Baby Elina

ELINA LUCIA HOBBS
Born March 19th @3:07 pm
7lbs 3 ounces and 20 inches long-
She has her daddy's butt chin and long eyelashes.

We have never had Gabby's water break with the first two girls.  This was always done by the doctor in the hospital.  Friday night we were getting ready to take a walk around the block since we wanted to see if we could get Elina coming for the weekend since Gabby's mother had flown in on Thursday night.  Gabby's water broke, well we weren't positive.  Some liquid came out but not that much.  We took our walk  ( 2 miles), and when we got back Gabbys leg and shoes were soaked!  She still had not had a single contraction so she had a warm bath and we settled in for bed around 11:30 pm.  At about 12:13 she had her first (small) contraction.  They were irregular and no more than 10 minutes apart.  She could not sleep so her and her mom stayed up talking and knitting hats for Elina.  They went to sleep at 6:00 am.    We woke the girls up around 8:30 and ate breakfast. She was having contractions every 5-7 minutes.  After this we loaded our bags and got in the car.  We dropped the girls off at my moms and took off to the hospital.  For some reason she did not have one contraction on the way to the hospital so we decided to go to Target so that Gabby and her mom could see her picture on the Coleman tent.  She had contractions every 3-5 minutes while we were at Target so we decided to head over to the hospital.  She did not have any contractions on the way over, not even while we were walking into the hospital. We walked up and down the stairs a few times and sat outside of the door.  We debated going to another store to walk around.  We finally decided we better check in either way and see how things were. 

   She got hooked up to the monitors and the doctor checked her cervix.  She was at a 1cm.  The same as she was a week early at her checkup.  Grrrrrrr.  What now?  Are we going home?  She also used a test strip that detects amniotic fluid by turning blue.  This was not showing blue so she was asking us about her "water breaking" the night before.  There were a few random but small contractions on the machine that was monitoring her but not much else was going on.   Then, Dr. Leavitt, an on-call doctor came in and talked to us and asked me if I would like to "suit up and catch the baby"  I said, "heck yeah!"  He then told us that that since contractions were not consistent and that she was only a 1cm so he would come back in 4 hours to see where we were at and make a plan.  This was just before 1pm.  The nurse had us walk around for 15 minutes and we cheerfully and goofily skipped around the corridor for 15 minutes.  We came back in and the test strip showed blue and positive for amniotic fluid.  She was still at a 1cm but her contractions were consistent as we walked around.  She had one contraction for every lap we made.
    Gabby was then hooked back up to the machine to be monitored.  She then asked about epidurals and was told she could have one whenever she requested one.  Now was the time, why not do this in comfort? The anesthesiologist came in and explained everything about the procedure has he did it.  He was really nice and you could tell he loved his job.  I could tell it took him a few times to get it right because he let me watch.  He was moving the needle all over and not looking like he was hitting the spot.  He actually ended up pulling it out and re-inserting it.  I should have assumed something here but as he did it he was explaining some risks such as "spinal headache".  I am sure he knew this would happen but did want to cause un-needed stress during a time like this.  Everything seemed good and she was not feeling her contractions anymore.


Elina, The Nurse, Gabby, Lilian and I (Elina still attached to umbilical cord)



    I called my mom and told her it would be around 5:00pm or maybe a little later before Elina would be born.  I told her we were going to go to sleep for awhile and get rested up for the big arrival.  It was about 2:30 and I laid on the pull out bed to take a nap.  It seemed like a few minutes had past when I woke up in a dream of Gabby saying  "The babys head!!!!!!!!!!!!"  I popped my head up and looked at Gabby, Elina's head was on the bed and dark purple.  I shot up and ran over to Gabby as the nurse turned around from the machine to her side.  Gabby was scared because she was so purple and not moving.  She then breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Elina scrunch her face.  I ran to the nurses station right outside of the door and and told them that the baby was out.  You should have seen their faces as they all jumped up and started running to the room ( they did not realize our nurse was in there).  We got back and watched as Elina slid the rest of the way out and onto the bed. I got to clamp her umbilical cord and asked as we went along what I was supposed to do to help with the nurse.  I may not have got to "suit up and catch the baby"  but I think this was even neater.    I got to clean the baby's face and airways just like the nurse would do for the doctor.   Elina was cold, about 96 degrees for the first few minutes as we cleaned her because she had come out and was laying on the bed. 

