recovering without complication. Just LOTS of pain. This recovery is much worse than my recovery with Keaton's c-section. It could be cause I was on bedrest for 2 months before and because my c-sections were so close together, I'm not sure, probably a combination. But I am much more handicapped this time than last time, it sort of surprised me. My mom is still in town and is staying indefinitely so I am doing fine with help at home.

Keaton is soooooo happy I'm home. I didn't think he even missed me but now that I'm home we can definitely tell he's glad mommy's back. He is such a doll and such a blessing.

I've attached some pics, Autumn looks like her daddy.