Let's Get Personal

She’s Here! Introducing Millie Jean Dusil

Meet the newest member of our family, Millie Jean Dusil, who arrived Monday, November 21st at 8:14pm. I’ve never felt so many emotions in such a short amount of time or a love like this. I know all of you who are mothers will understand me when I say how crazy the first week is. One day you are pregnant and the next minute you have your baby by your side and are adjusting to life as a parent and before you know it you are taking your little one home from the hospital. I was discharged from the hospital on Thanksgiving day and made it home just in time for Thanksgiving dinner; talk about something to be thankful for!

I planned on sharing the arrival of our little one with you much sooner, but you know the saying “best laid plans”? Well, I can honestly say that my delivery did not go as planned, but that doesn’t change that it was one of the best days of my life. I learned early on my pregnancy that you just have to go with the flow, and the more I seemed to try to make plans, the more our daughter and life laughed and said ‘not a chance’. If you’ve followed my other posts, you know that it took us a bit to get pregnant, then we moved to NYC to get away from Zika, and then wound up back in Florida. My pregnancy itself was relatively easy; a bit of morning sickness, low iron, but overall I had it easy.

Millie was due on November 20th but my doctor saw me the week before my due date and said it didn’t look like she planned to be on time. He’d allow me to go 7-10 days past my due date if everything looked ok, and up until that point everything did. I went in for my checkup last week Monday, a day past my due date, feeling no signs of labor at all. The doctor had me start with an ultrasound to check on the baby and in that room I knew something was off. Not terribly off, but something was different and I was anxious to hear.

milllie-2

Truth is I still wasn’t in labor, not dilated or effaced and baby girl was pretty happy in my belly. The doctor came in to let me know the problem was my amniotic fluid levels were really low. It was time to make a plan, and the plan was get her out. After a few more tests, the doctors agreed it was important that she arrive healthy and soon. Having low amniotic fluid poses a risk to the baby as she can go into distress and it also can lead to complications during a longer labor and delivery since the umbilical cord can compress and cut off supply to the baby as there isn’t enough fluid for the cord to ‘float’ in. We were sent across the street to check in to the hospital and 3 hours later Millie Jean arrived by C-section.

I had never even considered a C-section as an option. I always knew I would be open to one if it came down to it, but I had some sort of vision in my head on how she’d arrive. I was actually still considering delivering her without drugs but in our birth classes they told us if you had an epidural to bring an iPad to watch movies while you wait. Either way my vision of my labor and delivery never factored a C-section into play and because of the low amniotic fluid and the complications that can arise from that, the doctors all agreed a C-section was the way to go.

I know everyone’s experience is different. I’ve had a few surgeries in my life and I’ve handled all of them really well, so I figured this would be similar. I’ve had plenty of friends who’ve had C-sections and many said it wasn’t too bad but I had a really hard time. I had a weird reaction to the drugs I received for the surgery and after surgery the doctor had to give me different drugs to try to reverse the initial drugs. I remember being so upset because I had to be in recovery for a while as they tried to help me feel a bit better and I didn’t get to be with Millie. I didn’t plan on that, I always thought I’d get immediate skin to skin and bonding time with my baby. The pain post-surgery was also pretty intense, but it probably didn’t help that I kept refusing stronger painkillers and would only take Motrin. The first few days were really rough and am just starting to feel a bit more human again.

What I can tell you is I would go through it all again and again and again to have our baby girl here and healthy. Millie arrived completely healthy and that is what mattered most to us that she and I were ok. She’s been a really good baby, sleeps and eats well. Somehow she has a head of hair, which baffles us both because I was bald until I was 2. I’ve been so lucky to have the help of my family and Vlad this first week as I’ve been recovering from the C-section and taking care of this little one. Vlad and I are so in love and we wanted to share the newest member of our family with you!

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