New Baby!

For anyone who didn't know, our little girl, Tera Michelle Goodwin, was born at 7:56 am on December 8 (due date December 25). She weighed 5 lbs 15 oz, and was 18'' long. The birth announcement can be viewed at http://www.chandlerregional.org/ (search for online nursery) for a few months. I tried to load pictures to the blog, but they haven't seemed to work out yet. If you want pictures, they're either available on our Facebook profiles, or we'd be happy to e-mail them to you.

For those who want the story . . . my due date was always expected to be December 25, so imagine our surprise when my water broke without warning on December 6. We'd just returned home from our ward Christmas party, and were settling down for the night. There were no warning contractions, or any other signs of impending labor, so it took a little bit for us to realize what was going on. We checked in at the front desk, and asked the usual "what seems to be the problem" (Brian Regan) questions until they confirmed that indeed, we had actually diagnosed the situation correctly, and we were admitted into a labor room. I'll try not to dwell, but I can honestly say that I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a comparably painful and difficult situation from any previous point in my life. It's funny that even my notoriously overactive worrying tendencies didn't even come close to overestimating /overexaggerating what would happen. I'm hoping that since I got to experience a variety of what could go wrong in delivery, my future births won't seem difficult at all. Basic summary: my body didn't agree with my water that it was time for labor, so it took 32 hours for me to get to the point where I could actually try delivering my baby. From Saturday at 11:30 pm until late Sunday night, I couldn't get an epidural or anything more than marginal painkillers because it might slow the contraction process even more. The hospital put me on pitocin which goes from level 1 to 30, but my doctor would only allow me to have up to level 10. The pitocin made my contractions develop faster than dilation was progressing, so they continuously had to pull me back from level 10 and start the process over. Getting the epidural ended up being a horrifyingly embarrassing experience which I won't delve into, but at least I was finally able to get some sleep during the night. The scariest part was that my baby's heart rate periodically dropped enough that they put me on oxygen for the last half of my stay in the labor room. My favorite part was when her heart rate dropped low enough to make the nurse pretty nervous, but the nurse forgot to let me know when it had come back up to safe levels. David and I decided we were playing a bizzarre form of

bingo, trying to see how much of the hospital's equipment I could use before the process was done. :) My doctor finally okayed delivery Sunday morning, but only let me try for about an hour before he decided it wasn't going to work and that I'd need a c-section. He decided it was necessary for me to hear the potential negative side effects twice, and -- even better- started the list each time with death. I admit with only minimal shame that after feeling so much time and hard work had been worthless, I broke down and bawled. My body went into shock a couple of times during labor, and I shook uncontrollably during the c-section. We were moved back into post-op/triage into a "luxurious half-room" complete with curtain and office chair. Somehow we managed to come on one of the busiest days the hospital has had in a long time, so we got to stay in triage until 10 pm that night when they were finally able to get a room ready for us. I knew they were busy and understood they were doing their best to serve us, but it was so hard for me to watch my exhausted husband trying to sleep in a stiff chair or on the hospital floor. He's very sweet, but stubborn, and wouldn't leave, even to get something to eat, until he knew we'd been taken care of. My IV also was dislodged (I forget the technical term), and my arm swelled up to twice its' usual size before the frantically busy nurses noticed and switched the IV to the other arm. It wasn't really that fun not being physically able to hold my baby much with two partially uesless arms, but at least I got to see her.

Ok, that was long, but as this sort-of serves as a journal as well, I'm not going to let myself feel too guilty about it. So, a lot went wrong, but I'm not feeling bitter about it. It's more that I have a great story to tell my children and grandchildren, and I'll be able to use the great mother line, 'I went through ____ hours of hard labor for you, so ______'. Once we got into our room, things improved markedly. The nurses were still very busy dealing with the rush, but we were blessed with some incredible nurses who provided amazing care through the remainder of our stay. As expected, being able to see and hold my baby made it all seem worthwhile. A lot that was difficult happened, and I'm going to want a couple of years for memory to make me forget the negative aspects of labor before I'm willing to try again, but all in all we came out on top. Our little girl is beautiful and healthy, and has brought so much joy into our lives.

During the first few hours with Tera I was struck with how musical her little coos and baby noises were. David and I were strongly tempted to go with another girl name we like, Cadence Dianna. I spent a lot of time thinking it over, but in the end I just felt more comfortable calling her Tera. Instead, she has a Christmas nickname now. We call her Cindy-Lou (because she has a voice that sounds like the coo of a dove). David also likes to call her Teramite, which I think is adorable.

While I knew this would be the case, it's still funny how much it surprises me that I can get so little done during the day. Tera has had a hard time with eating over the last week, and I find that she spends as much time awake and hungry as she does asleep. She's definitely getting better, though, and I'm not as worried about her now (for a while she acted a little like the descriptions I've heard of premature babies). In any case, that's my excuse for not getting this written sooner.

I won't mush too much in public, but I just have to include a thank you to my wonderful husband, David. I have known him since I was 14, yet he still manages to surprise me with the depths to which his amazing traits delve. I can't think of anything more I could ask of him; he's been sweet and supportive beyond anything I could have imagined from a new father and husband. He is perfect for me and our little girl in ways so far beyond my dreams and imagination, and I am grateful I have such an awesome husband!! Love you!