At 2pm, I was prepped for a c-section. At that point, the exhaustion was overwhelming. Both mentally and physically, my body was just done. I was so sad that I would be unable to deliver Natalie naturally, and just started to cry. At that point, I had been in labor for 27 hours, and was not prepared for a c-section. But Katy helped my through by finally telling my her labor stories. Yeah, unfortunately for Katy, that did actually make me feel better. Amanda and Daniel dressed in scrubs and we all entered the operating room. On Oct. 16th at 2:49pm, Natalie was born. She was held up over the drape and we all cried. At no point was she ever in distress. Natalie was the perfect baby the whole time. Daniel took her to be cleaned up and Amanda stayed with me.
Unfortunately, there was a complication and the placenta would not separate from the uterus. I started to loose a lot of blood. Amanda was kicked out of the operating room. Daniel started to get nervous because I was not coming out. I don't really remember too much, but I do remember to commotion. Ultimately, I was given drugs to stop the bleeding. Finally, I was sewn back up and taken to the recovery room.
On Friday, my blood count was 18. Normal is between 35 and 40. By Saturday, my blood count was down to 16, cardiac arrest levels, and I was given a blood transfusion of 2 units of blood. On Monday, my blood count was back to 20. We stayed in the hospital until Tuesday morning, 6 days total. Finally, we were able to bring little Natalie home.
The ladies of our extended family, the Conleys and Kolstads. Amanda, Meredith, Cynthia, Lori, Natalie, Joan, Laura, Kaela, Kristin, Peyton (Lisa is MIA.)
Hi Natalie,
Natalie, you are one month old today. Every new day has been my favorite day with you. I expect that will continue throughout your life. You are 10 1/2 lbs, and 22 inches. We had to move up to the regular size diapers and you have already outgrown clothes. You are an amazing baby. You have just started to learn how to grasp, although I don't think you know your hands are attached to you. Also, you seem to only complain if hungry or dirty. I was going to write how easy you have been, but I would like you to remember last night in which it took 2 hours to feed, clean and put you to sleep (Normal is 1/2 hour). You seemed ready for bed at 10pm and had been snoring on Dad for 1 hour. You ate at 9m, but at 10:15 you screamed for more food. Your screams are sad and pathetic, really. That was the first time I was unable to console you. You were frantic. Let's not repeat that tonight, ok. Dad needs his sleep. And naps don't happen as often as I would like, so really, I need my sleep as well. But... I also want to remember the feeling of rocking you to sleep in the middle of the night, just you and me, and our special time together.
Natalie meet Chloe, Chloe, Natalie. Chloe is 5 weeks older than Natalie. Adorable. We hope you both will be BFF. We had breakfast with Bill and Vivian and the girls got the chance to meet for the first time. I have known Bill for almost 15 years now. It will be so great to watch our girls (and the future Great Bear kids) grow up together.
Granddad Harrington flew all the way out from Indiana to see you little one... expect lots of postcards from his travels. We are creating a postcard album to collect all of those memories.
They can't wait for you to come visit. There is a playhouse all ready to go.
Daniel and I are thrilled to announce the arrival of Natalie Keenan Hiltgen. The whole family is doing great, just tired.
