Welcome to our world!
She came through a lot of difficulty. She came unexpectedly.... but she came gracefully, she arrived in peace, she brought beauty, she is healthy & happy. She takes after her mother in these ways.
The Lioness was super mom even before Allana was born. She endured more than a person should have to, and she did it out of love, and she did it peacefully.
Allana was born 5lb 5oz. She wasn't premature, just small.... which is why the doctor insisted that the Lioness be induced a week before her due date. What the doctor probably didn't expect was 48 hours of hard labor with >24 hours of it on pitocin. What nobody expected is that the Lioness would do all of it with no pain medication at all. "Lioness" is a suitable title.
Tuesday, May 17 was another beautiful pre-baby day! All my co-workers put together a very elegant baby shower for the Lioness and I. I was really amazed, I work with the most generous people. I was amazed at all that was put together, I took lots of pictures. I always feel so inadequate in my expressions of appreciation. It means so much to me when I see things like that. It is wonderful to know that people are excited with me about my baby. As the party closed, the Lioness reminded me of a doctor's appt. we had scheduled for ~2pm. So, we left my work for the doctor. That's when things started to twist from wonderful to unsettling.
We were there for a quick checkup ultrasound. The tech explained that he was measuring the amount of amiotic fluid... and that we were running a little low. He also measured the size of our baby (we only suspected that she was a girl at that point) and even though he didn't say anything, I could see the machine calculating her gestational age at least 3 weeks behind where she actually was. The only thing he mentioned was that the placenta was very "mature", it had done its job and might be providing less nutrients to our baby. He wanted to see if the doctor preferred to meet with us immediately instead of waiting for our appt the next day. Funny... she did want to meet with us. She reiterated in more detail what the ultrasound tech had expressed. It was brief. "This baby would do better out than in at this point." She wanted to induce labor. I wasn't worried. We'd have ~3 days to prepare (I don't know why I was thinking that). She would give the Lioness something to "soften her cervix"... to prepare her for labor. "Any questions?" "yes", I said "where will she be preparing for labor?" "At the hospital" hmm. "When will she be doing this?" Her answer changed everything. "Be at the hospital by 6pm."... It was 4pm.
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