We have a new addition to the adventure team.
Meet Marcelyn Rose Lofstrom
Born 1/5/15 Monday morning at 9:43 am!
Weighing in at 5lbs. 15 oz and 18.75 inches long.
She is 6 weeks old yesterday!
She's growing entirely too fast.
Her birth day story is nothing short of a miracle.
It's a long one, but a good one. I have a hard time starting the story because we made a few trips to the hospital, and several calls to the doctor's office. Marcelyn was transverse the last several weeks of my pregnancy so I was getting sonograms the last few weeks on a weekly basis to see if she had turned to be head down for a vaginal delivery. My doctor had scheduled a C-Section for January 12th which was 5 days before her due date....according to doctors...since she was transverse and not showing signs of turning. My doctor had also told me to not hesitate going tot he hospital if I was having contractions because if my water were to break I would have to have an emergency surgery. So about a week before she was born I made a trip to the hospital to find out that being dehydrated causes contractions. They gave me orders to drink a bunch and sent me home. I would still have contractions but nothing too horrible. Fast forward to the Sunday before Marcey was born, 3:00 in the morning contractions woke me up. I had been sleeping on the couch to help keep me sleeping on my side and not on my back. I got up and took some Benadryl which should have put me back to sleep and help tame contractions. Instead, my contractions got worse. Over the next hour I timed contractions and they were close enough I knew I needed to get to the hospital. 5:30 I was admitted into the hospital...and of all nights it was snowing and freezing cold. I was hoping we would get some meds to get the contractions to stop and still be able to make it to church. Needless to say that didn't happen. Doctors thought I had a UTI so they gave me meds for that plus lots of pain meds to help me sleep and make it through contractions. The goal for Sunday was to make it to Monday so I could have my doctor, but in the meantime I was on a liquid diet because "I could have a c-section at any time" from what the doctor said. Monday morning comes and a new "doctor on call" comes in to check on me and nurses tell me that my doctor is in Great Bend (2 hours away) When I went in for the first time I had been dilated to a 2.5 or 3 and was 80% effaced. Sunday I was 100% effaced and dilated to a 4. I had stayed in the hospital because my contractions were just progressive enough to be of concern. So 9:00 rolled around and the doctor on call came in, checked me and decided that since I had progressed it was best to have the baby that day. God really has a sense of humor, but knows what we need. Sunday I had a female doctor that could have delivered Marcelyn, but 1. I didn't like her and 2. I was under the impression that my doctor would be there the next day, but mostly I didn't like the doctor on call. The doctor on call for Monday was male, but the moment he came in the room and told me I was going to be having my baby that day I was completely okay with it. I was amazed with the amount of peace I experienced that morning. I remember turning to Chris and saying "I highly doubt I'll have the baby until noon." little did I know an hour later I'd be holding my little girl :) Next an anesthesiologist walked into our room. Sporting a very thick accent and a lot of information that made me incredibly overwhelmed. Then another guy came in telling the anesthesiologist he needs to let someone else handle my surgery....which didn't help my comfort level at all considering they would be doing a spinal tap that had the potential of killing me or paralyzing me from my chest down. A few minutes later another anesthesiologist came in and explained things to me much better (without a thick accent) and peace flooded back into the room. A few minutes after that I was wheeled off to the operating room. I'm not sure I've ever been in a room that was that cold. That's probably the most dominant memory of a feeling that I had the whole time. Since there were still pain meds in me and I had just been numbed from my bust line down things are a little foggy. Here's what I remember: cold, lots of nice people, shivering because I was so cold and telling the anesthesiologist that I didn't want to know what was going on. most importantly I remember rocking on the operating table thinking "this isn't normal" and just holding my breath till I heard my baby's voice. Then I heard her cry....best sound in the world EVER!!! I cried.... I remember dry-heaving and learning that rubbing alcohol makes nausea subside almost instantly. Then the recovery began....and that's a whole different story.
Later that night the doctor came in and told me the rest of the story. He started the story by asking me if I knew I had a heart shaped uterus. I had no idea what he was talking about, but once he explained my whole pregnancy made sense. Why Marcelyn was transverse, why my c-section was so intense and why my contractions didn't feel like normal contractions. Most nurses tell you to press on the top of your stomach between your breasts to test for a contraction. Well I didn't have a uterus there. That's where the v of the heart was located. Here's where the miracle gets cool. When I was being rocked on the table I also remember hearing the doctor sounding winded like he was really struggling. Apparently it was no normal c-section. When he broke my water all that delivered was her arm. When he reached up to pull her head down he found feet. All those sonograms that I had to look at her position had been read wrong. He then tried to flip Marcelyn to be able to get her out, but since my uterus was heart shaped he couldn't flip her. He cut one of my ab. muscles to gain more room. That didn't work so he made a vertical incision on my uterus too. Then Marcelyn Rose was born, but didn't cry until she got over to the warmer. Thankfully the week before my mom had shared with me a word that she had received during worship (I had stayed home I think because the wether was bad and icey and I didn't want to risk falling on the snow and ice). I don't remember the exact word, but it was something along the lines of resting in God's peace and trusting him. In that moment when I knew I couldn't do anything I prayed. I knew that I was literally praying for my child's life. She could have died and I could have died on that operating table. I don't know that for a fact, but each time I talk with a doctor that knows my story all they can say is "wow, what a delivery your daughter is a trooper" so that tells me that God protected us and orchestrated the entire morning right down to the nurses that took care of me each step of the way. I probably had 8-10 different nurses take care of me the 5 days I was in the hospital and all of them were exactly what I needed at the time. It was amazing. Now that it's been six weeks I'm back to somewhat of a normal. I've had a few set backs, but nurses and doctors have been surprised and very pleased with how quickly I've recovered. My thoughts to myself are "I don't expect anything less from a God that heals and takes care of all my needs"
I think my favorite thing in all of this is my daughter's name, Marcelyn Rose. Marcelyn actually means "little warrior" which at the time I picked it out I didn't know. I just heard the name somewhere and loved it. My husband looked up the meaning and agreed that he liked it also. Little did we know that she would be the little warrior she needed to be. Even today she's a fighter and is very strong. I'm praying her warrior traits aren't personality traits that will make her headstrong.
Anyway that's Marcelyn Rose's story.
For more pictures of Marcelyn follow me on Instagram. @mollz2 or check out our tumblr @lofstromadventures
I post lots of little short things there along with lots of pictures.
I also hope to send out email updates.
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