Amelia Jane Kerlin Comes In Like A Lion

(It is the night of Nov.21 in the hospital. I just spent almost an hour working on this blog posting. Then inexplicably my computer erased half of my entry. I am too tired to rewrite it right now- so you're coming in in the middle of the story. Basically it starts with Laura and I going to the hospital thinking she has stomach flu)

sen- her temperature continued to rise and she looked as red as a lobster. Then the baby started having some erratic heart activity. The doctor came in and was immediately concerned that Laura did not have stomach flu after all but rather an internal infection that was stressing her and the baby.

Then things got crazier. Laura and I had just about convinced ourselves that everyone was overreacting and we just needed to march out of there and go home when lights started to flash on the monitor and an army of nurses descended on our little room all of them trying to do the same thing- find the baby's heartbeat. It was truly terrifying.

The doctor explained then that we really had no choice- the baby's life was at risk if we didn't perform an immediate c-section. He wasn't really asking- poor Laura had to sign a consent form while they put in a catheter (no anasthetic) and in other ways prepped for surgery. The doctor was very kind and sympathetic but he made it clear that he was deeply concerned.

I (seth) found myself throwing on scrubs in the bathroom while they wheeled Laura's bed to the OR. Within 10 minutes I was there myself and then within 20? minutes or so there was little Amelia Jane- crying right away and a healthy 4.5 pounds (that's large for 33 weeks thankfully).

It is now midnight- the night of Nov 21. Laura is recovering from her surgery- she is handling it wonderfully but there is some pain involved. We will be in the hospital until thursday evening probably (it is tues night/wed. morning).

Amelia is a trooper. She is digesting her food well as of this evening (Carle has donor mothers' milk that they feed preemies until the mother's milk comes in so we have been using that) and she is breathing much better. She has received such good care from the nurses- we are grateful to the people who are working so hard for her up in the NICU.

She is very cute. Unfortunately most of the pics I have right now are all taken immediately following the c-section (10-30 minutes after) and so she tends to look a little frazzled. But I maintain that she is cute under any circumstances. There is one pic of Laura touching the baby earlier today...you can see that she is going to be a great momma just by her smile.

Fate is a curious thing. My dad just happened to be in town for a couple days- he wasn't expecting this to happen but it was neat that he could be here to give his blessing right when Amelia joined us.

(one of my regrets is that the night she was born I misunderstood hospital policy and told mom and dad that only Laura and I could be with Amelia in the ICU- by the time I figured out that that wasn't true they had both left- they came back the next day of course but it would have been nice to have them there that first night)

I could write a lot more but things are getting blurry so I should sleep. Here are the rest of the pics I have.