Welcome Bailey Jo!

On Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 1:48pm, we welcomed our third little blessing, Bailey Jo.

 

 This sweet little girl weighed in at 7lbs 11oz and was a whopping 23" 21" (turns out she had a hematoma on her head from being suctioned out, poor thing, and they must have measured from that, lol) long!!

Her "story" starts back on February 8, 2011. I had an annual appointment with my OBGYN. I hadn't been to see him in quite some time due to my Thyroid Cancer and RAI craziness! My OB had actually sent me a letter stating that he had been informed of the cancer and treatment and he wished me the best. He said we could put off my scheduled appointment for a few months (I believe I was originally scheduled for a November appointment). Imagine my shock when the nurse came in with the news that my urine tested positive for pregnancy!! WHAAAT?!? I immediately burst into tears and cried, "No, no, no! What have I done?! Oh my God!!". After a RAI treatment, you are told to wait 6-12months before trying to conceive. According to the sonogram, I conceived a mere 5 weeks after my RAI. They took me in for a sono and discovered I was about 11 weeks along already. The baby looked good and the heartbeat was great, so that was re-assuring, but I was a wreck and riddled with guilt about what could be wrong with this baby. We were referred to a high risk OB and got an appointment the following week.

Here is the first sonogram... the surprise sonogram!

When I got home from my appointment and handed these pictures to my husband, he responded with: "Whose pictures are those?".... 

 

After the initial shock and worry, we were both very excited and felt this was a blessing. Against all odds, we were going to be having a third baby. I really never pictured having three and had, in fact, sold most of my baby stuff. We met with the high risk OB and he was very re-assuring. My thyroid levels were still hypo, but she was growing right on track and all of the genetic and blood testing came back as good as it possibly could. We continued to pray for the best and everything continued on. 

With our other two, we never found out the sex. We loved doing it that way since nothing in life is really a surprise anymore, but since we were going to be having so many sonograms, we decided to go ahead and find out that we were going to be having a.....

GIRL!!!

I'm not a fan of the 3-D sonograms. I really think they make your baby look like a lumpy alien and I'm bothered by that. But, our sonographer switched the machine over and was able to get this picture. I do love it!  The profile really, really looks like that of her sister!

 My due date was very early in September, but due to this being my third c-section in just under 3 1/2 years, combined with my thinning uterus (discovered during the birth of Benjamin), we  were going to be doing the section at 38 1/2 weeks. Here I am a few days before my surgery. I am the heaviest I have ever been in my life, so that puts me in the Wooly Mammoth category, or perhaps large buffalo category. But I gained only 18 or 19lbs this time, so yay! I gained about 30 with Brooke and 33 with Benjamin, I believe.

This is our last family picture as a family of 4. We took this right before we left for the hospital.

Here I am.. waiting. I have to say that I was very disappointed with some things that happened while I was waiting to go back. First of all, let me state that I HATE getting an IV. Like, it is seriously stupid. She was going to put it in my left hand, since I'm right handed, but apparently I had a better vein on the right, so that is where it went. That is also when the tears started. She got it in and I stopped crying. A little while later, I felt cold water on my hand so I looked down and noticed that the fluid was coming out of my IV!! Shortly after, the clear liquid turned to blood and it began pouring out of my IV!! HOLY $&;!^!!! We used the call button and told them blood was pouring out of my IV. They said they would let the nurse know.. but no one ever came. Thank GOD for my mom, a retired doctor, being there! She clamped the IV and then pushed it back together- it had come undone on my hand. The blood slowly went away and I stopped freaking out. My freaking out turned to anger though since NO ONE came in!! I seriously could have lost a lot of blood! Other people came in to get me to sign paperwork and get me prepped for surgery. They had no clue and neither did the nurse when she finally came in, about 20 minutes later! I also had to remind them to give me the nasty little shot of acid reducer stuff they give you  before going back to surgery (talk about a HORRENDOUS taste!). 

My mom and I.

After I took my shot, they had me get up and we walked to the OR. Once there, they sit me on the operating table and get me prepped for my spinal. Once in, they immediately lay me down and the numbing begins to immediately take over. It starts at your feet and they become warm and start to feel heavy. That feeling moves up and up and up... and eventually settles right under your neck/ very upper chest. It sometimes goes all the way up to your arms even. With Brooke, I remember not being able to move my arms and hands, but I was able to with Benjamin and Bailey.

