Our New Arrival

Little Miss Sophie FINALLY decided to enter this world on September 12th! My due date was the 9th, but for months I had been telling everyone that there was no way I was going to make it to my due date. This baby was coming early, I was sure of it. Peyton was six days early, so surely Sophie would be even earlier. Man was I WRONG! My mom arrived on the 8th and Troy had been home for over a week, but nothing was happening. We went downtown Seattle on the 11th and went to the market and had dinner. I walked up and down those stupid hills two days past my due date.

Finally at 3am I was woken up by my water breaking. This was a strange surprise as my water has never broken with my other girls. Troy and I arrived at the hospital at 4am and as the nurse was checking me, we discovered that due to "stress" Sophie had pooped already. So apparently we were going to have to pay attention to that. I was dilated to a 4 and got settled into my room, got an epidural and began the wait. Lucky for me, my doctor was on call that day. Things progressed fairly quickly from a 4 to a 6, but then things stopped. I probably sat at a 6 for over 6 hours. They moved me around a bit, but each time I laid on my right side, Sophie wouldn't do well. By this time, it was 2pm and nothing was happening. I was still having contractions, but they were pretty weak. My doctor was concerned that her cord must be hung up on something and determined that she was not going to come out naturally. Dr. Channell decided that Sophie was going to arrive via c-section. I wasn't happy about this, but I was obviously going to do whatever was the safest for my little girl and myself.

Once a c-section was decided, things moved very quickly. I was prepped and wheeled off to the OR and Troy was busy sending texts to let my family know what was happening. Troy's not one for blood so he stayed up behind the curtain with me. Sophie arrived and was perfect. As Dr. Channell was pulling her out, she even commented on how chubby she was!

She weighed in at 9 lbs. 14 oz. and 21" long. I knew she was going to be big, but I was not expecting a 10 lb. baby. She was almost a pound bigger than Peyton! They cleaned her up, sewed me up and then I was able to see my beautiful baby girl. While laying there, the anesthesiologist said to me, "and now they're putting your uterus back inside your tummy". Seriously??? I don't think I needed to know that it was outside my tummy! I did remember to ask Dr. Channell what Sophie's cord was hung up on and apparently it was her neck. I am very grateful to an amazing doctor who acted on the best interest of me and my baby. However, I don't know why people choose to have c-sections voluntarily because I have never felt such horrible pain in all my life. The next morning they made me get up and walk to the bathroom, HORRIBLE PAIN! The girls were so excited to come see their new little sister and it was so fun to see their excitement and immediate love for her.

Because I'd had the blood clot back in June, there was concern that I could develop more having had surgery so my doctor started me on blood thinners that night. By late morning on Monday, I was having a lot of pain in my leg. One of my veins was completely inflamed and bright red. I had been telling my nurses (all four of them) throughout the day that my leg hurt and each one just kept saying, yea, varicose veins, Sorry! Really people?? So finally that night, I had Troy go find out which doctor was working. Luckily the doctor arrived right away and knew that I had developed blood clots. I had another ultrasound done on my leg and I hadn't just developed blood clots, the ENTIRE vein was clotted, from my hip down to my knee. Good thing they had started me on the blood thinners the night before. So now I not only had the pain from my surgery, my leg hurt so bad too. Plus the privilege of giving myself shots in my stomach twice a day for a couple months!

This was definitely a new experience for me. I had planned to bounce back from having Sophie very quickly as I had with Peyton. This definitely made me slow down. I spent most of the first couple of weeks sitting on the couch or my bed. At least I was able to have a lot of cuddle time with my baby thanks to my Mom for taking over things with my other girls. I never once had to worry about them and was able to get the rest I needed. It took a good two weeks until I really felt mostly normal.

The pain finally receded in both my stomach and leg and the girls and I were able to get on with life and get things back to some sort of routine. Even through all the complications, I wouldn't trade it for the world, we absolutely LOVE our little Sophie!!