She is finally here!!

Friday September 27, 2013  we woke early and headed to the hospital for our scheduled csection. We were SO ready to meet our baby girl! We arrived and got ready. It started out rocky, it took the nurse 4 attempts to get an iv started. 4 times!! I have great veins so was a little sad that they were having trouble. After my iv was in we met with the anesthesiologist and Dr Lagrew. They were excited and ready. We moved into the OR. I was shaking from head to toe. Our last delivery was so traumatic that I was beyond anxious. I leaned forward and hugged a pillow preparing for my spinal to be placed. The anesthesiologist was so gentle and kind. He talked me through it all. Our nurse was very sweet too. I asked if she would hold my hand and she agreed. I was so thankful. They allowed me to chose the music in the room so I picked Lee Brice. I laid down and we were off!
Micaela Grace Natelborg was born at 7:55am. She was a little peanut. She weighed 5lbs 14oz and was 18inches long. It was love at first sight!! She was breech so the first thing to leave my body was her cute little butt, then her long frog legs and next her chest and head. She started crying immediately. She peed on the doctors which made us all laugh. Little did we know this would be a new trend of hers. The drs showed her to me and then she was off to be evaluated. I was crying behind the big blue drape. In disbelief that she existed, that she was indeed alive, that we might actually get to bring one of our babies home. Matt went to her bedside and was able to cut her umbilical cord. He was so proud looking down over his second born daughter. He proudly returned to me with pictures and stats. He returned to our girl and then came back sad telling me that she was small for her age and that she was having a hard time regulating her temperature and blood sugar. They would need to give her formula and closely monitor her. My placenta was delivered and was noted to be villainous. This means that the umbilical cord was attached to the side rather than the center. This is a cause for many small babies. It is also a cause of many newborn deaths. How terrifying. We were so grateful she was alive and with us. We were moved into the recovery room. We stayed there for two hours. While in recovery Micaela was still having trouble with her blood sugar and they thought she should go to the Nicu. More tears poured from our eyes at the thought of another baby leaving and having to go to the Nicu. After 38 long hard weeks we had hoped to have our baby with us. We talked to the team and asked that she be able to do skin to skin with Matt. My temperature was very low after surgery and I was too cold to hold her. They agreed and placed Micaela on Matt's chest. He was the proudest papa ever!! Her temperature came up immediately. They rechecked her blood sugar and it was rising. At that point they decided she could stay with us but would be checked every 30 minutes. Poor love had her little feet poked so many times. Erin, our nurse and Matt gave her a bath. They did a great job. After her bath she came over and I got to put her on my chest. Pure bliss!! She helped my temperature go up and hers remained good too! It was exciting. We were moved into our postpartum room where we would remain until discharge.
Matt was exhausted and took a nap. I just laid there with Micaela on my chest and relished every second. Erin came in and talked to me about feeding M. They needed her to eat every 2 hours since she was small and because her blood sugars were still low. She wouldn't wake up to eat though. I was so sad. They wanted to give her more formula which made me even sadder. Formula is ok, but it is not our first choice. Don't get me wrong I think its a good option for families who cannot produce milk or must use formula but I really longed to nurse and give M that gift. I knew that the continued formula use would just make nursing harder in the long run because it would fill her up lessening her drive to nurse. Thankfully Matt had a brilliant idea. He asked if I could feed her my pumped milk. They agreed since it was able to be measured, that was what they wanted they wanted to know how much she was eating and breast fed babies are hard to read since there is no measure besides diapers. I pumped and luckily my supply was as it was with Grace and Wyatt. I made a lot of yummy rich colostrum. We used syringes to give it to her and she did great. Soon Erin was at my bedside with one hand gripping my boob and the second Micaela's head. She was shoving my nipple into her mouth and slowly but surely we got the hang of nursing and she took off. less than 48 hours after my delivery I begged to be discharged home. I was eager to be alone in the peace and quiet of our own house. No alarms, no visits from hospital staff etc. Matt went straight to work while M and I got to know one another. We feel SO blessed!!!