This is my "I hate this feeling" look.

It also makes you feel very very sleepy. You can smell your flesh burning. Lovely smell. I try to rest my eyes while they are cutting through all of the layers of my belly/uterus. This takes a little longer with each subsequent operation. 

This is my sleepy "I hate this feeling and want this to be over" look. 

And here we go with the baby "eviction". 

There is her head! DARK hair!!

There's no photos of this, but she actually had a rough time getting here. She was very long, at 23" 21" and her position was weird apparently. They had to use suction on her head and had to push on me like CRAZY!! I swore the guy on the right was ON top of me. The pressure was horribly uncomfortable and I did NOT like it! I could also feel them pulling and tugging, trying to get her out. In my head I kept thinking "JUST GET HER OUT!!!" and in the back of my head, I was worried they weren't going to be able to get her and that I'd have to be knocked out and be cut open more. Thank GOD that didn't happen and they were able to get her out finally. The doctor kept rotating through suction as each time he was pulling so hard and they kept popping off!

Whew!! She made it out!! Praise God!! She cried, but also swallowed some fluid.

I'm glad they work on her right there in the OR b/c they do it near me and I can watch them work on her and look at her instead of focusing on what the doctor is doing (sewing me back up)... ick! This takes longer with each operation as well, so it felt like forever!! My  doctor said after he was all done stitching me back up that my uterus was in the top 2 or 3 THINNEST that he has ever seen. And, let me tell you, he has seen a LOT of them! He said I was beat out by the lady whose was so thin that the baby punched a hole in it! Eeek! He was able to see all of Bailey's features and hair before he even cut open my uterus! Holy moly! It is a good thing we are done having babies, since it would not be safe to have another one.

There she is!

This is one proud papa!

 

The blonde on the left with the pink shirt and pink bow is Brooke and the little blonde on the right is Benjamin. This was their first look at their new baby sister. 

I have a picture of me when I was in the hospital at birth that looks SO much like her! 

This is Bailey.

The next three pictures are of me. The resemblance is amazing!

 

I had to modify her hospital hat to make it a little bit more girly! 

My sweet Benjamin!

Corey's mom and her four grandkids.

A lot of the pictures make her look big and puffy, but she is really long and skinny!

My daddy!

Corey's mom.

So many people come in and out to check on me and on the baby, etc. They often turn on a big, bright light over my head. They also often forget to turn it off before they leave. I asked Corey to please "turn off the light with the red switch". So, he walked over to the wall and pressed the reddish/pink BUTTON underneath the "Neonatal Emergency" sign.... and set off the alarm!! Dear God! He had to tell them he pressed the wrong button (and they replied, "yep, you sure did!" lol). That is what happens when you only half-listen to your wife!  :)

We are beyond blessed to have a perfect little new addition to our family. She had some jaundice but has so far escaped having to be put under the lights, barely. She also has lost a little over 9% of her body weight as of last night. She's on the border for the jaundice and weight, but we are hoping after her assessment this morning she is doing better. I was just released to go home this afternoon, but we are still waiting on her Pediatrician and for her bili test and weight re-check. 

With the addition of Miss Bailey, our family is now complete. I feel blessed beyond measure to have such an amazing and supportive husband and three perfect little ones. They are my everything. I strive to be the best wife and mother that I can be and look forward to seeing what the future has in store for this family: Brannum, party of five! 

Sunbathing at an early age!

The little girl on the left is the daughter of a lady who has two children at the school where I used to teach. She was born the day after Bailey, but they both had the same birth weight! Bailey was 2" longer though. She came down to visit so we took a pic of the girls! 

Although Benjamin didn't really understand the whole "a baby is coming" thing like his sister did, he is super duper excited about her and very intrigued by how little and cute she is! He is all smiles when he sees her!

See?! Look at that gooooooofy smile!! Hahaha! 

Brooke has been very scared of things here. She does not like me being in the hospital bed and was especially worried when I had the IV's in me. But, since I've been able to get up and move away from the hospital bed, she has been so much less worried! She is over the moon for her sister! She calls her a few different things: Baby Sister, Bailey Sister, Bailey Campbell (NO clue where she got Campbell from, but she loves the name), and Bailey Jo. 

My four sweeties!

This picture makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.