Mattea's Arrival--Part 2

Jennifer was taken off into surgery. I was left in the room awaiting further instruction. Eventually a nurse came and got me. She told me to stand in the hall outside of the surgical room. Then, a few minutes later, they got me a chair to sit on. Here was my view of the surgical room

The guy that put Jennifer asleep came out first. "You have a big, beautiful baby," he said, "Congratulations".

I asked if the baby was healthy. He said that she cried loudly, but other than that he could not say.

It seemed like I was waiting forever for my daughter to get out of the surgical room. Then, in a flash she came out. The nurses asked me to follow them. Instead of going through the nursery door, the nurse took me through the ICU. A oxygen hood was placed over Mattea's head. I tried to touch her. They began to hook up wires to her. The nurse practicioner began to explain her situation. I asked her to repeat herself and speak a little slower. It seemed to be more than I could take in.

By the time they took me over to show me the baby's x-rays, they informed me that Mattea had several problems to overcome:

• She had swallowed some meconium and thus was...
• Having problems with her breathing and her lungs
• Her blood sugar was 16, and so she would not be able to eat until they could find a way to stabilize her blood sugar
• She had an enlarged heart (which normally corrected itself)
• She had a heart murmur (which usually corrects itself)

I sat there with Mattea. I was not allowed to hold her, because she did not have enough oxygen. So I held her hand and rubbed her belly and arms. Here are some pics of her at this point