Noah and I left for the mainland on Monday, October 22. The island we live on does not have a hospital that handles C-sections, not that we were planning for one, but we wanted to be on the mainland just in case. So we headed to Corozal to wait for Baby Girl to show up. She may turn out to be the type who enjoys being fashionably late as she waited until Halloween to start her arrival, five days after her due date. I was in labor that evening through the next day. Finally, and I mean I felt like FINALLY(!) I got to the point to push around 5:30 PM on November 1. When my water broke there was meconium in it. Meconium is the baby's first stool that is composed of material ingested while in the uterus. Usually babies pass this after they are birthed, but 5-20 percent of babies pass it before. Baby Girl had been sitting very low since about a week before she was delivered. Our midwife was expecting a very short pushing time frame since she seemed to be right there waiting to make her exit! My contractions were strong enough, but at this point were not long enough for her to be able to come out. I've had to ask Noah quite a bit about this part of the labor, because much of it is pretty foggy for me. I remember what I was thinking and feeling, but I'm surprised when Noah tells me about things that I don't exactly remember happening. I do remember people saying multiple times, "we need to get this baby out." When she finally arrived she was immediately taken for resuscitation. It was a moment of HUGE relief for us because she was finally out, yet looking back, in some ways it was just the beginning. Because she inhaled some of the meconium into her lungs she spent the following days on oxygen and feeding tubes, in an incubator, and hooked up to IV's. It was incredibly hard to see her with all the tubes, to hear her cry and not be able to hold her.
I've written before about how when I was pregnant Baby Girl would become more active when she heard her daddy singing. The first time I noticed it was during one of our morning campus devotionals. Noah was leading worship and as soon as he started signing she started dancing. Throughout the pregnancy he would sing to her and she would respond. There were a few songs he would sing to her more than others. One of my favorite moments during the hospital stay was seeing and hearing him lean over the incubator to sing to our Baby Girl to try to soothe her. To "hold" her even though we couldn't physically hold her. As he started to sing, her crying turned to whimpering and within seconds stopped completely.
The song that Noah sings to her:
(Click to Listen)
Five days later we are ecstatic to be bringing our Baby Girl home! Today will be her fourth day home and she is doing GREAT! She is finished with all her medication, isn't having any problems with her breathing, has a VERY healthy appetite and is bringing out smiles on pretty much everyone she meets. Thursday evening we had our weekly Community Night at our campus. One of the songs we sang during worship was 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord). Our new, healthy family was able to worship together, holding our baby. As the song played I was reminded how exactly one week ago to the hour we were delivering her.
We would like to introduce
Eliana Drew Applegate
Born November 1st at 8:10 PM
7 lbs 4 oz.
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