Well, as many of our readers already know June 3rd our little family grew by 10 fingers and 10 toes as we welcomed our newest daughter into the world.

We would like to introduce you to Ravenna Michelle Frazier, born June 3, 2019 at 0904 via scheduled csection. She was born 9lbs 15oz and 21 inches. Albeit a csection, she still had some complications at birth that led to Ryan and Ravenna being separated from momma for the first 4.5 hours.

During pregnancy I developed gestational diabetes at 6.5 weeks, before I had even seen my obstetrician. I began early on with 4 finger sticks a day to monitor my blood sugars, which over time turned into the support of insulin to control my sugars. I had horrible nausea to the point of needing to be on anti-nausea meds during the first trimester. Then it turned into awful acid reflux that we had to try multiple meds for, and finally ended up on 2 prilosec pills a day to help subside the symptoms, which only worked sometimes. Overall my swelling had stayed at bay, until the third trimester and then it hit with a vengeance, just as it did with my pregnancy with Aveline.

I began doing non stress tests (NST) twice a week around 34 weeks with my amazing ob nurse April. We montiored the baby closely and the girls were very cooperative sitting in her office while we listened to babys heartbeat and watched contractions. I developed what is called polyhydraminos which is rare and only 1% of women experience it during pregnancy, it is an excess of amniotic fluid. My fluid levels continued to creep up little by little which caused me to begin having lots of contractions. The goal became to keep baby in until 37 weeks, we ended up going to labor and delivery triage twice for regular active contractions, but not enough progress, so we were sent home.

We are very grateful for our friends the Cadells who welcomed the girls with open arms, last minute while we went to the hospital to potentially have baby girl early. Such a blessing!

After 2 weeks of preterm labor and contractions everything STOPPED! No contractions, just super large and uncomfortably pregnant and swollen. Turns out due to the excessive amount of amniotic fluid baby girl decided to go for a swim and turned breech which halted all of my labor like symptoms.

Family arrived to celebrate the girls bdays (more on that in another blog soon), we had a wonderful time and lasted the entire week with little to no contractions and still no baby, but I developed allergy bronchitis, which landed me in the urgent care with an albuterol inhaler and nasal spray, at this point grateful no baby, because the coughing with a csection incision would have been awful! Day by day I got better, and went into week 38 with still not much as far as contractions or baby, but she was still reading well on the NST.

Sunday, June 2nd, we went to food truck Sunday at our church and ate as much as I wanted without worrying about my blood sugars, knowing that baby would arrive the following day, and I wouldn’t be able to eat or drink after midnight. Ryan and I went and got my pre-op blood work done and we spent the day loving on our big girls.

Monday, June 3rd, we left the girls with my parents at our house and headed in early for our check in at labor and delivery at 0600. By 0830 I was all checked in, had met with all of the doctors, and we were ready to go back. They took me in to the OR, and prepped me, gave me my spinal, and got everything set up. They brought Ryan in, he looked super great in scrubs and was actually mistaken at least once that day as part of my labor and delivery team! Haha

Not long after Ryan was snapping pictures, and our sweet girl all tangled in her cord from swimming around so much was born and we heard her first cries, they were beautiful! They took her over to the warmer, and then it all turned into a blur for me, as she was never brought to me for skin to skin (I knew once again like Avelines birth, that something wasn’t right). Ryan kept reassuring me she was okay, but as we saw her body begin to turn gray and the cries began to subside, I knew something was off. A nurse came and asked if we understood what was going on, and I said no, she explained something to me, but I don’t recall what she said. Next thing I knew she was being taken to the nursery and Ryan gave me a kiss and went with her.

Thus began the longest 4.5 hours I may have ever endured. They finished closing my csection, and got me moved to my bed, as they wheeled me out I caught a glimpse of my husband and my new daughter I had yet to meet. The put me in my room next to the nursery, and when she cried, I could hear her through the walls. I didn’t know how much she weighed, her length, how she was doing, nothing. My nurse gave me the run down and said she was on oxygen, she had aspirated on fluid and they were working on getting her lungs cleared. Her blood sugars were really low, so they wanted me to pump so Ryan could syringe feed her.

After those long 4.5 hours, she was off oxygen, and able to come to the room with me, she was crying when she arrived, they took her out of the bassinet and handed her to me. I scooped her up and said, “Hi Ravenna Michelle, I’m your momma!” She stopped crying and all was right again in our world. The first night was hardest as we had to begin 24 hours of glucose water, formula, IVs kept going off, constant heel sticks for our babe; it was one rough night for sure. Eventually we began to get good blood sugars on her heel sticks and we knew we were doing the right thing with the sugar water and formula.

Overall it was another crazy birth story, it had it’s beautiful, scary, worrisome, and amazing moments. All in all Ravenna has already shown how strong and tough she is, much like both of her big sisters. She is fully on breastmilk now, no more formula, she is gaining weight no problem, and thriving! We are so blessed to have another sweet girl in our family. We are all so very much in love with her!!