A Long-Awaited New Arrival

Our little Chloe is finally here! She was born on April 12, 2010 at 12:27 PM. She weighed 8 lbs, 2 oz and was 20 inches long. It was quite the journey getting her here, and although I love pictures and I am going to put some up, I want to write a little bit about it first.

The last month of pregnancy was tough for me--not really because I was uncomfortable and huge (although that wasn't so pleasant either), but because I just couldn't wait any longer to see my beautiful baby girl. By week 35 or 36, I was already thinking and saying, "Just come out already!" So it was a not so wonderful surprise to me (and to Pedro) when on my due date at 40 weeks, I still hadn't had a baby. But not only had I not had a baby, I had also not had any contractions or any of the other early signs of labor. We both thought this was rather strange and shared all of this information with our doctor over the phone and at our appointment two days after my due date. He decided to have us do an ultrasound that day, on April 7th. We went to a little clinic to do the ultrasound, and the doctor there was very surprised that our baby hadn't been born yet. He said she was extremely mature, "squished," and definitely ready to come out. Well, we took this information back to our doctor. He knew how much we wanted to have this baby naturally, so he decided to give Chloe another week to see if she would come on her own. I was still having no contractions and was not dilated at all, so he said if things didn't start progressing in that amount of time, I might have to have a C-section. At the mention of the word C-section, I had quite the meltdown. I had been afraid of that possibility for some time because so many C-sections are performed in Brazil. Practically every woman I talked to said she'd had a C-section, and I just kept thinking, "I hope that doesn't happen to me." Well, I guess it was a bit of a cruel irony...and I was not happy about it. When we came home from our doctor's appointment, I cried and cried. Pedro tried to comfort me and tell me everything was fine and that we didn't even know yet if I would have to have a C-section or not. But I was pretty hard to comfort because I was so set on doing everything naturally. I called my mom and dad that night, and my mom made sure to remind me that if I did have to have a C-section it wouldn't be the end of the world. So, I tried to keep that in mind.

The next few days went by EXTREMELY slowly. I kept waiting each day for the contractions to come, but they never did. By Saturday night, Pedro and I had both decided that we didn't want to wait until Wednesday. We decided to call the doctor on Sunday and talk about inducing me on Monday or Tuesday. We called him, and he asked us to come in on Monday morning for an appointment. We went to the hospital on Monday morning at about 9:00. Deocles came with us. We didn't get to see the doctor until about 10:30 because there were a few patients in front of us. When we finally got in to see him, the first thing he did was an internal exam. What he found was that I was barely, barely dilated and my cervix was still extremely thick. Then he talked about our options. He said there might be a chance that inducing me would work, but it would last hours and hours, and if anything went wrong and we had to do a C-section anyway, he wasn't sure if there would be a good anesthesiologist on hand. He said he would be much more comfortable and confident doing a C-section. Deocles agreed with him and said it would most likely be much safer for me and for the baby. So, there it was. I took a deep breath, Pedro squeezed my hand, and we said okay. Then the doc said, "Would you like to do it today or tomorrow?" Wow. Just like that. Pedro and I agreed that we'd rather just do it that day. We figured we'd have time to go home and prepare ourselves a little--mentally and physically. But the doctor called his team and then said, "Be at the hospital at 12:00, and we'll do this." By that time, it was already 11:00. We had one hour to go home, get our suitcases, say a prayer, get a blessing, and then drive to the hospital. Wow...I couldn't even believe it.

We drove home quickly and tried to get everything together as fast as possible. I think Pedro and I were both in a daze. We weren't really sure what to do. I got really, really nervous and said about a million prayers for Heavenly Father to help me. I had accepted a few days before that if I had to have a C-section I would be okay, but I figured that once I got the news I'd have time to process it. Well, I didn't have time at all. We grabbed our suitcases, went to the bathroom, said a prayer together and then went to Pedro's parent's house. There, he gave me a blessing and then his dad gave him a blessing. That was it--all we had time for. We got in the car and headed to the hospital.

