So Annabelle decided to come early! And these past 2 weeks have been the longest yet quickest, craziest yet sweetest weeks. Here's what happened...
Wednesday, January 23, I went to the doctor for what was supposed to be the first of my weekly visits. Everything looked great, and according to the ultrasound, Annabelle was still on schedule to come February 17. The only problem I had was swelling in my feet and my blood pressure was a little up from normal but not high at that time. My doctor told me if I started having headaches or ringing in my ears to call her.
Friday, January 24, I woke up and had my quiet time and read my devotional from
Jesus Calling. This is what it said:
"My Peace is the treasure of treasure: the pearl of great price. It is an exquisitely costly gift, both for the Giver and the receiver. I purchased this Peace for you with My blood. You receive this gift by trusting Me in the midst of life's storms. If you have the world's peace--everything going your way--you don't seek My unfathomable Peace. Thank Me when things do not go your way, because spiritual blessings come wrapped in trials. Adverse circumstances are normal in a fallen world. Expect them each day. Rejoice in the face of hardship, for I have overcome the world." (Matthew 13:46, James 1:2, John 16:33)
After reading it, I wondered how it might apply to my day. Then suddenly, I remembered my friend Christina McNally had framed the
Jesus Calling page for the day her baby was born because it had gone right along with what happened. I also began wondering if I would have more peace if I knew exactly when Annabelle was coming because I had started to get even more nervous about the birthing process.
Later that day, Luis went to El Paraiso to do youth activities, and I hung out at Tamara's house. It was really hot, and my feet were swelling a lot. Then, I started to get a headache... followed by the ringing in my ear. I wanted to just shrug it off and thought maybe it was just the heat, but I remembered what the doctor had told me about calling her if I started getting headaches and a ringing in my ears. Before I called, I decided to go to a pharmacy a couple of houses down from Tamara's to check my blood pressure. Turned out that my blood pressure was 140/90 and the pharmacist told me that I should go to the doctor. So I called my doctor, and of course, she told me to come in. Thankfully, Tamara had just walked in from running errands, and she drove me over to the doctor's office.
I really thought my doctor, Dr. Baca, was just going to give me some medicine and send me home. I did not expect her to tell me that I probably had hypertension and was at risk of having preeclampsia. (I had already gained 3 pounds of fluid from Wednesday to Friday.) I especially did not expect her to tell me that I was already having contractions. What really threw me the loop was that she unexpectedly stripped my membranes to try to make me go into labor. I was in complete shock! Thankfully, Tamara was there, and she has a good knowledge of this things to help me understand a little more of what was happening. (She also started telling me how she had a dream the night before that I had given birth already). However, Luis wasn't, and I wasn't sure if I was hearing right about what was going on. My doctor was telling me that I could wait to see if I go into labor or go ahead and have a C-section. I was so confused about why and when or what to do. The good thing was that Luis was on his way back from El Paraiso, and we waited in my doctor's office for him to arrive before making a decision about what to do. I think he was surprised, but he handled it quite well. We decided that we would wait to see what happened. The next decision was to wait at home or in the clinic (private hospital). Of course, I chose the clinic; I did not want to be riding the bumping roads of Leon while I was going into labor.
After we left the doctor, we went home, got my things together, called my family to tell them what was going on, and went to Tamara's to eat pizza before going to the clinic. Even though I was in shock, scared, and crying when we left the doctor's, I was calm and had peace about everything when we got to Tamara's. That's what I kept asking God for: peace like described in the devotional.
By the morning of Saturday, January 25, I had only contracted about 2 cm. Dr. Baca sent me to another clinic to have an ultrasound and test done to see if I was able to give birth naturally. The ultrasound showed that everything was fine with the baby; she was fully developed and at about 7 lbs. The only thing is that she was face up and had not dropped into the birth canal (just like my brother was when he was born). The doctor doing the ultrasound told me that it could be very risky and dangerous to give birth that way. Dr. Baca also said so and wanted to go ahead and do a C-section. This was at about 11:00 am when we were discussing this. I'm not kidding when I say that in less than an hour, I was going into the operating room. Once again, I was scared to death and in shock. I did call my parents and got a hold of my mom just as they were taking me out on the bed. Everything was happening so fast that I didn't even have a chance to process what was going on!
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| Me before going into the OR |
I was scared and crying when they wheeled me in. I think what bothered me at the time was going in by myself... Luis wasn't allowed to go with me. I was greeted in the OR by some sweet ladies that told me, "Don't cry! You're going to be holding your baby doll soon!" One of them was another OB/GYN that spoke English (I had a dream the week before that I was going to have a C-section and people were speaking English to me). She was very upbeat and helped me to calm down. Dr. Baca was there, too, of course, and she held my hand and caressed my hair while they put the epidural in.
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| Dr. Baca and Me before the epidural |
Before long, they had me open and were pushing Annabelle out! I'm thankful I couldn't see anything because I probably would have passed out. However, I definitely felt them push her out. Evidently she was snuggled up on my upper right side, and the doctor that spoke English had to push down on my rib cage to push her out. I really thought she was going to break one of my ribs! I kept praying, "Please help them, Lord Jesus! Please help them!" And then... I heard my baby cry... I began sobbing! I cried a cry of joy and relief to hear my baby girl for the first time!
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| Seeing Annabelle for the first time |
I only got to see her for a minute, then they took her out to her daddy while they finished sewing me up. Tamara tells me that Annabelle was wailing when they brought her out, but the moment she was in Luis's arms, she stopped. She knew who he was!
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| Luis holding Annabelle for the first time |
So that is how Annabelle came into the world on Saturday, January 25, 2014 at 12:48 p.m. weighing 6.6 lbs and we still don't know how many inches (they told us in cm but we forgot).
