Well, today is my baby's first birthday. We had a wonderful weekend, Mabel and I had a great Mabel & Momma Monday too. I can't believe she is already one year old! It is crazy! A year ago today, right now, my water had broke about 15 minutes ago and probably right now I was talking to the doctor on the phone. It was four weeks before my due date and I was convinced that we would not be having a baby today! I wasn't having contractions, just tried to get out of bed to use the bathroom for the thousand time and "pop" my water broke. I thought I had peed myself! I took a shower, that's right I wanted to take a shower, we got dressed and headed to the hospital. The contractions started in the shower, Zack grabbed a stop watch to time them, but I kept forgetting to tell him when they started - those things hurt! He thought I wasn't having them, but by the time we got to the hospital (only about 9 minutes away) I was having contractions about 3 minutes apart.
We got checked in, they examined me and said that all looked good I was dilating fast and my contractions were strong. I mentioned, since my chart hadn't arrived yet, that the baby was breech at my last ultra sound. See my first check up since that ultrasound was scheduled for that morning and my doctor and I were going to talk about what would happen if the baby stayed breech, but I was tied up having the baby so I guess that conversation was never going to happen, I was just going to find out. After just about every doctor on duty felt my belly and debated whether or not they thought the baby was still breech, the ultrasound machine arrived. They put it to my tummy and sure enough there the baby was clear as day breech and boy that baby looked freaked! I think I did too - and poor Zack, we won't go there. So things kinda took a turn, they started telling us we were going to have to prepare for a emergency c-section, that I was dilating quickly so it won't be long. We kept saying "We're having a baby today!" It was a blur and I'll spare you the details but at 10:30am we met Mable Jayne for the first time. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen - yup, even right out of the oven. She was 6lbs 1oz 18.75" long and all sweetness. Zack got to hold her right away - he snapped some pictures on his cell phone before my mom arrived with our camera that we forgot to bring to the hospital - did I mention that we brought nothing with us! We thought for sure that we would not be having the baby, boy we were in denial! Papa Zack got to hold Mabel right away. I being on the operation table had to wait about two hours, but when I finally held her it as like I was made to hold her. That was a crazy day.
So now here we are a year later. Mabel is no longer that tiny preemie that we brought home at 5lbs 7oz (she lost weight), she is now a big girl and so wonderful. She has gotten more and more wonderful every day. This last year of watching her grown, learn and develop into who she will be has been by far the most wonderful year of my life. With that said I do think back to those scary days as Zack calls them of when Mabel was just a mushy little bundle of baby and miss it, how can you not?
One thing I wish I had known when Mabel came into our world, as far as for hip dysplasia: Breech birth is a risk, First born girl is a risk factor too and add that to the breech then more of a concern. Family history big risk, we didn't realize it but Zack's sister had hip dysplasia at birth. If we knew that then with her two other risk factors the doctor would probably have ordered an ultrasound of her hips while we were still in the hospital. Now with that said it may never have changed the fact Mabel needed surgery and the cast, but I do feel I wish I had known then what I know now. The hospital staff & doctor constantly check Mabel's hips, but the exam showed nothing, that can happen. I'm sure if Mabel had to wear the harness after birth it would have felt like the worst thing ever to us then, we never would have known how the surgery and casting would be like if the harness could have corrected her hips - but that is OK, we are dealing well and look how far we've come!
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