She's Here!

Livia Grace Fey

Her birthday:  May 20, 2011 at 6:34 p.m.

Her weight: 5 lbs. 5.6 oz.

Her height: 19 inches

Her family:  Completely and utterly smitten.

Her name:
We loved the name Grace because that's been our church for the last 6 years, our only church in Lincoln, and we are going to miss Grace Chapel terribly when we move next month.  I also love the name Grace because there is so much hope in that name.  God's grace is the number one reason we have hope in our lives.

We knew Livia's middle name before we knew her first name.  In fact, we didn't decide on Livia until 9ish, a few hours after she was born.  We were deciding between Naomi and Livia.  I loved the name Olivia but didn't like the "O" sound, plus, the name was SOOO popular.  I thought we could use "Alivia" but Kyle didn't like that.  I talked to a friend who's girl was Livia and she was a lot of help in deciding to have Livia in the running.  (Apparently Ceasar Augustus' wife's name was Livia, not that helped me like it more, but I thought that was interesting.)   We chose Livia for three reasons.  The first is because we loved the nicknames that came with Livia--Livie and Liv--and there's probably more, though I can't think of any.  The second is because it's sort of a playoff of my grandmother's name, Viola.  Viola was the only grandparent I knew for most of my life.  She was a huge part of it too, until she passed away 5 years ago.  Kyle and I even lived in her basement for the first 6 months of our marriage.  The third reason is because she simply looked like a Livia.  I also found out that Livia means peace.  A little peace added to our household couldn't hurt.  And we realized later that her name is sort of like saying, "Grace and peace to us, from God."  I think Paul would be pleasantly impressed with us.

Her story:
I had a really great pregnancy with Livia.  I had a slight case of nausea in the beginning but it only lasted from week 6 until week 11.  After that, I felt great most of the time as long as I got a nap in here or there.  I had a hunch from the beginning that she might be a girl because I was pretty emotional during my pregnancy.  I wasn't exactly weepy.  No, unfortunately, it came in the form of "I'm annoyed with this and that!"  I got a bit irrational at times with things I was annoyed with.
At week 34 or so, I had some pretty sever sciatic pain, but with the help of some chiropractic care, it almost completely went away after a few weeks.
For the last couple of weeks I had itchy skin, especially on my back, stomach and arms.  I didn't think much of it though.  It's a pretty common symptom of pregnancy, I assume.  But last week Monday I started losing sleep over all the itching since it was the worst at night.  It felt like it was coming from the inside and no amount of scratching would stop the itch.  It kept on getting worse and worse after each passing day.  Finally on Wednesday night my hands and feet itched so badly I started crying and looked online to see if there was anything correlating pregnancy and itchy hands and feet or severely itchy skin in general.  I was desperate to find anything since I was only getting 4-5 hours of sleep at night for the past 4 days.  To my amazement, I found that there's a pretty well-known pregnancy disease called Intrahepatic Cholestasis of pregnancy.  It affects 1 percent of pregnant women.  A website from the Mayo Clinic says that it "occurs in late pregnancy and triggers intense itching, particularly on the hands and feet.  By definition, cholestasis is any condition in which the flow of bile--a digestive fluid--from the liver is blocked."  In pregnancy, the block is caused by an increase in hormones.
That sounded exactly right.  I got really scared when reading all the websites that talked about cholestasis because every single one of them recommended delivering before 37 weeks.   Otherwise there is a higher chance of stillbirth.  I was 37 weeks and two days.  After freaking out for a while and waking up Kyle to get his opinion, we decided to wait until my OB appointment scheduled for the next morning to talk to my midwife about my discovery, especially since I had been counting kicks and Livia was being nice and active.
After presenting our case to my midwife the next morning, she ordered a lab to test my enzymes.  She said she's get back to me later that day.  The afternoon came and went with out a call and I finally called her.  She said she'd been called into delivery and hadn't had a chance to call the lab.  When she did call me back she said my results came back on the very higher end of normal.  (Whatever that means.)  She also said she'd talk to the other doctors the next day and get back to me and to not be terribly concerned ask long as I was still counting kicks.  She mentioned that since I was experiencing this so late in my pregnancy, the risk of stillbirth was significantly lower, which eased my fears a bit.
After another horrible night I looked forward to her call.  Finally at 3:30 she called and asked me how I was doing.  I told her the truth.  "I'm miserable," I said. "I can handle a lot of things, but this is insane."  She said, "the doctors are more inclined to want to deliver, but if you want we can wait until Monday to bring you in and check you out, as long as you pay good attention to baby's movements.  I was also going to give you the choice to come in today and it sounds as if that's what you want."
I was desperate to not have to worry about delivering a stillborn baby and to stop the constant itching, since it all goes away 24 hours after you deliver.  Today sounded just fine with me.  At 4:30 Kyle got home from work.
"We're going to the hospital," I informed him.  "What do you need to bring?  Your toothbrush?  Your pj's?"
He was a little confused so I filled him in on everything.
5:00 we arrived at the hospital.  I wasn't dilated much so it turned out I was to have another c-section.  My midwife was afraid I was unhappy with having another one but to be honest, it wasn't a huge deal to me.  At 6:00 I was wheeled into the operating room and given a spinal and an epidural to help with the pain afterward.  Then they started cutting.  I told Kyle to look over and take pictures because I was curious what it looked like.  He obliged and took a couple pictures of Livia being pulled out.  (Don't worry, Facebook will NOT be getting those pictures any time soon.)  At 6:34 p.m. she was all the way out and cleaned off.  After three apgar scores of 9, she was deemed worthy to bypass any NICU time and was given to daddy to give her a bath.
My recovery was a bit rough, and even though I couldn't feel my legs all that well from the epidural, the itchiness moved mostly to my nose and face.  Thankfully, Livia preoccupied much of my trying-not-to-think-about-being-itchy so it wasn't insanely horrible.  But I also got sick several times from all the medication and couldn't keep anything down for a day.  Honestly though, it was a small price to pay, especially when nurses are waiting on you hand and foot and your not really allowed to do anything but recover and love your brand-new baby.  (Hospital stays are sort of nice for mothers of small children.)
Now she's back home with us and we are completely smitten with her.  Livia has Kyle wrapped around her little pinky, and it's a teeny tiny pinky at that.  Nursing is going quite well even though she's small, and I'm hoping she beefs up a bit before her brothers get too used to her and forget she's still fragile.  She loves to be held and sleeps well in anyone's arms, but the second you put her down she wakes up and starts squeaking.
That's what she sounds like when she cries.  A little squeaky mouse.  Or maybe a little bird.  Either way, she doesn't really cry, she squeaks.
Now we're looking forward to her brothers coming tomorrow from Grandma's.  Ah, the chaos that will ensue.  It'll be great! :)  I honestly can't wait.