"She's a masterpiece that all creation quietly applauds, and I can see the Fingerprints of God."
With great joy, we introduce you to Alyse Noelle Mann. She was brought into this world by an alert group of Doctors who played a major part in saving her life. For twelve days, I was in the hospital on bed rest. If I got off of my left side my blood pressure sky-rocketed. My Doctors and hospital nurses were baffled as to why with my third pregnancy and not fitting into any of the criteria for pre-eclampsia this blood pressure was affecting me this way.
After a week and a half in the hospital I was looking forward to getting to leave for a couple of hours on Mother's Day to be with my family at home. I really was like a kid at Christmas on Saturday night. Our 'family night' slumber party Friday night didn't feed my hunger to be home with my family. Mother's Day morning, I was dressed and ready for the first time since my stay, I actually had make-up on! The nurse came in to do my morning assessment and my blood pressure had reached 'red flag' highs. She called in the neonatal specialist, Dr. Hales. He quickly went into action with an amniocentesis and blood pressure medication. The amnio needed to be a 55 or greater and we scored a 57, which was great news! But, no longer would I be spending Mother's Day at home. Instead, back to bed, on my left side until Dr. Killeen could make it in on Monday morning. Our next 4 monitorings began to worry me. It was as if Alyse was trying to make it known that it was time for her to come. The whole 20 minutes she did fine but as soon as the nurse came in to take me off of the monitor, it was as if Alyse wanted attention. Her heart rate would go crazy and beat out of the monitors safety zone. The nurses would have to try to act calm but wait about five minutes watching to make sure it went down before they took me off. It became very scary for me, I would try to 'think happy thoughts' to bring her heart rate down, but after about the second time of this it was next to impossible. I knew something wasn't right and this baby needed to come. 
Monday morning at 11:27 a.m. we finally heard the sound that every expectant parent can't wait to hear...the first cry. This was my third cesarean, and the first that I was able to hold my baby in my arms while still on the operating table! I had been well prepared for the strong possibility that she would be put straight on oxygen and taken to NICU. We were pleasantly surprised. She weighed in at 5lbs 1oz and measured 18.5". She scored a 9.9 on her APGAR!
We later found out that this precious miracle was exactly that, a Miracle. The pediatrician said
we should change her name to Faith or Hope because without either of the two, she would not be with us. She had a true knot in her umbilical cord, which is the number one cause for still born babies. Dr. Killeen said that after he saw the knot, everything else was spelled out for him. My Blood Pressure went up to get me off of my feet to prevent pre-term labor which is an affect of the knot. If my water had broken, she would have died within minutes. If we had not taken her on Monday, we could have lost her. Signs showed that I was hours away from going into labor naturally.
Kate and Macy, as I expected are amazing sisters. They love her so much and cannot take their eyes off of her. It is a battle around here as to who gets to hold her next. Thank goodness I get the feeding times or else I don't think I would ever get to see her!
As you may know, Macy was convinced that everyone had it all wrong and at the time of our 3D sonogram the baby had just not grown it's penis yet. Well, our last night at the hospital we had a great laugh at her realization. She said, "Well guys, she is a she and she never grew her penis. She's my sister, but I love her anyways. And that's final!"
So, I think it's safe to say, we are all proud to have her here and share her with you, our friends and family. She is definitely a masterpiece that all creation quietly applauds. AND THAT'S FINAL!