We reached the hospital a little after twelve. It wouldn't have been a problem that we were late except for the fact that the anesthesiologist had another surgery at 12:30 at another hospital. So they really rushed us in to everything. That made it even worse for me. I could barely breathe as they took me to a little closet space outside the surgery room and had me change into my hospital gown. I didn't even have Pedro by my side to keep me steady because he was in another room putting his stuff on. Well, I managed to stay on my feet while I changed, and then the nurse that helped me handed me off to the doctors and nurses in surgery.

Once in the surgery room, they put me right on the table. The anesthesiologist put an IV in my arm and then had me sit Indian-style to give me the epidural. I tell you what, I was not prepared for that part! Suddenly, in less than a minute, the whole bottom half of my body was numb. I could feel absolutely nothing. It was one of the strangest sensations I have ever felt. I didn’t like it at all. But hey, since the doctors were about to cut open my uterus, I guess I was glad to be numb.

Right about the time they were doing the epidural, Pedro came in the room. I was so happy to see him! I really don’t know if I could have done it if he had decided to wait outside or something. For me, it was a really scary situation, and I’ll thank the Lord greatly if I never have to do it again.

Well, with me all numbed up, all that was left was to get that baby outta there! J The doctors started pushing and pulling things—at least that’s what it felt like to me. Pedro was my hero. Everybody kept telling him beforehand that he would probably get sick and have to leave the room, and even his dad said right before the surgery, “If you feel dizzy, sit on the floor.” But he watched the whole thing, and he told me exactly what was going on—things like, “Now they’re cutting this, now they’re cutting that…She’s almost here!” It was so good of him—especially because I couldn’t talk during the surgery (because it makes everything hurt worse during recovery), so I had to use my listening skills well. The next thing I heard was one of the doctors say, “I see her hand!” Then, almost immediately afterwards, I heard the most beautiful sound in the entire world. Our little Chloe cried for the first time.

Grandpa Granja grabbed Chloe from the doctors with practiced hands and cleaned her off. No more than a couple minutes later, he brought her to me. He put her right up to my face so I could see her and smell her skin. She was the most perfect thing I had ever seen. I cried. Pedro congratulated me on being a mom, and I’m pretty sure I saw tears in his eyes too—especially when he held Chloe for the first time—such a sweet scene.

After a bunch of pictures were taken, it was time for Chloe to go take a bath and put her first diaper and first outfit on. And it was time for Mom to get unhooked from machines and IVs and get taken to our room. This part was actually quite amusing. They had to lift me from the surgery bed to another bed so that they could roll me to the elevator and up to the room. I’m almost positive the two nurses they sent were used for 100 pound Brazilian women whom they probably usually do surgeries on because one of them was a tiny woman, maybe 5 feet tall, and the other was a scrawny little man. I don’t think they could have lifted me even if they tried. Thankfully, Pedro was there to help. He certainly saved them from an embarrassing accident. As the little nurse was trying to move my legs, she said, “Holy cow, each one of these must weigh 200 pounds!” Wow, thanks—I’m only laying right here.

Well, they got me into the room, and then I just had to wait a bit to see my little girl again. She came in an adoreable lavender outfit that I had packed. I swear, even if we had bought ugly clothes, she would have looked cute in them anyway! I still can’t get over how beautiful she is. Pedro and his dad came to the room along with Chloe. We all just stared at her. That was really all I could do though because I couldn’t move, and I wasn’t supposed to talk for about another 8 hours. That part was AWFUL. I never wanted to talk so much in my life! Especially when Deocles called my dad and didn’t let him know before he handed me the phone that I wasn’t supposed to talk. So, he asked me a bunch of questions and tried to talk to me, and all I could say were things like, “Yeah…mm—hmm…okay…love you.” He totally thought I was drugged. But it was nice to talk to him anyway. J Pedro called my mom too to let her know how everything was—I’m sure both of my parents were very happy but also sad to have not been here with us. We miss them and love them.

