Awaiting Theodora

Myrella was coming up on 42 weeks when we went in for her check in on Wednesday (16th). We decided that it was time to induce her. Stanford is a great hospital with a few annoyances such as construction right below us from 6:30 to 2PM which prevented any rest during the day. That first night they shut off our water to work on the plumbing in the next room from 8 to 1 in the morning, the noise would be an ongoing struggle for us over the following days as Myrella tried every step to induce labor.

Contractions would come on but soon the nurses would bring the medicine down because the baby was getting stressed. We didn’t quite understand this at the time and were frustrated because it felt like from Wed to Saturday we made slow progress. She was 4cm and the baby was pushing against the cervix and she began to “cone” pre-maturely. We later found out that the cord was around her neck, which may have resolved on its own. Our doctor gently pushed for the C Section. After 30 minutes we decided it was the best option. We could have tried more medicine but it may have endangered the baby at some point and we were also very tired of the hospital environment at that point. Within an hour we were going into surgery. We went from “how many more days will we be here” to “we’re going to meet our girl in 30 minutes”! The surgery room was weird, probably about 9 people in there, some talking about weekend plans or making jokes. I was on pins and needles about the whole procedure. The calm atmospheric track playing from the phone in my scrub pocket helped a bit but also added to the surreal feeling. Myrella on the other hand was focused and fully ready to meet her baby and had no fear. Soon enough our blue baby came out and was revived (she was fine, just shocked). Everyone cried of course! We’ve never known such joy until this day. After surviving an onslaught of nurse/pediatrician visits over the following few days we finally were discharged, on the 7th day. The dreaminess finally wore off as we were freed from prison and made our way home sobbing.

Theodora is the female version of Theodore, which comes from the greek Theodoros. Theos means God, Doron means Gift. Kathryn is Myrella’s Grandma who we will be visiting this Christmastime.

Thank you for all your support and prayers, we look forward to introducing her to all of you! Several nurses have described her as either “vigorous” or “robust” and we would agree!