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Sorry for the "internet silence," but things have been pretty busy around the Blanchard house. Not that I'm complaining, it's a wonderful thing, having a baby, but it's a busy time for sure.
I was discharged from the hospital on Thursday night. I'm not really sure why they kept me for so long, but I do know that it was nice to be at the hospital and be so close to Hannah. Thursday night, Jeremy and I spent some time at home, making sure everything was ready for Hannah and just spending some time processing all that we had been through in the past few days.
We returned to the hospital on Friday morning, where we were able to give Hannah her first bath. There were a few rough moments, but overall the nurse said we did well, Hannah didn't cry too much, and Jeremy and I survived.
Hannah doesn't seem to really like being all exposed, which I can't say that I blame her. She was much happier when we wrapped her up in a blanket and held her close while we finished drying her and then dressing her.
We were able to give Hannah a few feedings while we waited to meet with her doctor to go over her discharge papers. We also (mainly Cassie) had to take an infant CPR class and go over what to do if an infant starts choking. Jeremy went to the class, more for moral support, since he really should know how to handle both of those situations.
After the class and meeting with her doctor, it was finally time to take Hannah off of all of the monitors. It was so good to finally hold our little girl without having to stand right next to the hospital monitor. We could move around all we wanted to. The nurse had us sign the final set of discharge papers and we were set to go. 
Jeremy loaded Hannah up into her car seat. I was so surprised to see how small she looked. It was like looking at a doll or something like that. She just looked so tiny and so precious. We said good-bye to Hannah's nurse and finally headed home as a family.
Our first night at home went really well. Jeremy and I both were obsessed with just watching Hannah. Every little sound she made had us up and out of bed, making sure that she was still okay. Of course she was okay, but boy did it make us feel better just to check on her.The biggest surprise has been how Molly (our beagle) has adjusted to this new little person living in our house. She has done such a great job and has become Hannah's little guard. She doesn't freak out when Hannah cries, which is what I had expected. She follows us when we take Hannah in to change her diaper or feed her a bottle. She sits right at the feet of whoever is holding Hannah at the time. We were concerned about her being aggressive, but we haven't seen any sign of that at all. Molly just shows constant love for this new person in her life. We've been doing our best to make sure to praise her when she is good and give her treats often too.
Yesterday, Sunday, was a big day of family.
My parents arrived in town, my sister Heike and my nephew Baeley, came to visit for the
day, and Jeremy's parents came for a little bit as well. Poor Hannah was passed around from person to person, but she handled it pretty well and only got fussy later in the day.
After lunch, we went back to spend some more time with her and found out that they had been able to give her a little bit of food from the bottle. She actually ate about 15cc's, not quite an ounce, but still a good thing. She's basically on a sliding scale, so depending on how much she eats, they'll reduce the amount of fluids she receives from the IV. Jeremy changed his first diaper and Hannah was nice enough to just give him just a wet diaper. He did a pretty good job. Between the nurse, Jeremy, and myself, we fed her her second bottle and she took in about 32cc's, which really made her nurse happy. They were able to reduce, again, the amount she's receiving from the IV.
This evening, I had the privilege of changing her diaper and Hannah wasn't as nice to me. She gave me a pretty dirty diaper to change. What a little stinker! :) We had a hard time getting her to take her evening bottle, but eventually she took in about the same amount she took in this afternoon. Because the amount wasn't any higher, they didn't make any adjustments to her IV.
At this point, I'll be discharged tomorrow, but we're not sure when Hannah will get to come home. She has a couple of goals to meet before we can bring her home, like keeping her temperature up, eating the right amount of food, and things like that. We're hoping that we'll get to bring her home on Friday or Saturday. It's going to be pretty rough to go home without her, but we know that this is all in God's plan and that He is taking good care of her and watching over her, even when we aren't in the room with her.
Jeremy and I are doing pretty good. We're both pretty tired and hope to get some good rest tonight. We're both just so thankful for all the doctors and nurses who are taking such good care of all of us. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers! Keep them coming!
What a whirlwind the past 36 hours have been. There have been many highs and a few lows, but the end result is wonderful. Our baby girl, Hannah Marie, has finally joined our family.
Our journey started yesterday, when I went to the doctor and found out I was only dilated to 2 cm. This wasn't exactly what I had been hoping to hear, but couldn't really do anything about it. He did a few "maneuvers" to try and help get things started, said he would probably be delivering my baby in the next few days, and scheduled me for an induction next Monday, just in case I was still pregnant.
