Annika Rose was born October 5, 2007!!!

She made it! At 34 weeks, Annika came into this world through a C-section. She weighed 5 lbs, 9 ounces and measured a longgg 17 3/4 inches.

This is our first photo together after a very difficult surgery. The placenta had to be cut through, the baby swam up, the doctor couldn't get a hold of her and finally caught her feet and pulled her out breech. We lost a ton of blood in the process.

We'll be here in the NICU hopefully no longer than 2 weeks total. Annika's doing great. Here's one of my favs below. More photos are on our Flickr account. There's much more to the story, but I'll let Anna tell it.

Anna:

We got up at 4:30 a.m. on October 5 because we were excited and nervous. We dressed up in paper clothes and fancy blue paper hats. We did visualizations and breathing exercises. Soon, Jerilyn was rolling down the hallway to the birthplace operating room. I was asked to wait in the hallway outside of the operating room while they gave Jerilyn a spinal to make her numb from the chest down.

A few minutes later, I heard Jerilyn saying loudly, "Wow! What an interesting feeling! Fascinating! I can't feel my legs!" She then proceeded to ask everyone if they had ever experienced this.

Dr. French, our OB, came out into the hallway to scrub up. She said, "What a great attitude and wonderful sense of humor Jerilyn has." After a lot of scrubbing we were ready to go. Jerilyn and I did visualizations and breathing exercises while a blue sheet separated us from the surgery. Soon, Jerilyn was squeezing my hand very hard and could hardly whisper from her mask. She was nausated at first, then felt extreme pressure on her stomach. She said that it felt as if people were jumping on her torso.

Dr. French called for a second doctor because Jerilyn was loosing so much blood and Annika had swam up towards Jerilyn's ribs. She then was able to grab one of Annika's legs and deliver her breech. It was a harrowing 30 seconds getting her out. Then we heard Annika cry.

She was absolutely beautiful! She has an elegant neck, long fingers and toes, Jerilyn's nose, and very chubby cheeks. I got to cut the cord! The nurses said that I could come up to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) in about a half an hour. Annika had lost a lot of blood (as did Jerilyn) and was quite pale.

I went back to sit by Jerilyn's head and I could tell she was in pain. Her spinal was wearing off quickly. The anesthesiologist gave her gas, just enough to keep her from going completely under. We were doing visualizations and breathing exercises and I was very close to her mask breathing in and out. ..

Then I was on the operating room floor with oxygen myself! I had been gassed, too! On the floor, I remembered a nurse saying that they had lost a sponge. (They thankfully found it up by Jerilyn's liver!)

Most people stay in the post op. room for an hour or so. Not Jerilyn. She was there for over four hours! After the gas had worn off, she was in very intense pain. Three doses of morphine did nothing. Finally, the pain killer, delotid worked. She had a drip for a day after her surgery.

Jerilyn is feeling much better now and is celebrating life not on bed rest. And, of course, we are
both celebrating the birth of our wonderful child. Let the journey begin!