It's been a big couple of days. I apologize if this turns into a long one...
For the past couple of weeks we had a plan in our head of how things would go. Firstly we would go in on the Wednesday night and they would try to help Jess dilate in order that they could break her waters and begin inducing her. Turns out as we arrived on the Wednesday night that Jess' body didn't need any assisting in that department . We were sent home and asked to come back at 5am the next morning so they could start the process. We took this as a good sign; if Riley was already getting prepared to make her exit before anything happened then surely on Thursday it would mean that the labour would be quicker? Right?
We asked the midwife how long she thought the labour could take on Thursday. Her reply was "How long is a piece of string?" meaning 'who knows'.
Needless to say Thursday was a very long day. Jess handled the labour like a champion of course starting at around 6am; she tried her best to avoid any kind of assistance for the pain as long as she could. But the morning turned into afternoon and things just didn't seem to be progressing at a rapid rate. Riley kept being too high for the doctors liking. Eventually Jess took an epidural and it was like the heavens parted. Jess was no longer in pain; in fact she didn't even know when she was having contractions. The midwife would say "Ooh that was a good one" and Jess would be surprised because she didn't feel a thing. She loved it.
But things took a turn as the midwife at around 5pm was concerned that things were not progressing the way they wanted. Riley was still too high for it to come time to pushing. One of the doctors came in and his recommendation was for Jess to have a caesarean. His reasoning was that he didn't believe that Riley was going to descend any lower and Jess' heart rate and temperature was worrying them.
Jess wanted to just give it another hour but it seemed like it was not meant to be. The operating rooms were getting booked at a rapid rate. In fact there were not one but two sets of twins that needed to be delivered by Caesar at that exact moment so if we were going to do it, it had to happen now. The team swooped in so suddenly we hardly had time to catch our breath.
Being in that operating room, holding my wife's hand, her heart rate going wild and the doctors having to operate to deliver our child was not how I pictured things going at the start of the day.
Once they were finished, they held up Riley for us to see for the briefest of moments and then whisked her away just as fast. That cuddle we were hoping for didn't happen. Eventually the team asked if I would like to come see Riley and I left Jess in the capable hands of the doctors as they finished up the surgery.
I finally got to see my daughter. She was all cleaned up and she was beautiful. I didn't get to touch or hold her, but I just got to stand by the team watching them take very good care of her. Soon I followed them to the Neonatal Critical Care ward where Riley was going to stay and thankfully not too long after Jess was able to come visit as well.
Right now we don't know much. Riley does have a heart defect that appears to fit with the Double Inlet Left Ventricle diagnosis. She will need open heart surgery very soon; there is a meeting with all of the cardiac surgeons this afternoon where we believe they will lock in a time for surgery then let us know. They have also taken blood from Riley to do genetic testing to discover if there are any chromosome abnormalities that can sometimes be associated with conditions like these. Other than that we are just waiting for answers.
Here's what we do know; we know that Riley is brave. She has been through a lot just over this past day and yet she is somehow serene (besides the odd cry here and there but she's a baby so what do you expect). She has been tracking well enough that she might be moved tomorrow from the Neonatal Ward to the Children's Hospital which is something we didn't expect would happen until after surgery. Also even though we didn't get that elusive cuddle, she can be touched; we are able to stroke her hair or let her wrap her tiny hand around one of our fingers.
And one other thing we know is that she does not lack Love. She has been doted on by not only us but her grandparents too who all got to come meet her (she gets to meet her other Grandma and her aunt on Saturday).
We don't know what the next week or even months hold for us as a family but we do know that God is good and we are so thankful that we get to be parents to our little girl. She is worth all of the tears and worry we have had to walk through over these past few months.
For the past couple of weeks we had a plan in our head of how things would go. Firstly we would go in on the Wednesday night and they would try to help Jess dilate in order that they could break her waters and begin inducing her. Turns out as we arrived on the Wednesday night that Jess' body didn't need any assisting in that department . We were sent home and asked to come back at 5am the next morning so they could start the process. We took this as a good sign; if Riley was already getting prepared to make her exit before anything happened then surely on Thursday it would mean that the labour would be quicker? Right?
We asked the midwife how long she thought the labour could take on Thursday. Her reply was "How long is a piece of string?" meaning 'who knows'.
Needless to say Thursday was a very long day. Jess handled the labour like a champion of course starting at around 6am; she tried her best to avoid any kind of assistance for the pain as long as she could. But the morning turned into afternoon and things just didn't seem to be progressing at a rapid rate. Riley kept being too high for the doctors liking. Eventually Jess took an epidural and it was like the heavens parted. Jess was no longer in pain; in fact she didn't even know when she was having contractions. The midwife would say "Ooh that was a good one" and Jess would be surprised because she didn't feel a thing. She loved it.
But things took a turn as the midwife at around 5pm was concerned that things were not progressing the way they wanted. Riley was still too high for it to come time to pushing. One of the doctors came in and his recommendation was for Jess to have a caesarean. His reasoning was that he didn't believe that Riley was going to descend any lower and Jess' heart rate and temperature was worrying them.
Jess wanted to just give it another hour but it seemed like it was not meant to be. The operating rooms were getting booked at a rapid rate. In fact there were not one but two sets of twins that needed to be delivered by Caesar at that exact moment so if we were going to do it, it had to happen now. The team swooped in so suddenly we hardly had time to catch our breath.
Being in that operating room, holding my wife's hand, her heart rate going wild and the doctors having to operate to deliver our child was not how I pictured things going at the start of the day.
Once they were finished, they held up Riley for us to see for the briefest of moments and then whisked her away just as fast. That cuddle we were hoping for didn't happen. Eventually the team asked if I would like to come see Riley and I left Jess in the capable hands of the doctors as they finished up the surgery.
I finally got to see my daughter. She was all cleaned up and she was beautiful. I didn't get to touch or hold her, but I just got to stand by the team watching them take very good care of her. Soon I followed them to the Neonatal Critical Care ward where Riley was going to stay and thankfully not too long after Jess was able to come visit as well.
Right now we don't know much. Riley does have a heart defect that appears to fit with the Double Inlet Left Ventricle diagnosis. She will need open heart surgery very soon; there is a meeting with all of the cardiac surgeons this afternoon where we believe they will lock in a time for surgery then let us know. They have also taken blood from Riley to do genetic testing to discover if there are any chromosome abnormalities that can sometimes be associated with conditions like these. Other than that we are just waiting for answers.
Here's what we do know; we know that Riley is brave. She has been through a lot just over this past day and yet she is somehow serene (besides the odd cry here and there but she's a baby so what do you expect). She has been tracking well enough that she might be moved tomorrow from the Neonatal Ward to the Children's Hospital which is something we didn't expect would happen until after surgery. Also even though we didn't get that elusive cuddle, she can be touched; we are able to stroke her hair or let her wrap her tiny hand around one of our fingers.
And one other thing we know is that she does not lack Love. She has been doted on by not only us but her grandparents too who all got to come meet her (she gets to meet her other Grandma and her aunt on Saturday).
We don't know what the next week or even months hold for us as a family but we do know that God is good and we are so thankful that we get to be parents to our little girl. She is worth all of the tears and worry we have had to walk through over these past few months.
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