Today's the Big Day

Eek! Today is the Big Day for our Baby Girl! The C-Section is scheduled for 2:30 today. We will start "prep" around noon which includes a shower, some topical antimicrobial solution, and a "drink" that will help with acid reflux, etc during the surgery. Then they will take me to the "Holding Room" until the Operating Room is ready for me at which point the anesthesiologist will come in and give me the epidural (or the spinal, I'm not really sure) and they will get me all draped up for surgery. In the mean time, Shane will get scrubbed up so that he will be as germ-free as possible as well. We will have a bunch of people in the Operating Room - the normal staff (my doctor, another doctor that assists with the surgery, the anesthesiologist, an attending nurse) and also some extra hands for the baby. The baby will have about 4-5 people just for her including a respiratory therapist and a neo-natologist because of the risks that come with delivering a pre-term baby. She is 35 weeks. Any baby born before 35 weeks is an automatic patient into the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) but at 35 weeks there is a chance that she will go to the Transition Nursery or an even smaller chance that she will go to the regular Newborn Nursery. The most common problems with babies at this age are that their lungs are not quite developed completely, they don't really know how to eat, and they can't regulate their own body temperature because they don't have a lot of fat on them. There's no way to know how our baby will do outside of the womb until she is actually born so we will just be praying all day that she is as healthy and mature as she can be. Something interesting, girls' lungs tend to develop earlier than boys' but Caucasian babies statistically are among the last to mature. We'll just have to wait and see.

If the baby has to go into the NICU, I will stay in the room that I am in now (it is SO close to the NICU and they want me as close as possible) but if she doesn't go into the NICU I will be transferred to a Postpartum room upstairs, closer to the Newborn Nursery.

I was supposed to have breakfast before 6 this morning but Food Services "was not staffed properly today" so I didn't get my breakfast until 6:30. My doctor told me not to eat anything after 6 because of the risk of asphyxiation (sp?) if there is an emergency and we have to do a general anesthetic. So I declined breakfast. I can have nothing to eat or drink until after the baby is born and I'm sure that sounds worse to me than it does to you! :) You know, I'm sure I'm going to be SO hungry and SO thirsty only because I can't have anything to eat or drink! Ha! Oh well. I did have some juice and crackers early this morning because I was getting worried that my breakfast wasn't here. I'll survive.

Update on my nurse friend, Paula. She was in surgery for 8 hours yesterday and is recovering well from what I understand. I can't imagine being in surgery for that long. Paula elected to do the double masectomy. She previously had Ovarian Cancer and received chemo and radiation and learned that she was at high-risk for Breast Cancer. Instead of waiting for the breast cancer to develop, she chose to have the masectomy. How brave. I keep telling myself that if she can do that, I can do this life-giving C-Section today. I'm sure her recovery will not be easy, she will continue to be on my mind and in my prayers.

Ryan will go to daycare today so Shane can be here at the hospital with me. Sarah will take Ryan after work today and the next time we see him he will be a big brother. YAY!

That's all I know for now. We will update the blog as soon as we can (no promises) and I'm sure we will post her name, if nothing else. :)

Love to you all. Thanks for your prayers and well wishes.

Love, Becca (and family)

Prayer for Strength:
Dear heavenly Father, Your Word tells me: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phillippians 4:13) and "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength" (Isaiah 40:31).

I need Your strength today, O Lord. I ask You to fill me now with Your presence and power, to strengthen and sustain me for the work I have to do and for all that lies before me.

I love my husband and my children very much and I beg your help to do all that I need to do as wife and mother. Some days I feel overly tired and worn down, and it is then that I need Your powerful help, O Lord.

O Blessed Mother Mary, Morning Star, your intercession with God is powerful, for you are His Mother. Your love for us is tender and true, for you are our Mother as well.

Confidently then I come to you to seek your aid and protection today. In every trial of motherhood, I beg your help, dear Mother. For your special help in guarding and directing each soul that God has given me, I call on you. In every sorrow, I confide in you. Please pray I will have strength to bear cheerfully all the hardships I may have to face.

Through your intercession, O Mary, I pray that I will do my best to live the present with joy and the future without regrets. May God's Will always be done in me through each act of motherhood, great or small.

O never forsake me, dear Mary, my life, my sweetness, and my hope. Amen.

Mary, Mother of mothers, pray for us!