Wilkinson Family Adventures: Introducing Eliza!

After months of waiting and wanting to meet our little girl, but also wanting her to wait long enough to be healthy, we finally got to meet her on April 23, 2017. I went to the hospital around 10 PM on Saturday night after leaving our kids at home with an amazing friend who agreed to spend the night at our house if we were staying at the hospital. When I got there they told me they weren't sure I was in labor but they would keep me and watch me for awhile. (That sounds familiar...the same thing happened with Anders) I was 3 cm dilated when I got there and an hour later they thought I was closer to 4 so they decided to keep me another hour at which point I was 6 cm so they admitted me. Drew and I were just glad to know whether we were staying or going home because we don't like waiting and not being able to plan.

Once I was admitted they told me they wanted to give me antibiotics through the IV since our baby would be premature to help give our little girl the best chance of being healthy and they wanted my body to have 4 hours for the antibiotics to get in her system. So, they told me to take it easy, rest and not try to help the labor along. Apparently my body listened, because within 30 minutes my contractions had eased up and I was barely feeling them at all so I got to sleep for about 4 hours(Weird, right?). At that point I woke up wondering what had happened to all my contractions and the doctor came in and pretty much asked the same thing. They decided my body had had enough time to get the antibiotics to the baby so they wanted to break my water. Once they did that the contractions started coming back and as soon as I got up and did a little walking they progressed quickly and I could quickly feel them getting stronger. About an hour and a half after they broke my water I was ready to start pushing. Our sweet little girl arrived at 7:50AM! She weighed 6 lbs 4.5 oz and was 18.5 inches long. We named her Eliza Thelma Wilkinson after some of her wonderful, strong, inspirational ancestors.

She was beautiful and precious but it quickly became evident after she was born that she wasn't quite ready to breathe on her own. I could tell quickly because she was acting the same way Anders had after he was born and he ended up on CPAP. I had kind-of expected her to have that issue because she was premature, but I had still hoped that miraculously she would come out 100% healthy. At least she was healthy enough that I got to hold her for a couple minutes before they took her away to the NICU. As hard as it was to send her to the NICU without me I knew she was going to be okay. We went through so much to give her the best chance at being healthy and strong and I knew that at 36 weeks she was strong enough to battle whatever challenges she was going to have. I am so glad that Drew was here for her birth and that he could go with her to the NICU when I couldn't.

Getting to hold her right before they took her to the NICU

It is always hard for me to watch my children struggle, but when they are only a few minutes or hours old it seems harder. As soon as I could go see Eliza (about an hour and a half after delivery) I had them wheel me down to the NICU. As soon as I got there I could see she was on CPAP and had an IV and feeding tube. I recognized the equipment from when I was in the NICU with Anders. It was hard to see her hooked up to so many machines but at the same time, I am so grateful for modern medicine that helps save so many babies! I am not sure if it was easier or harder being in the NICU this time versus last but it was different. This time I understood what things she was hooked up to and how they helped but I also had a better idea of how many things could go wrong. However, I had also seen Anders grow and develop wonderfully and so I knew that Eliza could too.

The rest of our day was filled with time watching Eliza try to breathe and trying to rest. Drew went home in the middle of the day to play with the boys some and let our friends watching the kids have a break(I am so grateful to them). He then came back in the evening to spend a little more time with me and Eliza before going home to spend the night with the boys. It was hard being in the hospital by myself and not having Eliza in the room but it did mean that I got to sleep a little more and I could go visit her whenever I woke up in the night so that was nice. By the end of the day I was ready for the next one, when hopefully Eliza would start improving!