Below is the update that Andrew put on his Facebook page and when I read it, I wanted to add it to the blog because he remembered a lot more details than I did. So here it is...
Man, what a day! What an awesome, awesome day. I am so excited to be a father, to have my sweet little baby here where I can see and touch her, and to know she is doing so well. The way you feel upon the birth of a child is one of those things you always hear about. Always think you'll understand. And you know what, you won't even begin to understand it. I wish I could explain the emotions you feel when you first see your child but I just can't. For all you would-be parents out there- just know your world gets turned upside down immediatey. It is a sea change in your entire outlook in life. It's a high, a fear, a sense of understanding that all is right in the world and will continue to be.... but enough of me typing away about nonsense, let's get down to the details of how Erin and Finley are doing.
Finley is doing great. Obviously, having her this early is a bit of a shock. Not that we were entirely blindsided but we expected to wring a couple more weeks out of this pregnancy because lately things had been so.... consistent. But true to form little Finley kept us on our toes! The reason we delivered today is because Erin went for a check up and the perinatologist saw some dips in the heart rate that he didn't like and the readings on the doppler of the umbilical cord showed that it was either about to start a reversal of flow or had begun a reversal of flow. Both of these things are very bad things and require an immediate delivery. Case in point is that the perinatologist wouldn't even let Erin go home to get her hospital bag- she had to go straight to the hospital. As a side note, this is the ONE appointment I missed. Only one. Erin told me not to go because we both felt there was no way that today could be the day and I had a ton of stuff to do at the office. Little did we know.
Erin and I arrived at the hospital at the same time and we got her checked in. First order of business was to get the baby heart rate monitor hooked up so they could keep an eye on little Finley. Because Erin had breakfast, they scheduled the c-section for 3 PM to give her food time to get out of her system in order to lower the chances of asperation. Of course, we would go early if things took a turn for the worse, but fortunately that was not necessary.
At about 2:30 they started prepping Erin for surgery and I took a quick tour of the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) to see where Finley would be going after the birth. I came back about 10 minutes before 3:00 and put my mask and surgical suit on and went to wait outside the delivery room as they gave Erin her anesthesia. Our doctor came and got me and told me it was time. When I walked into the room, there were people everywhere. There was the surgical team, the NICU team, the anesthestiologist and his team. I was up by Erin's head while the surgery was performed, and she was great. Erin was a real trooper through all of this and took everything in stride. The c-section was quick! Maybe 20 minutes tops and I peaked over the curtain when Finley Grace came into the world. When they pulled Finley out she started making these high pitched squeaky cries. The NICU team immediately went to work suctioning out her nose and mouth and getting her breathing stabilized. Finley immediately started breathing on her own and continued to cry her precious high pitched cries. She was immediately described as feisty!
I was able to get some pictures immediately after birth and they showed Finley to Erin. At that point Erin told me to go with Finley up to the NICU. We wheeled her out and off we went. We stopped briefly for the friends and family who had gathered for this joyous occasion. After a quick peek, we continued on to the NICU. There the nurses and doctors weighed and measured Finely and continued to work to get her stabilized and ready for her upcoming stay. She weighed 2 pounds 2 ounces and was 14 inchces long. She also scored 8 and 9 on her APGAR scores, which is really great considering her small size and early delivery. At that point it was time for the doctors to get Finley's umbilical cord IV inserted and I needed to go back down to give the news that things were going well for Finley and I wanted to check on Erin who would be in recovery.
Erin came out of surgery with flying colors. So far she hasn't been in any pain, but has had some nausea and is sleeping as I type this. She hasn't been able to see Finley in the NICU yet, but hopefully we can see if she is up to it in a couple of hours. I am so very, very proud of Erin. It will be so great when we can see our daughter together.
Like I said at the start of the note, Finley is also doing great. She is breathing on her own, but does have the help of a CPAP machine. She doesn't need any oxygen supplementation (she's breathing room air!!!!) and the doctors are really pleased with her status. As of right now, it looks like this is going to be a matter of getting her to grow over the next two months, introducing her to food and eating, and getting those lungs to the point where they don't need any help at all. I really cannot express how good Finley is doing considering her age and small size. She is doing everything she is supposed to be doing.
Honestly, I am pretty beat too and will be signing off shortly. I hope this has given a slightly clearer picture of howthings are going and what the day was like. I know I've forgotten some details and I am sure there is more than one typo but it's late and it has been a long day... besides Erin will probably want to do an in-depth blog post and I can't go stealing her thunder!
I'll be keeping everyone posted over the next few days. Erin and I appreciate all of the thoughts and prayers for us and our family, and would like to thank everyone for their support. We are truly blessed to have awesome friends and a wonderful family. There is no way we could get through this without them and we are so grateful to have them in our lives. We also want to thank God for His many blessing today!!!
Best regards,
Andrew
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