I took all 3 kiddos (plus Kiahna's monitor!) to town by myself on Monday. I was a bit worried about how it would go, but it went very well! I love my new backpack diaper bag. Can't believe I waited until child #3 to buy one of those!
Now I've had lots of time to reflect back over the birth of Kiahna and all the events that followed. Throughout my pregnancy, Bryan and I had prayed that all would go well with the delivery. Although maybe some people wouldn't consider that prayer answered, I most certainly do. Even though Kiahna got sick, the way everything from beginning to end played out showed God's hand in and through it all.
First of all, when I went into labor, Bryan had only been home for about an hour. As fast as everything happened, I am SO glad that he was not at work when labor started. We were out of the house within a half hour of when things started happening. If he would have had to leave work and come home, it would have been much, much longer.
I am also very glad that it happened when my aunt was home and available. Again, with the speed of things, it was perfect that we could drop the kids off very spur-of-the-moment at a place that was on the way to town.
My doctor had been out of town on Friday and was leaving town again on Saturday. I didn't think he was around at all and told Bryan on the way to town that I didn't expect him to be there. However, he got back to town about 10:00 and was around to deliver me. (Can't say that I cared much for the on-call doctor who saw me when I first got to the hospital.) I love having a doctor who makes a point to come in for his patients' deliveries if at all possible, even though he's not on call.
When I first got to the hospital, labor was moving very fast. They didn't know if I'd have time to get an epidural. Then, I didn't know if I even wanted one. But I made the decision to get one if time allowed, and I'm very glad I did. It allowed labor to slow down. Why was this a good thing? I got the epidural about 9:45, and Kiahna didn't arrive until 12:51. When I first got there, it seemed very likely that she would be born before midnight. However, the doctor was delivering another baby, and they just let me labor down slowly. This brought Kiahna into the world on May 3 instead of May 2. If she would have been born on Friday, we would have had to leave the hospital on Sunday.
Kiahna got very sick on Sunday night, about 9:00. We likely would have already been home, had she been born on Friday. Thankfully, she was already being assessed at that time. In fact, she was in the warmer with monitors on. The nurses had been trying to reach the doctor for a little while. They were saying how they couldn't get a hold of her. They finally reached her, and she came right in. She had literally JUST WALKED IN THE ROOM when Kiahna stopped breathing. Kiahna's monitor showed her oxygen levels in the 50s and dropping. The doctor was standing no more than two feet away when it happened. She stimulated Kiahna to get her to breathe again and ordered oxygen and maximum doses of antibiotics stat. The doctor mentioned later that even if Kiahna had just been out in our hospital room, things might have gone badly. She kept reitrerating throughout our hospital stay how glad she was that we kept insisting something was wrong with Kiahna. I don't even want to think about how things might have gone if we had already been home. If Kiahna would have been in her carseat or crib, unattended at that moment. When a long-time pediatrician says that it takes a lot to make her nervous but that she got really scared that night, I realize that I didn't even understand at the time how serious it was.
Even though it meant a couple extra days in the hospital, I am very glad that Kiahna's doctor was paying enough attention to Kiahna's symptoms to decide to give her the full round of antibiotics for meningitis. She was very vigilant and promised to treat our child as if she were her own.
When Kiahna arrived, my mom's schedule allowed her to be here for a week. Although it would have been nice to have her home with us for a while after we brought the new baby home, it was REALLY nice to have her here for so many of those days that Kiahna and I were in the hospital. And with Kiahna being born early on a Saturday morning, my parents and sister were all able to come visit right away. What a special blessing! And Bryan's mom was able to come the next day.
We recently switched pediatricians. In fact, after Kiahna was born, I saw her for the second time ever. But I am SO glad that we made the switch. This was most certainly the doctor that we needed to have. She was amazing. And not only did she have the right personality and competence level that we needed, she is in-network with our insurance, unlike the pediatrician we had before. It had never mattered, with office visits being the extent of our pediatrician needs. But I am so glad that all of these bills will fall under the in-network coverage for our insurance.
Another huge financial blessing was the fact that I had put the kids on my Aflac hospital policy. Numerous times I had seriously debated taking them off of there, but I hadn't done it yet. I don't think we'll be taking them off!
As I said, now that I've had time to look back over everything, I just keep recollecting things that wow me with how they all worked out. Or rather, how God worked them all out.
Look at this little fighter!
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