    The doctor was called and he showed up 10 minutes later surprised the baby had already come out.  I still thought I was in a dream.  It was CRAZY.  He delivered the placenta and Elina was kept under the lamp to warm her up to a good temperature.  I am alwasy curious about how things worked so I had the doctor show me everything about the placenta and umbilical cord and how everything worked.  Maybe I should go back to school to be in the medical field?  The doctor said it was VERY rare to dilate 1cm per every 10 minutes like she did. Because of the epidural the only reason Gabby knew the baby was out is because the nurse was monitoring the screen and Gabby said I feel a little bit of pressure.  The nurse said that they should check to see how dilated she was and so Gabby then pulled the sheet back and saw the head.  This is where I woke up!

Elina is healthy I went in with her to get examined while Lilian stayed with Gabby.  Its never fun to see all of those heel pricks and drawing of blood.  They had to draw a vile of blood to check for bacterial infections since Gabby's water had been broken for 18 hours.  Babies are prone to get an infection when the water is broken for so long.   It will take 48 hours to see the final results.

It is now March 20th at 4:38pm and Gabby is finally feeling slightly better.  It turns out that some things went wrong with her epidural and she has a "Spinal Heachache"  fluid is leaking out of the cavity in her spine where the epidural goes which causes extreme pain in the head and neck. As the Spinal fluid leaks out it exposes nerve endings in her head and creates a small vacuum.  They have been trying to giver her percocet and and other pain relievers but she throws it up within minutes of taking it.  They finally came and talked to us about it today at around noon and told us the option of a blood patch.  They draw blood from her arm and then put it in her spinal cavity and it will clot and plug up the spot where fluids are leaking out.  We will consider doing this later tonight or tomorrow morning after she rests up a little bit.  There is a chance that it can heal up by itself if she does not move around at all. 

 I am grateful for how strong she is.  I know she badly wants to enjoy her new angel.  I am glad I have a great job with great insurance.  We have a $2,000 out of pocket maximum amount we have to pay so no matter what procedures or how long we need to be here.  We know that it will be 100% covered after we pay the initial $2000.  This is a blessing and helps relieve alot of stress from both Gabby and I.  We are grateful for any friends or family who are willing to help us with Kina and Mila while I spend time here with Gabby.  I know the nurses will take great care of her but she needs me here.  Just having me here brings her spirits up.  It's awesome to have our new baby here!  She is absolutely gorgeous like her mama. 

She was born at 3:07 pm on March 19th.  She weighed  7 lbs and 3 ounces and was 20 inches long.  Her hair is lighter than both of her sisters.  She has LONG eyelashes and  my cute little "butt chin".  I can't wait for all of you to meet her.

Me bathing my Elina



They are proud big sisters



I am a proud Daddy of three princesses!

The rest of the night went really good.  Gabby has stopped throwing up because they put a IV in her arm and give her medicine this way.  This no longer throws up.  My mom and Dad came up and I gave her a blessing with my Dad.  I love being able to hold the Power of the Priesthood.  A little later Kelsey and Jon came, this was around 10:10pm.  My dad and I gave Kelsey a blessing for her major surgery that she will be going into and continuing for the next year.  It was a really good experience. 



Elina with Grandma Hobbs



Baby Elina 2 days old

     It's funny how we change as we have more kids.  With Kina, we kept her in the room with us at all times except for when she was being examined.  Now, with Mila and Elina, we just let the nurses in the nursery take her all night long while we get sleep and rest.  They bring her in when she is hungry and then pick her back up after she is done feeding.  This is nice.

Headed home! 3/21/2011 3:00pm

Welcome home Elina

   Tony and Julie Perez took the girls Sunday evening and let them spend the night with them.  This was Kina's first choice of where she wanted to stay so I am grateful that the Perez's were available.  She LOVES Hailey.  We slept pretty good this night but Gabby was still in extreme pain.  She ended up getting the blood patch done around 10:00am and rested until about noon.  It worked.  It was good to see Gabby being able to sit up and not have immense pain in her head.  We started cleaning up and we checked out at 3:00pm!  It was a great experience all together.

We're home!

She is proud :)

New update-  Elina slep from 9:45pm- till 7:45 am without waking up.  She will surely fit in with this family :)