Introducing.......

A special get well gift from Grandma Williams

We love our new sister

The after picture

The before picture

Maren in her NICU gown

Maren Jane Yancey finally made her appearance on July 24th at 7:54p.m. She weighed 7lbs. 5 oz. and was 18.5 inches long. We are absolutely thrilled to have her here. If you are interested in the whole story of her birth, keep reading, warning, it's really long. If not, just look at her cute pictures.
After 8 days on bed rest, I went in for my routine pre-natal check up. My blood pressure was too high and my protein levels were too high as well. I was told to go right over to labor and delivery to be induced. I called Ben in the elevator and told him it was time. I arrived at the hospital around 2p.m. (Thursday). They were so busy I had to wait about 30 minutes for a room, then I had to wait 2 hours before a nurse came in. Because I wasn't dilated or effaced, they gave me medicine internally to start the process. Because labor and delivery was so busy, I was pretty much ignored. I wasn't assigned a nurse until the next morning, so I saw every nurse on shift when they had a spare minute. At around 4a.m. I was dilated to a 3 and about 50% effaced. The doctor on call broke my water to try and speed things along. At 5:30 I was started on pitocin and magnesium sulfate which is a totally evil drug, it made me feel horrible. My contractions became more painful, but further apart. Come to find out, the magnesium sulfate is a smooth muscle relaxer used to keep me from having a seizure or stroke due to my high blood pressure. It relaxed my uterus too much and slowed down my contractions. I finally asked for an epidural and after a few hours and not much relief, I had to have another one placed. By this point, I had reached my breaking point and all I could do was cry. Around 7:30 p.m. Friday My doctor checked me again and I was only dilated to a 4 and my contractions had slowed to 5 minutes apart. My doctor said it was time to get this over with. A few minutes later there were lots of nurses in my room and I was pumped full of drugs in my epidural. A few minutes after that, I was in the operating room having a c-section. At 7:54p.m. Maren finally arrived. I got really sick while I was being put back together that I only saw my baby for a few seconds. I never want to have a c-section again. I finally got to hold Maren for a few minutes and then Ben took her to the nursery so that we could both get some rest. Ben went home to bed and a few hours later while trying to get some feeling back in my legs and not scratching myself to death, my nurse came in to tell me that Maren was having a hard time breathing. She told me they were giving her some oxygen to help. At 4a.m. the pediatrician on call showed up in my room and I knew he didn't have good news. He said that Maren was on a c-pap machine to help her breathe. They had drawn blood and done a chest x-ray. He said she probably had an infection, possibly pneumonia. She was now in the NICU hooked up to all kinds of tubes and monitors. The doctor came back later and said that they had put a tube down into her lungs and gave her surfactin to help inflate her lungs. I was able to go and see her a few times to check on her. The nurses tried to take her off the c-pap machine, but an hour later they had to put her back on. Sunday morning the c-pap came off and she was just on a nasal canula. By Sunday night she was doing well enough that she no longer needed oxygen and I was finally able to feed her. Maren did great that night, I was able to go and feed her throughout the night. Maren's blood cultures came back normal, no infection and we were going to take her home Monday. Monday morning I went in to feed her, when I got to the nursery there were three nurses working on her. She had choked and aspirated and was now holding her breath. They suctioned her out real good and took another chest x-ray. The x-ray was clear, but she bought herself another day in the NICU. It was really scary to see all of this. After she calmed down, I fed her and she behaved the rest of the day. I went home Monday and went back to the hospital every three hours to feed Maren. It was a long night, but I was glad to be able to check on my little one. Tuesday morning we were back at the hospital with Sydnee to have her tonsils taken out. After getting Sydnee into surgery, I went upstairs to feed Maren. She was doing great and was ready to go home. After Sydnee had recovered at the hospital long enough, we took her upstairs in a wheelchair and picked up Maren. We were all able to go home together. It's been a very crazy, hectic week full of ups and downs, but we finally have our little one here. Thank you every one for your concern and prayers on our behalf. I couldn't have made it through without Heavenly Father's help. A huge thank you to all of our family too. They have been so helpful over the last few weeks. We are now on the path to recovery. Sydnee is doing great, it's hard to keep her down and resting. Maren is doing great as well. She actually slept for a few hours at a time last night. We also saw the pediatrician yesterday. Her bilirubin is going down and her weight is going up. She has a clean bill of health. I'm just happy this is all over and we're all on the mend.