Miss Collins Stevens Moses is here!

Collins arrived Tuesday, July 1st at 1:27pm weighing in at 6lbs 11oz and 19 inches long. She is absolutely perfect and tiny and it's amazing how complete our family feels now. :) Of course, her arrival at 38 weeks was a "surprise" much like my whole pregnancy with her. "Surprise" your pregnant! "Surprise" you have gestational diabetes. "Surprise" you still have morning sickness at 38 weeks. "Surprise" your amnoitic fluid is dangerously low. "Surprise" it's really getting low and we are going to take her this week. oh, and "Surprise" she doesn't have a name yet and it's 37 weeks and they just told me that are taking her this week and I haven't gotten anything monogrammed! ha! So this is more for me to remember but here's how it all went down. We were scheduled for a repeat csection on July 8th at 6:30am. I went in for a routine checkup at 36 weeks (and ultrasound) to check the size of the baby because ofthe gestational diabetes and found out my amnoitic fluid was low. It was 7.9 and normally at 36 weeks its 15. Of course I could tell something was wrong by the nurses face and then the doctors face. They immediately sent me up to my doctor (freaking out by now!!) Of course Dr. Irwin (old school) was not too worried and told me to take it easy. That was on a Tuesday. Friday was my birthday (and 36 weeks preggo) and we headed to the Lake with two of our best family friends. We had a great weekend with all the kids until I got hit by an anchor. Yes, a boating anchor. Someone (cough... my husband) forgot to pull the anchor up after we put it down to swim. The next thing I knew I was watching an 20 pound anchor swing out of the water and around the boat to hit me in the middle of my upper back. I was sitting in the back right side of the boat holding Connor in my arms. So scary. And did I mention how bad it hurt? Knocked the wind out of me. I am still in awe that it didn't kill me. Seriously. God was definitely watching over me, Connor, the baby, etc. I literally had nightmares for weeks and a deep tissue bruise. So blessed that's all. So, with that said. We had to email the dr to see if I needed to go to the ER. I ended up not going and the Dr emailed to check on me all day and night. Monday rolled around and when I told the Dr in an email that I had not felt the baby move much that day (not uncommon for low amnoitic fluid) he said he wanted me in that next morning for an ultrasound. Well, the ultrasound showed that my fluid had dropped again. I wasn't as concerned as the first time because it had only dropped to 7.4 and the nurse said I was mantaining it pretty well. 4% of pregnant women are diagnosed with low amnoitic fluid called Oligohydramnios and I was one of them. I guess Dr Irwin didn't agree. I went in for his appt and was joking around with him about the anchor situation when all of the sudden he got serious really quick (not like him at all). I will never forget him looking at me and saying, "Well, the fluid is getting too low Ashley. It would probably be okay to wait untl 39 weeks but I don't think we should take any chances. The baby isn't protected with this low of fluid, the cord can get wrapped around her neck, she is at a higher risk for infection and stillbirth, etc. How does Thursday sound?" My heart stopped. I held back my tears until I got to the car solo and lost it. What a pregnancy. What a rollercoaster. Is my baby going to be okay? I'm not ready. She doesn't even have a name! Well, after my meltdown I called the nurse and we scheduled the csection for that Tuesday at noon. The day before my sister and parents came in and I was a wreck. I tired to soak in as much loving from Campbell and Connor as possible. I was so worried about them and how they would adjust. They are my whole world and I absolutely love being their mom. Of course I think of everything that could go wrong. Horrible horrible trait of mine. I swear I was having a panic attack and then I got my Bible out and started reading. Isaiah 26:4 was awesome. Spoke right to me. "God, I trust You. I lean on You. You are my everlasting Rock." I was so calm the next day. My mom and RJ went to the hospital with me. I hugged and kissed my big babies that morning and off we went. Of course it's so scary when they tell you "it's time". I hate walking that lonely walk into the OR and having to give RJ and kiss goodbye. The epidural went great and before I knew it RJ was in the OR with me and I could hear sweet Collins crying. Its weird being able to feel them tugging at your insides but not actually feeling it. I was talking with RJ the whole time about how worried I was about the big C's and telling him to make sure and go make sure Collins was ok. They immediately put her on my chest and she was so tiny. Absolutely perfect and worth every.single.second of being sick/rollercoaster pregnancy! It's crazy how it's love at first sight all over again. I also reminded Dr. Irwin to triple tie my tubes (ha!!) and do his best work to make my stomach flat. ha!. He laughed that I was still giving orders from the OR table :) Recovery was rough. The epidural wore off as soon as I got the recovery and they had to switch me to hydromorphine. Well, that was a disaster! I had an allergic reaction to it and couldn't stop vomiting. Anyone that has had a csection knows that its not fun to be vomiting and using those muscles that they just cut!! Talk about torture! I couldn't even cry because it hurt to use my muscles. It's the worst pain in the whole world. Finally a nurse put two and two together that I was having a reacton to the meds and finally stopped it. As in, stopped ALL meds 5 hours out of surgery. I'm not sure what's worse. No meds or vomiting using cut muscles? It was hell. Around 9pm I demanded them to call Dr Irwin to get me some new meds (same meds as they had to give me for Connor when the epi wore off then too). Long story short, we ended up staying an extra day in the hospital. The baby nurses were awesome but my nurses were very uncompassionate. Very disapointing because I had wonderful experiences with the other two pregnancies. Baby girl finally gota middle name too an hour before we left the hospital! RJ and I both had our favorites and still couldn't agree. Well, we finally did (I wont tell you who "won" but I will say the person DID give birth to 3 kids). Her middle name is Stevens after my dad's middle name and holds very special meaning to me. What's funny is Collins is so tiny and reminds me of my great great aunties that were the Stevens sisters and all 4 ft 11 inches tall :) Collins is also a family name which was important to me since Campbell is also a family name. Between the third csection, tubial and a repaired hernia this recovery has definitely been harder than Connors and maybe Campbells. It's taking me longer to start feeling better. In the end though, I would trade a thing for my precious gift from God. She's perfect and so far a good baby. She eats and goes right back to sleep. I'll blog more about that some other time. Thanks for all the prayers!