September 11-18, 2003: Birth

Complications in the 32nd week of pregnancy made an emergency Caesarian section necessary on September 13th.  Our baby girl was born at 9:05pm at Tucson Medical Center.  Anu was amazingly calm, brave and partially conscious for the surgery. Mike gave her the play-by-play during surgery, and was allowed to symbolically cut the umbilical cord as the doctors stabilized the baby.  Many witnesses can attest that he didn't pass out.  Fortunately Anu's mom had arrived Saturday morning to support us, unaware, as were we, that the baby would be born that evening.



Stabilized in the ICU; less than a day old.  We haven't named her yet.  She is monitored for temperature, heart rate, respiration frequency, and oxygen content of her blood, and is receiving intravenous fluids.  It's a shock at first to see your baby in the nursery intensive care unit.  She weighed only 860g (30.2 ounces) at birth and was 13.5 inches long.  She can fit in Mike's two outstretched hands.  She was able to breathe room air on her own a few minutes after birth, and so far, continues to do so.  She is 33 weeks gestation, or about 7 weeks premature.










Anu's Mom and Tanya Barstow (midwife) have been incredibly supportive.















Mike and Anu, Sunday morning following the birth.  Mike has been in the same clothes since Friday.  Anu is already recovering from surgery.  No, we haven't named the baby yet.














We spend a lot of time now checking her out; no operating manual came with the package.  No, we haven't named her yet.  Still trying to see what she's like.














Home for a while: the baby will be in the Nursery Intensive Care Unit, in an Isolette, until she can regulate her breathing and temperature, nipple feed, and steadily gain weight.  This could take a few weeks to a few months.













Until she processes bilirubin on her own, she requires light treatments.  The mask protects her eyes.















Anu with the baby.  To comfort her, Anu is simulating conditions in the uterus by 'containing' her: firm pressure on head or limbs.














Anu 'kangarooing' the baby after feeding 7cc of colostrum by tube.  The skin-to-skin contact comforts the baby, and it is helping us bond with the baby.  It feels incredibly good, and has been shown to help preemies develop faster.  We are trying to do this twice a day.  In between these times we try to give her as much rest as possible.












We've named her (September 19th): Aditi Sela Gupta Evans.  Aditi is Hindi for 'free, unbounded'; Sela is Hebrew for 'rock', 'musical note', or 'forever'.  Her names also honor the memory of Mike's great-aunt Edye (Zanrotsky) Fields, and mother, Sandra Phyllis (Snyder) Evans.  Aditi is already pretty feisty, just like her namesakes.  Now to get her freed from all those wires and tubes...












Anu feeding Aditi colostrum through a tube down her throat.  She cannot spare the energy to suck at this stage.  She gets fed this way now eight times a day (September 19th).

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