On July 27, 2020, we welcomed Annalise Kathleen in to the world. As happened with her brother, she was nameless for several days after she arrived. We are the worst at picking out names! I always believed I would be the parent that would have a name picked out the moment I knew what gender the babe would be, but alas that ended up not being the case.
Being pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic was interesting to say the least. I was already incredibly emotional about the loss of my mom, then add in pregnancy hormones, then social isolation, it was a rollercoaster pregnancy.
I was closely monitored my entire pregnancy due to my age, my history of high blood pressure/preclampsia with Emery, then we found out at our 20 week anatomy scan that I had placenta previa. Placenta previa is when the placenta is blocking the cervix, which is not good. I ended up having so many ultrasounds, some at the clinic, some at the hospital with a specialist to determine if the placenta moved enough to try for a VBAC. With this pregnancy, I knew that I would have a repeat c-section, so the ultrasounds seemed a bit pointless to me.
I went in for a routine 37 week appointment on July 27th where my blood pressure was climbing. I knew it was going to be her birthday when I left the house that morning. After being admitted to OU Children’s, I had a lovely COVID-19 test. While we waited for those results + for the magical hours after eating (I mistakenly had a small something for breakfast that morning), I was wheeled back to the OR. The bad thing about having a baby in July at a teaching hospital is that you get new residents. The resident anesthesiologist had a hard time placing the spinal block, which didn’t work, so we ended up doing an epidural. This took a ridiculous amount of time, all while Anthony was waiting in our room for the green light to join us. It was a full hour(!) since I had been wheeled back to the OR!
When I heard her sweet cry, it was the one of the best moments of my life. In that instance, I knew her middle name was going to be Kathleen (I had gone back + forth on this the entire time I knew I was having a girl on naming her Kathleen or not!). We were wheeled back to our room + got to have that golden hour of time together. She nursed like a champ immediately! After she got the once over by the nurses, she was placed back on my chest. We were cuddling away. Unfortunately for me, it was shift change. The nurses thought she sounded off (I believe she was just smashed up in to my chest too much), so they whisked her off my chest to start evaluating her again. Within 30 minutes, my baby was being taken to the NICU. At this point, Anthony went down to get us dinner. When he walked in the room, he saw me bawling my eyes out with no baby around. I was once again robbed of precious moments with my newborn.
Several days later, she was finally released from the NICU. We spent all that time together, staring at her, wondering what we should name her. The anticipation from all of our family + friends for her name was palpable. The number of texts I got each day was pretty funny! We ended up having to stay in the hospital 5 days because my blood pressure was higher than they felt comfortable allowing me to leave. I missed my sweet Em-bug so much that every moment in that hospital was torture!
I am thankful that we welcomed a healthy, 9+lbs sweet chunk into our lives. She is the perfect puzzle piece to our family!
