Daryn Elena's birth story

World, meet Daryn Elena, our new baby girl:

Daryn decided to show up on Thursday, May 23rd, nearly 4 weeks before my scheduled induction. I went into labor in the middle of the night on Wednesday. When we realized we would need to head to the hospital, I called a friend in the ward to come stay at our house with Reagan until Marissa could get there from Provo. Marissa was able to stay there all day until Lance's mom could fly in from Texas. Have people willing to drop everything at a moment's notice was such a blessing. 

After we got to the University of Utah hospital, they gave me a drug to try to stop labor, since I was only 35 weeks, but they realized that I was progressing too quickly, so into labor and delivery I went. Luckily, I was able to get an epidural at this point, after about 4 hours of labor. 9 hours after my contractions woke me up, and about 5 minutes of pushing later, our baby was born at 10:32 am. 4 lbs 13 oz and just over 17 inches. Because of the cloacal exstrophy, they immediately cut her cord and passed her through to the NICU within seconds. Lance was able to go see her a few minutes later. They originally thought she was a boy, so we were going to name her Dustin. Because so many of her organs were outside her body, it was difficult to tell exactly what was going on. She also had bad bruising in her face from being face up, just like Reagan was.

 After I was stabilized and had a chance to pump, they wheeled me in to see her about an hour after she was born. I couldn't believe how tiny she was, although the nurses reassured me her weight was very good for a 35-weeker.

About 3 hours after she was born, the Life Flight team came and took her over to the NICU at Primary Children's Hospital. We spent lots of my 2 day recovery go back and forth between the two hospitals and meeting with the doctors that would be operating on her.

 Friday morning, we got to hold her for the first time. It literally felt like I was holding nothing. Seeing her sweet little face blinking up at me was the best feeling ever.

 Friday afternoon, when she was just 27 hours old, she had her first surgery. It was terrifying going with her down to the OR and then saying goodbye, but we both put on a brave face.

 Her surgery was about 3 hours long and involved 6 different surgeons; general surgeons, urologists, and anesthesiologists. They were able to repair most of her intestines and the hole in her abdomen wall, put her bladder together, and do a colostomy. They were also able to determine that she is, in fact, a girl. I spent a lot of Friday trying to come up with her name, which, incidentally, means gift and light. The surgery went very well, and hopefully she wont have another for a couple years. Her stoma may or may not be permanent, and her bladder is still outside her body. When we saw her after surgery, she was still totally out of it from the pain medication and she had a breathing tube in. We haven't been able to hold her since then.

 I was discharged from the hospital Saturday afternoon. Staying in the hospital was great. Being so close to my baby, and having nurses bring you everything you need. Plus getting beautiful flowers my from my family.

 

It was so hard to leave my baby behind, but I was glad to come home and see Reagan. I missed that sweet girl a lot. She had a blast playing with her cousin Grace and getting totally spoiled by her Gigi :).

 Before church this morning, we took Reagan to the hospital to see her new sister. She was pretty impressed with "Baby Daryn" and kept commenting on how tiny she was. She was not very happy about leaving the teddy we brought behind, but overall it went well.

One happy family.

 Lance and I went back to see Daryn again this evening, and they had taken her breathing tube out! She was soo cute curled up on her side. Tomorrow morning we should be able to hold her again. The doctors hope to be able to start giving her food within the week, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that she will be able to come home sometime in June. It's hard to predict what the future holds, but we're so incredible happy this sweet little angel has joined our family. She has already brought so much love to our lives, in our family and from others. I have a feeling we have a lot to learn from her.