johana elizabeth

as i sit here in silence, the kids are sleeping, my hubby is resting. i'm taking a minute to reflect back over the last few days. i can only say. i am blessed.  my family is perfectly complete....

Short version

Johanna Elizabeth Eigenheer joined us 2 wks early on July 21, at 10:38 am via cesarian  section.  she was my biggest baby weighing 7lbs 3.9oz and measured 19 1/4" in length. she has my dark hair, nate's new-born looks and ellie's soft, gentle spirit. she has adorable, kissable cheeks and long fingers. 

Johanna is hebrew for "my god is gracious"

Elizabeth is hebrew for "concentrated to god" nate picked elizabeth

Long and very detailed version, aka Eigenheer style. ha!

chris and i woke up bright and early mon morning and headed off to the hospital together. i have to say i was a bit jittery about a few things, the spinal! and the unknown of what laid ahead...

after we registered, we hit up the prep room where I was prepped by the nicest nurse. she had me all ready to roll by 6:30....when she came baring the news that an emerg c-section was under way and i was bumped until after

so after some relaxing, for an 1.5 hrs, i was wheeled up to the l&d and my bed was literally touching the o/r door when the bed came to a halt, another emerg section had bumped me again! ha.  i was then wheeled into my private room around 8 to wait until my turn.  i was hooked up to the monitors and chris and i just chilled. to be honest the time flew by and i didn't mind the extra time to just relax and enjoy my last few hrs of being pregnant. 

around 9:45 i was asked to walk to the or. chris was then told to dress up and had to stay in the room until after i was spinaled...that made me sad, knowing chris was not there and i was alone.  i hopped (haha) up on the o/r table and was intro'd to the team who would be operating on me.  my drug lady was wonderful!  i was given some drugs and then it was time for the spinal tap

i sat on the table, and focused my thoughts on good things. i prayed that god would help guide her hands to the right place and i will not have a repeat of the nightmare of the past spinal with ellie.... which i have on video if anyone wants to see the pain i was in.....ha.... after 20 mins of trying with no success and many insertions i was shifted into a new position where my back was arched at a different level...which lead the ani lady to see what the problem was. i have a crooked spine!  she later recommend that i get it checked out because to her it looks like my spine is not developed properly....anyways. after 5 or so more pricks the needle went in and i laid down

right around that time i felt all light headed and funny, apparently my heart and blood pressure dropped and i was given a shot of adrenaline to speed up my heart. totally freaked me out!!!  i am so not a drug person

i was then told by the assist surgeon that my hubby was scrubbing up and i peeked up to see him waving at me. i gotta say, and i never told him this....i was so HAPPY to see him! 

chris then joined me and we did some pathetic kissing and last minute giggles....i then turned my head to look up and focused my thoughts on good things, haha. knowing they were cutting me open.  after a few mins i felt calm and relaxed. i had control over my thoughts! yeah.  anyway i looked up and asked chris when they were going to start, he laughed and said they had been cutting for 10 mins

my obg took her time cutting and getting to baby jo, and i have proof, chris video'd most of it. ha

chris then looked down at me and said "i see her" and then the most wonderful sound of all (next to a cruise ship buzzing its horn as you sail away, or the welcome show at disney or a flyer stating an amazing sale.....) right yes the most wonderful sound of all. baby screaming!  she did 3 high pitch screams and went back to sleep.

the asst. surgeon (who was SO funny and cracked us up the whole time...he even took chris over the curtain side after i had jo, to show him my body parts and explain in detail how it all works....YUCK!)  then he brought jo to me for a look see and she was taken to have a quick check.  bec of the pre-eclampsia and her joining us so early, she was checked before she was put on  my chest. to be honest it was about 30 seconds and little jo was on my chest, right where she belongs!

