So much has happened in our lives since I've written last. Our baby girl joined our family on July 20, 2021 completing our family circle.
I had a normal pregnancy and with my due date down as July 26, I knew that the 20th would be a perfect day to welcome our Rosalie Jewel into this world. She was born on our 7th wedding anniversary.
We arrived at the hospital early in the morning for surgery prep. I had a covid test (negative) and I had two IVs put in - one in each arm. Because it was my fourth c-section, they were prepared for issues to arrive...and they did.
Everything went well until after they lifted an 8 lb 15 oz baby girl from my belly. While they were working on putting me back together again my spinal wore off and I started to "go into distress" so they intubated me and put me to sleep. I woke up 2 hours later in recovery.
We quickly bonded with our baby and enjoyed our quality alone time with her. We were allowed a pastoral visit so our pastor was our only visitor. Our three older children were lovingly being cared for by my in-laws so we had nothing to worry about at home.
We brought our baby home where she was quickly loved up on by her siblings. But our baby girl soon had a battle on her hands. She had jaundice really bad and was so close to being hospitalized again and put under a heat lamp.
I quickly started "force-feeding" her every chance I got and started adding formula powder to her bottles of pumped milk. She had been breastfeeding but I switched to pumping and bottle feeding her so that I could monitor her milk intake.
Now reflecting on her early days while watching her crawl around or pull herself up is bittersweet. Our baby isn't a baby anymore. She is a ONE YEAR OLD today.
