Melody Roem Bergen is here!

Unless we are not facebook friends (in which case we should be)  you know by now that Melody Roem made her appearance on January 25th. She was a whole month early and really caught us by surprise!  Micah and I had gone out for a little get-away for my birthday.  We started the day (Friday) off with a trip to see Dr. Gloria so we could see the birthing room, go over how things would be done, and just have my weekly check up.  While we were there she said that Melody had dropped down and was in a really good position.  When she used the words "the baby is engaged," Micah about had a heart attack.  She then said that babies often are "engaged" 3-4 weeks before they are born.  Nothing to worry about, everything was fine, so from there we went baby shopping, and had a great day together before going to our hotel.  My lower back had been hurting all day but I didn't really think much about it.  I just figured it was normal pregnancy things.  Once we got to the hotel I really wasn't feeling too well but, once again, I thought it was normal pregnancy stuff.  So we lounged around, I had a bath (which are very few and far between here in this land of no bathtubs) and we ordered pizza to our room.  We were having a great time just being lazy and not worrying about where we needed to be or what we needed to be doing. 

Our pleasant little get-away took a crazy turn though, at about 12:30 that evening.  I woke up to what felt like a huge kick and then my water broke!  At first I wasn't sure what was happening but then I was sure when the first contraction came.  I woke Micah up and told him to call Dr. Gloria.  She told him to time the contractions and call back in an hour.  Little did she know that my contractions were already about a minute apart.  Thirty minutes later I told him that I couldn't wait an hour unless he wanted to deliver this baby right there in the bathroom.  So he called back and we went on our way.  Melody was born at 2:30, less than an hour after we got to the hospital!  She was 5lbs 4 oz and 19in long!  

God's hand was at work in all of it.  I am very very thankful for such an uneventful birth.  On top of that, we already had babysitters for the night and the hotel was closer to the hospital than our house is.  Praise the Lord for His excellent, though unexpected, timing.

Melody was born healthy.  She breathed on her own and maintained her heat well.  The only problem was her blood sugar.  She had really low blood sugar (common in pre-term babies) and was really really sleepy.  This made it hard for us to feed her.  The nurses came in every hour and gave her dextrose to keep her hydrated and get her blood sugars up.  We also started trying to get her to breast feed... what a challenge!  Who knew it was going to be so hard!  

We went home from the clinic on Tuesday with instructions to give her 5mls of dextrose and to express milk to feed her with a syringe every hour with daily check ups at the clinic.  Then on Saturday she upped it to 10mls every hour.  Melody still hadn't really nursed but we kept trying.  She was getting more and more alert but every hour was getting very hard!  Finally on Sunday Melody started to nurse!  Not every time, but it was progress!  The next day she nursed 3 times!  Then yesterday (Tuesday) Melody was 10 days old and Dr. Gloria said we could start to reduce the dextrose... and cut back to every TWO hours!  Woohoo!  That was the best news I had heard yet!  Melody has nursed almost every time we have tried since then.  We still wrestle through it a little but she eventually gets it.  

Abby and Lily absolutely love her.  They are still not allowed to touch her since she is so little (plus they have runny noses right now) but they are constantly asking to see her.  I don't know how many times I have hear "Look!  She moved!"

Thank you for all your prayers for us during this time.  God has really blessed our family!  

Here is Dr. Gloria and Sokha, the midwife on duty when Melody was born.

Melody Roem Bergen 2 days old :)