Birth of Kylie Jean Summers

I went for my last ultrasound with about 3 weeks left and they said that Kylie was feet down and that my amniotic fluid was low so it was unlikely she would have the room to flip. I was absolutely heartbroken when I heard the news. I had worked so hard to prepare for a vaginal birth and I just really wanted that. So after wrapping my head around it, I did some spinning babies positions and hoped for the best but prepared for the worst. I went in for my next appointment and they asked if I had felt any changes and I hadn't so they scheduled the C-section for about 5 days earlier than her due date. At this point, I decided I just wanted to do the C-section because I was ready to have her here and it made for easy planning for everyone else.

Waiting to go in to surgery. For some reason Blogger decided to flip this one

So Monday March 9th, we went in bright and early, my mom also got there early, they got me prepped, and I headed in to surgery. I was nervous. I mean, the last one went so fast I didn't have time to think about what they were doing to me, but this time I had plenty of time to think about it. It did take some time to get the spinal block but I think it's because the anesthesiologist was pretty new. But he did a good job. Luckily Nate was able to come in this time and everything was really chill and laid back. They said that Kylie had flipped and was head down! At the time, this news was a little bit of a bummer, but I was happy to have Kylie, as time has gone on though, I kind of wish I would've asked for an ultrasound before to see if she had flipped and just done the normal birth. It's just been such a hard recovery. They got Kylie out fast and I got a quick peak at her and all her hair. And the nurses immediately exclaimed that she had the longest eye lashes they had every seen. She was 6 lbs 9 oz and 20 inches long. Nate went out with the baby and then they had to stitch me up. It seemed to take forever but at least I didn't feel it like I had with Logan. I didn't feel like I was being jerked around. So everything seemed to be fine. Kylie was healthy and all was well. And finally in the recovery room I was really able to see her and hold her and nurse her.

Kylie's temperature was low, so I did some skin on skin for a couple of hours. The nurse came back and checked her temp and it was still low, so she took her away to the warmer. I was a bit annoyed since I had read that skin on skin was better than those sorts of things, but I was also starting to feel really tired so in a way I was grateful too.

If you look close, you can really see her lashes in this one

My mom left and she was planning on coming back the next day. Not long after she left was when the trouble started. The spinal block was wearing off and I was in an incredible amount of pain. They gave me the normal pain killer, but it wasn't helping at all. There was some sort of problem with mixing medicines so their pain killers choices were slim so they gave me some morphine. The first dose still didn't help too much, so they gave me a second dose. After that one, the pain luckily was mostly gone, but then it made me really nauseous and I almost threw up a couple of times but I talked myself out of it because I knew the wretching would really cause my stomach some pain. Anyway, my doctor checked in on me and realized that I was in more pain then I should've been, so he brought in an ultrasound machine to see if there was something wrong. He said there was a slow blood leak but he would wait a bit to see if it would get better by itself. If it didn't, he would have to open me up again to fix that. Well, the next time he checked me that was better (thank goodness) but I had lost a lot of blood. I actually didn't know how much until a day or 2 later when a nurse said that my blood count showed me only 2 above the level of when they start giving transfusions. And this problem is still following me, 6 months later! But more on that later.

Anyway, they were finally able to give me the regular pain killer stuff so I was feeling better with much more manageable pain and no nausea. And Kylie was brought back in and we were able to feed her and take care of her. We had decided from the get go to do some supplementing with formula with her so we wouldn't have a repeat of a starving baby. And she was doing great. Sleeping well, content, and just beautiful. That evening I decided to try to get out of bed. The nurse helped me walk to the bathroom where I sat on the toilet. I still had the catheter in so it was mostly just a place to go. I was feeling a bit dizzy, but I made it to the toilet so I was sure it would get better. Well, I just continued to get more and more dizzy and pretty soon I had passed out and the nurse caught me. She revived me with some smelling salts and called Nate to help her. I was revived for a second but I fainted again, so they laid me down on the floor of the bathroom. Pretty soon after I hit the bathroom floor and she waived the salts in front of me again so I revived again. This whole experience is quite hazy for me, but Nate was really scared seeing me like that. I laid on the floor for awhile until I felt well enough to get back in bed. At this time, I had no idea I had lost so much blood, but obviously that is why I fainted so easily. During the night, I started to have pain in my shoulder area which apparently was from air getting up there during the surgery. Pain killers didn't seem to help that so I didn't sleep well that night, besides the fact that the nurses had to keep coming in to check on me.

The next day I was still dealing with this pain and the low blood, but I really wanted to get the catheter out because of the bad experience I had last time. So they took that out and I had a better experience with going to the bathroom this time and that's the only time I ever got out of bed was just to go to the bathroom and shower. Logan came with Grandma and Grandpa Summers on this day and he was really excited to see his sister! He did such a good job of holding her and being so careful with her!

With each new nurse I would explain the pain in my shoulder, but it wasn't until the evening nurse who suggested I get a hot pad. So I slept with that and slept so much better! She was also really great too because she could see how exhausted I was and she was the one who told me I had lost a lot of blood and she just felt so bad for me, so when she checked on me during the night, she didn't turn on a bunch of lights so I was actually able to sleep pretty well that night. I really liked that nurse! Things slowly got better after that. I stayed the longest you can stay at the hospital, but I was nervous about going home and taking care of both Logan and Kylie. We had various visitors on different days, which was nice. The only kids allowed in the hospital at this time were siblings so Kylie's cousins had to wait to see her. But obviously our parents came, Cindy, Grandma Hill, Debbie, Missy, and Tiffany. Missy took some cute pictures of Kylie while she was there. (They get their own post). For some reason I don't have pictures of anyone holding Kylie except for Grandma Hill.

I think the nursery nurses had tons of fun with Kylie's hair:)

On one of the days, there were some volunteers from a beauty school who came to do something of our choice and I chose to get a facial. That was so relaxing! Especially after everything I had been through, it was so nice to relax and I almost fell asleep! The last evening, the hospital did a couples dinner and that was way fun.They decorated the table and we had some good food. It was a fun little date night. And Kylie slept peacefully through it all. Nate also brought a movie from home (We Are Marshall), so we sent Kylie to the nursery early and watched that to finish off our date night.

Anyway, I finally went home on Friday. I was ready to go. There was actually another woman from our ward who had a baby the day after me and went home the day before. She even had a C-section as well. I guess she just really hates hospitals, but I was fine with staying that extra day. I was able to move much better by now, but I also knew I needed to stay on top of the pain meds so we made sure to make a stop at Walgreens on the way home. Logan was also really ready to have us home and I was missing him. It was time.

Going home outfit. It's so funny how big newborn clothes can look!

She looks so tiny in the carseat!