A year ago tonight, July 13th my water started trickling. I disregarded it thinking that urine was leaking and ended up going to bed. No more leaking through the night, but many cramps to follow. Surprisingly, I slept through most of it till about 5am when I couldn’t stand it anymore and I woke Tim up. We decided to be safe and called my OB Dr. Timoll who told us to go to L&D. I just thought I was constipated and having cramps from the pizza we had the night before (because at that point in my pregnancy I was dealing with LOTS of heartburn). We got ready and joked all the way to the hospital still oblivious that I was in premature labor. I was dressed for work! Once we got there they hooked me up to an IV and said that my water had indeed broken. I actually was in shock because I only had that small leak the night before. We didn’t know what the future would hold for our beautiful baby girl and that broke our hearts … By that time I was having severe, constant cramps, not on and off contractions. The nurses just kept telling me to hang in there. By this time I was in excruciating pain and couldn’t sit still so they called my OB again, he said to start magnesium and give me the steroids shot for Hailey’s lungs. Well, they gave me enough magnesium to make me very sick just in time to push. Yes, they checked me and I went from 1cm to 10cm in a half hour! After that it is all a blur, a “million” doctors rushed in, none whom I recognized and told me to push because her heart rate was dropping. I pushed will all my might, but they still had to cut me – twice - NO pain meds! Surprisingly my parents, whom I called on the way to the hospital and told that I was going in for a check-up and not to come to the hospital, ignored my advice and made it in just as she was cresting. She was out within 5 minutes and screaming up a storm. All this happened before 9:29am. Little did we know what life held beyond that moment. Would our child live, what would her life be like, what did it really mean to have a preemie, what are some complications she could encounter?! About an hour after birth they let us go to the NICU, what a sight. We didn’t see the blood, the wires, the CPAP – we saw our beautiful tiny little girl! We were blessed!!!!
That night as we were settled in at the hospital and all family and friends had left the doctors came in to get consent to check for spinal meningitis. At that moment again, our world spiraled out of control – we were certain she had meningitis. We eventually learned that they test for many different conditions, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she has them. Over and over we went up and down on this rollercoaster ride called “NICU”, two steps forward, one step back really felt like four steps back, one step forward. Many nights we cried out to God to save our tiny baby girl’s life and He did. By the end I was getting very jealous of the nurses who took care of my baby and we were ready to break her out of there, but whenever we got close to going home a small set back would occur. Finally, after 7 ½ weeks in the place she called home, we broke her out. I was worried she wouldn’t adjust well to her “real home”, but she did better at home then she did her last few days at the hospital. She had to go home on an apnea monitor, but that was o.k., she was home!!!! We are blessed!
Now we watch our baby girl crawl and cruise, we watch her take a 6oz bottle in 5 minutes and think back on when we tried for a half hour and couldn’t even get her to take 5cc’s without her turning blue and choking.
We stand in amazement and look forward to what her future holds! Mommy and Daddy love you our Itty Bitty Baby Girl! Happy 1st Birthday!
1 comment:
OMG. That made me cry.
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