We have been super busy with our brand new baby girl!
Riley Renee Kelly Smith was born on 1/22/15 at 8:27am via csection and she weighed exactly 7 pounds and measured 19.02 inches long.
This is her birth story:
It started the week before, on the 13th. I went to the doctor for an ultrasound to see if she had tried to turn at all (she'd been breech pretty much my whole pregnancy) and if not, how much fluid and space she had so that the doctor could determine if it was safe to try an external version. She was still very breech and running out of room and her fluid was low. The doc asked me if I wanted to schedule the section for Friday the 16th, but the panic on my face made him back up and he decided that he would see me again on Thursday the 15th for a Non Stress Test and we would go from there. Well, we passed the NST and he did another ultrasound and we ultimately decided that her fluid looked like it was enough to let her grow another week. We scheduled the csection for Thursday the 22nd and he said he wanted to see me one more time before surgery, so I made my last pregnant appointment for Tuesday the 20th.
Mom and I came home and prepared everything with help from Tori and then it was a waiting game. We made the trip to Greenville to Babies R Us to get a head support for her carseat and we shopped around for Valentine's Day outfits and over the weekend mom went to visit dad in SC. I got the call with my times on Friday the 16th and the scheduling nurse said my pre op registration would be Wednesday at noon and my surgery would be Thursday at 12:30pm.
We went to my doctor's appointment on Tuesday and he said that it would just be crazy to make me wait until after lunch, so he moved the surgery time to 7:30, I signed all the paperwork, and my nerves kicked into overdrive. The next day I was a ball of nerves during the pre op registration and meeting with anesthesia and I was just very nervous and even a little upset. The thought of having this surgery and being awake scared me so much that I forgot to think about the excitement of meeting my daughter.
Wednesday evening Jordan's family came in and so we met them and had dinner but I was so preoccupied I don't even really remember what we talked about that afternoon.
Thursday morning I was up at 3am. We had to be at the hospital by 5, so I showered with the surgery soap and my mom straightened my hair, my dad made a video of me and then we left the house before 4:30. At the hospital they had me change into the gown and got my IV started and hooked me up to the monitor, all the while I am a nervous wreck just staring at Jordan and wishing they had let my mom come back too. Finally after I was hooked up to the fluids they let Jordan go get my mom and dad and they sat with me a while before rotating so everyone could come in and see me before surgery. First it was mom and dad, then Jessica and Michaila, then Nanny and Savannah, then Tori and Madison, then my grandma, and then mom and Jordan came back and my OR nurse gave them their surgery outfits and they got ready and things got real. It was 7:30. We were just waiting for Dr. Marzbani.
My OR nurse, Kendra, was amazing. She had a lot of blue makeup and looked a little intimidating, but looks really are deceiving. She unhooked my IV and walked us to the OR, and showed mom and Jordan where to wait. She and I went into the room and it was FREEZING! She helped me onto the table and got me a warm blanket and a pillow to hug, and she held my shoulders and answered all my questions while I came pretty close to a panic attack. The anesthesia team came in and a really nice lady, Dr Pelligrini, did my spinal. The location number felt like a bee sting, but I barely felt the actual spinal go in. My toes got hot and I felt the heat go all the way to my chest and then Kendra and the team laid me down. I remember my ankle really felt like it needed popping and no one would help me pop it and my leg would not move. That was a strange feeling because I was aware of my legs, but I could not move them at all. As they were hanging the drapes Kendra put my catheter in and the anesthesia nurse got my oxygen going and someone brought in mom and Jordan. I guess that's when everyone else came in as well because when I looked up I could see Mrs Tammy, the awesome practitioner that admitted me when I was dehydrated after my gallbladder attack in December, I could see the top of Dr. Marzbani's head, and Kristina, the doctor he is training, and an older nurse whose name I believe was Lucy that had gotten the instruments out for the team and had come into my pre op observation and told me she had csections and everything would be ok. Kendra told me that too and it really was comforting to know that these women watch and assist with these surgeries and have been the patient as well. For a moment everything in the room was calm and quiet. My blood pressure must have dropped and I had to really focus to breathe, so the anesthesia nurse raised my head a little and gave a blood pressure med through my IV, and then Jordan sat beside me and held my hand, and mom stood behind my head, and it began.
Dr. Marzbani asked if I felt anything sharp and when I said no he made the incision. He called first cut at 8:23 and four minutes later my angel was born. It was a long four minutes, though. One of the nurses told me that she was pooping and peeing on the doctor, and then I heard him say that she had run out of fluid, and then I heard him telling her to cry for me, and then she did. She cried and so did all of us. Mom grabbed my face and said she loved me, and I looked up at Jordan and he was crying too and then the doctor said that her time of birth was 8:27 and someone held her up like Simba and I looked at her for a second and then they took her to wrap her up and do her weight and length and soon they brought her around handed her to Jordan and I got to really look at her for the first time. Shortly after that the nursery team took Riley and mom and Jordan to the nursery and she got her first bath and her bloodwork and her Hep B shot while the OR team finished up with me.
When everything was finished, Kendra and some of the other nurses put me back on my bed and took me back to the observation room. She kept coming and checking on me and brought me some ice chips, and finally she brought me my baby and they took us both to our regular postpartum room around 10. We were in room 806. Soon after we were settled, Jordan came in. We had a few minutes as a family and then everyone who had been there waiting came in to see us. I am very blessed to be able to say I felt great. I was in no pain and that night I had my favorite nurse, Julie. She had taken care of me during my 24 hour stay in December. I was so happy to see her and she was the one who took care of me that first night and took my catheter out and helped me get up for the first time after surgery. She is such an amazing nurse. Our hospital stay was comfortable and the day before we were discharged I was up and pushing Riley around the unit in her bassinet cart and we ran into Dr. Marzbani. He stopped and played with her and asked how I was and said we looked great and I thanked him.
At my post op follow up we saw Dr. Marzbani and Kristina. She came in first and checked my incision and took my ties out and then when he came in she wanted to show him my incision. Come to find out I was the first patient she got to finish the closure on, and he said she did such a wonderful job she should look into plastic surgery. I said that earned her a spot in our picture and so she and Dr. Marzbani held Riley and we took this picture that will mean the world to me for the rest of my life. I was scared beyond belief and I trusted them to perform this surgery and safely deliver my baby and keep me safe too and they did it. <3
We are now 10 days post op, so Riley is 10 days old. Being home has been great! She's had a few visitors and she had her first doctor visit with Dr. Vurlicer on Thursday. She did great and is the picture of health. Friday was her first recreational outing; we went to lunch with her grandparents and great grandparents on Jordan's side. Yesterday there were a couple of firsts. I left her for the first time with my grandparents. They had help from Savannah and it was for less than 2 hours, but I must say after all this time they have still got it! Last night was her first night in the crib. We moved back to our room after spending the whole first week in the living room. I sent a monitor upstairs with my mom and dad just in case, but we did really well. She was up every two hours, but I did get some sleep and when she woke up around 6 my mom got her and I was able to sleep until 9:30. I am loving being a mom and Jordan is an amazing dad. We are absolutely in love and everything we went through to get to this point has been more than worth it.
Here is our little girl Friday while I was getting her ready to go. I sure do love her. <3