i laid there for the next 30 mins or so loving my new baby girl. as soon as she heard my voice, she lifted her head and placed her hand over my mouth!  seriously, i was blown away by this little sign of "i know who you are"

as they sewed me up and checked in innards. ha i then had my tubes clamped and shut for good.  ill get into that later... chris then took baby jo jo to my sister who was patiently waiting for her. haha they had some time and i was taken to recovery

my recovery team was awesome and i LOVE the time alone with baby and chris.  jo nursed me right off the back on the or table and i nursed her some more in recovery

i was then taken to my super, awesome PRIVATE (thank you jesus!) room and was shortly joined by my parents, nate, ellie, jon, jess, cry and her kids.  once the fam jam had their time with baby jo, they left us to enjoy our little blessing. we had a few more visitors mon night, it was nice the flow off ppl coming and going and was not overwhelming but perfectly timed (i'm not posting pics of the visitors cause it takes too long and i'm on a time crunch to get this done but you know who you are and i love you guys! thanks for the treats, gifts and remembering nate and ellie!)

having had 2 c-sections before i knew what i was in for, recovery-wise. i was determined. determined! to be sitting up before the numbing wore off, so around 3 i had chris pull me up into a sitting position, around 4 the nurse came in to check on me and was surprised that i was sitting up already. on my own... ha.  i told her i wanted to walk, bec i was hooked up to the iv and had a catheter i wanted her to know. so she ok'd it and i got out of bed, walked to the chair and sat up for another 2 hrs and walked back to the bed.  i was surprised thou that the meds i was on did make me sick. throwing up sucks, let alone with an audience....ha

the hospital has changed policy since i had ellie, one of the best changes was the amount of time they spend taking vitals...instead of every hr the first night, it's every 4. so mon night chris and i got 4 hrs of sleep. yeah!  awesome

my night nurse mon night was a hoot, i'll write a book about her later just say she was a bit bitter, cranky, rude and condescending. for humour and kicks Chris and I messed with her by being over the top nice. Ha. we still laugh about her rude comments to me....and certain things she did.....

tues morning, I was woken up bright and early by my sweet baby jo.  we nursed and cuddled for the most of the day.  I held her as much as I could.  my iv and catheter came out tues morning and i was sent free to pee out the 30 pounds of water i gained. it was awesome to get up and walk! 

tues we had another steady but not to much flow of visitors, which is so nice!  i spend the day peeing and cuddling jo. haha

i had heard a rumour by the nurses wed morning that bec my recovery was so flipping awesome, we may be able to go home early...like 48 hrs early....and we were delighted to be signed out wed afternoon. 48 hrs after my 3rd c-section.  i came back thurs to have the staples removed and fri for a check up. how awesome was it to be HOME! sleeping in my own bed! it rocks!

other silly details

milk- jo is a natural, she latched right off like ellie but i noticed she nurses longer and stronger.  my milk came in thurs night! and i have been nursing her!  she only lost 6% of her body weight!!!!!!!!  we have a scale at home and are monitoring her weight.  i am THRILLED that there seems to be no milk supply problem this time around.... so far.... how odd is that?  after all the crap i put myself through the last 2 times, this time its a breeze...we go to the dr 2 wks to have her check up but i know she will be just fine!

sleep- jo is still in her newborn sleep stage, and i am stoked to say that i am sleeping MORE now than i did when i was preggers!  ha.  i get on average 3 hrs, then another 1-2. i can totally deal with that.  chris is loving that i am nursing for 2 reasons

1-he can sleep while i nurse

2- my boobs are bigger. but he can't touch them....muwahhhhh

seriously thou, chris is supportive what ever i do

tubal- after much prayer and talking chris and i made the decision to have my tubes tied while i was already cut open on the table.  the original deal was i carry the babies, chris gets the snip.  well, chris lucked out and he owes me big. like really big. like a vacation big. haha

seriously thou, we took in my age, i will be 40 net yr, that with having 3 pregnancies ending with preeclampsia  we feel that its wise to stop

we are thrilled to have 3 kids! 

to say that we are happy with johana is an understatement. there are no words that i can use to describe how amazing it is to have our little unexpected and so much wanted little bonus baby, she completed us.

i love you little jo jo!

Posted by mel at 9:36 AM