Once I got home, the back pain I had been having since late Sunday night, suddenly intensified. I was experiencing pain that I couldn't describe and had never felt before in my life. After a few conversations with Jeremy, I relented and called my doctor who told me it was time to go to the hospital. Yikes! We were about to become parents. The reality hit us like a ton of bricks.
When we got to the hospital, we spent about 2 hours in triage, where they concluded that yes, I was in labor and began the process of admitting me. They quickly gave me my epidural (sweet relief) and we began our hospital stay. Things moved along very quickly, and before I knew it, I was dilated to 9 cm.
Around 10:15am this morning (Tuesday), my doctor declared me ready to start pushing and so push I did. Surprisingly, I only pushed for about a half an hour before Hannah decided to join us. That's where our story takes a scary twist.
The entire time, they had of course been monitoring me and monitoring Hannah's heartbeat, which was perfectly fine. She delivered smoothly and with zero complications, until they took her to weigh and measure her and realized that she wasn't breathing. She was looking around and moving, but she wasn't breathing.
I can't begin to tell you how scary that was for us. They quickly began working on her, trying to clear her airway, and hoping to get her to breathe. They called down the neo-natal team, who joined our room and joined in on working on Hannah. All Jeremy and I could do was watch, hope, pray, and cry from my bed. They quickly determined that she had an unusual amount of "gunk" in her lungs and air passages and worked as hard as they could to get her to breathe on her own. They weren't as successful as they would have liked and ended up having to stick a tube down her throat and hook her up to the vent. I truly don't think I have ever been so scared in my life.
About 15 minutes in, they were able to get her stable enough, that Jeremy and I could hold her for just a minute or two before they whisked her away to the NICU. We were told we probably wouldn't be able to see her for about two hours -- the longest two hours ever.
When we were finally able to join her in the NICU, she was doing better, but still didn't seem to have the right oxygen levels. They had her underneath an "oxygen hood" that was supplying her with the right amounts of oxygen. This meant we couldn't hold our baby girl, which was really hard. We could take pictures though.
They told us that Hannah would probably stay in the NICU for 24 hours, then be moved to the NIM (neo-natal intermediate unit), then, if she was doing better, we could probably take her home sometime around the end of the week. The end of the week? That was tough to swallow, but we know these doctors are the best, so we accepted the news and began praying that she would heal quickly.
Around 4pm, we were told that she had been out of her oxygen hood for two hours and was holding her own, so they transferred her to the NIM tonight. Not tomorrow, like they thought, tonight! We are ecstatic about this. It means our prayers were answered. They also told us that if she continued to improve, she could probably be moved to my room/the regular nursery tomorrow, and go home with me on Thursday. We were blown away when they told us that.
We went down to the NIM, where we were finally, 7.5 hours later, allowed to hold our sweet, little girl. We were able to kiss her, hug her, and hold her close. We are so thrilled to finally meet her and of course, we think she's absolutely perfect.
Please enjoy these photos! We'll keep you posted on Hannah's progress and covet your prayers.
This afternoon as I left the doctor's office, and again he had zero good news for me, I began thinking of all the things I'm looking forward to. You know, the things I've gone without for the past nine months. Don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to meeting this little girl and everything has been worth it. But, there are certainly things I just can't wait to welcome back into my world.
*Regular Pepsi
*Belts
*Pants that have zippers and buttons
*Shirts that button
*Shirts that don't have a tie in the back
*Shaving without it being a workout
*Sleeping in my own bed
*Regular coffee
*Wearing my wedding ring
*Painting my toenails -- again, without it being a workout
*Picking up Molly
*Walking quickly down the hallways at school
*Having a normal belly button
*Fitting my feet into shoes
*Not having to go to the bathroom every hour, on the hour
*Having a lap again
Now, I'm a realist, I know that these things may not come immediately, but a girl can dream, yes? Really, I'm just ready for the "pregnancy" part to be over and the next part to begin. Does it sound a little like a pity party? Probably, and for that I'm sorry. I really am doing okay and I really do have patience. Today was just a hard day and so it seemed inevitable that a pity party would happen. I'm sure tomorrow, after I've had a good nights "sleep," things will look up.
No matter what, as my doctor keeps telling me, she will come out. Right now it's just a matter of not really knowing when....yeah, not a lot of help, but he's trying.
We returned to the hospital on Friday morning, where we were able to give Hannah her first bath. There were a few rough moments, but overall the nurse said we did well, Hannah didn't cry too much, and Jeremy and I survived.
My parents arrived in town, my sister Heike and my nephew Baeley, came to visit for the