About 20 minutes or so after we’d gotten settled into our room, Evelina and Rachel came to pay their first visit. I’ve never seen a prouder grandma and aunt. They were so happy to finally see her! I shared in all the happiness with smiles and nods. Every once in a while, a nurse would come in to feed Chloe or give me some medicine. Most of the time, I just stared at my baby girl. Pedro was so cute with her already. I think from the moment she was born, he hasn’t been able to get enough of her. He’s the cutest daddy! J

We had a few visitors that night—almost all of them brought gifts, and they shared in the joy of our beautiful girl. It was hard to only be able to acknowledge them with more smiles and nods, but I guess they understood.

The next few hours involved a lot of pain as I started to be able to feel my body again. They couldn’t give me any more pain medication until the epidural wore off. When it really started hurting, I asked Pedro to give me a blessing. It brought almost instant relief and comfort. Then, around 7:00, they gave me some pain meds. At 8:00, I got to eat my first solid meal of the day. I also got to get up, move around, and take a shower. Everyone except Pedro left the room, and they took Chloe with them so Pedro could help me. Wow, moving around was painful! I had to move like a hunchback because of the immense amount of pain in my abdomen, and I walked very, very slowly. My favorite part was that when the nurse told me I could take a shower, she didn’t give me any details like how to wash around my stitches or to be careful with my IV or how much I could move or anything. She just said, “Take a shower.” So, that’s what I did. It was hard work, but I finally got washed and dressed. I walked slowly back into the room from the bathroom with Pedro helping me, and then, as I went to take the towel off of my hair, the IV in my hand popped out. Blood went everywhere! I panicked. I wasn’t sure if I was going to pass out or not, but I knew I needed to sit down. Pedro grabbed some paper towels from the bathroom for me to cover my hand and then yelled out the door for the nurse. She took her sweet time coming, and then when she finally got there, she said, “Why did you pull your IV out?” Pedro and I just stared at her. She was our least favorite nurse.

That night, after the last of our visitors and Pedro’s family left, Pedro and I got settled in for the long haul. I still couldn’t really move, and Pedro was new to everything. But he did so well! He’s a natural daddy. Well, it was a long haul indeed. Chloe woke up every hour or so—crying for food or wanting her diaper changed, etc. After we had finally gotten to sleep around 5 in the morning, the same nurse that we just “loved” came in, turned on the lights, and said, “Good morning! Get a new outfit and a diaper for me; I’m going to give her a bath.” I think from the look on Pedro’s face he really could have killed her. But he obeyed her wishes, and when she brought Chloe back a half hour later, we were actually glad—she was clean, she’d been fed, and she was deep asleep. J And she slept for about 5 more hours! It was very nice.

We got a few more visitors on Tuesday, watched some TV, ate some hospital food, and took turns feeding Chloe. We thought we’d be going home around noon, but noon came around and so did one o’clock and two o’clock and so on. It turned out that our doctor had to come by to give us the okay to go, and he didn’t come until about 5:30. But he finally did come, and then we got ready to go home. Evelina and Rachel came to help us get our stuff together and then drive us home. It felt so strange to me to put on clothes and not have a huge belly to pull my pants and shirt over. Very weird. I was still walking like a hunchback, but I managed to make it out to the car. And I held Chloe all the way home (carseats aren’t required in Brazil, and although I think that’s nuts, we didn’t have the money to buy one).

A wonderful surprise awaited us at home. Evelina had cleaned our house and put the final touches on Chloe’s crib. We were so grateful to her. It was wonderful to come home to a spick and span house and just worry about our new responsibility.

Well, to give this story an ending, I have to say that this has been a very long and tiring but most definitely satisfying week. There have been times when I’ve wanted to cry, there have been times when I have cried, but mostly I’ve smiled and thanked my Heavenly Father for the amazing gift that He has sent to us. I feel very humbled to know that He has entrusted us with the care of one of His beautiful and cherished daughters. Pedro and I have just embarked on that great journey called parenthood, and we are ready and willing to do our best.

As a final touch, I just want to say one thing: Yes. She was worth the wait.