I want to share with you Elena's birth story for a few reasons. Number 1, I don't want to forget anything that happened, any emotion, any little detail. I want to be able to tell Elena what she went through and how strong she was. Everything happened so fast, it was hard to really process it until we got home. Sometimes I get flashbacks to a moment that I completely forgot about. I feel like I can't breath when I think back to some of those times, when nothing was certain. I had absolutely no experience with premature babies and I had no idea what could happen when a baby was born 2 and a half months early. I even skipped over the premature baby section of my What to Expect book because I was certain it wouldn't happen to me. Number 2, I want to be able to help someone in my situation. I turned to the internet as I sat in the NICU all day. I searched for any information that I could find (which was sometimes the worst thing that I could do) in hopes of figuring out what was happening. Since I have such a miracle, success story I would love to share it and give hope. Hope that even the tiniest of babies can survive to be strong, adorable, ornery, happy toddlers!!
Here we go...I had a perfectly normal pregnancy. No morning sickness, I didn't even throw up until the second trimester. My belly popped out super early, by 7 weeks I was in my maternity jeans and loving it! I told everyone that Joe and I were expecting our little miracle after 5 long months of trying at 10 weeks. My co-workers that knew told me constantly how I was showing and I wanted to make the big announcement before anyone else found out. I'm nooo good at secret keeping! I was so excited to be able to finally talk about my little baby. I loved her so much already. I was exhausted until well into my second trimester but felt great regardless.
At my 16 week appointment my doctor informed me that she may or may not have heard 2 heartbeats. She said that I was measuring big too. So I needed to get an ultrasound to see if there were 2 little babies. Did I mention that she told me this on Friday afternoon at 5:00?!?!?! Thank goodness my husband works at the hospital and has some connections. He pulled some strings and got me in at 7:00 am the next day. But I still had to try and come to terms with the thought of having TWO babies. Well, there was only one (thank goodness) and they determined that my placenta was a bit low. Which is no big deal but they wanted to check it out again in a few weeks.
At my 20 week ultra sound we found out that we were having our sweet little girl. I cried so hard, I was so excited to have a daughter. I knew exactly what crib I was going to get, a white canopy crib with carved bows and I started shopping immediately. Lol
Everything was going great. Joe and I decided to go on vacation. We went to Myrtle Beach the summer before and decided to go back one last time as a couple. My doctor gave me the okay since I was only 27 weeks. Joe was nervous though, he said that he wasn't sure that it was a good idea. He was worried about blood clots on the long drive, he was worried about something bad happening. I reassured Joe over and over that I was only 27 weeks and that I wasn't going to have Elena for at least another 2 months.
Being pregnant on vacation was a lot different than the summer before. I didn't want to be in the sun for a long time and I tired quickly. But it was great getting to hang out in our condo looking over the gorgeous ocean. It was so relaxing, no cooking or cleaning, no work or stress. We loved it. Little did we know that Elena was preparing herself for her big arrival.
Two weeks later, Joe was working late and my sister (Amber) went out to dinner with me. We ate at the Chinese buffet. I was feeling a bit yucky all day. I was telling Amber that I was either starting Braxton Hicks (practice contractions starting in the late/early third trimester) or I had to....well poop. Either way I was only a little uncomfortable. I went home and went to bed. I woke up around 1 AM and tried to go to the bathroom, nothing happened so I went back to bed. I got up again after a few minutes of tossing a turning. I tried to go to the bathroom but nothing happened again. I started pacing in the bedroom which woke Joe up. I told him that I felt yucky and tried to go to the bathroom again. *TMI alert* I looked when I wiped and saw a small, quarter size amount of blood. I screamed for Joe that I was bleeding. We called the doctor who told us to head into Labor and Delivery. We got into the hospital at about 2 AM.
They hooked me up to a monitor and started IV fluids (my worst fear in the world is needles and IV's, ewww). The doctor checked me and said that I was 50% effaced but not dilated and that I was having contractions but that he wasn't worried. The doctor kept checking on me and saying that everything was fine. My back started hurting horribly and I started to bleed more and more and more. The doctor was still unfazed. This was not my regular OBGYN, he was the on call doctor and was dealing with an emergency C-section down the hall. They gave me a medication to hopefully stop contractions and told me to rest.
At 7:00 AM the ultrasound techs finally came in for their shift and brought the machine to me. Elena was too unstable to be moved. Her heart rate kept dropping. I had to continuously flip from side to side and get oxygen in hopes of helping her out. The ultrasound techs knew Joe and I could tell that the way they were whispering and looking that things weren't looking good. My regular doctor finally came in and said that Elena was in a lot of trouble. She said that I had a placental abruption and that they were getting a helicopter from Pittsburgh to fly me to Magee. She said that we were having Elena in the next few hours. Joe was calling our families to fill them in. I had just talked to my mom an hour before to tell her that I was in the hospital but that I was fine. Joe couldn't come in the helicopter so I was telling him to hurry up and get to Magee Hospital. It is a 45 minute drive (but it was rush hour) and a 7 minute flight. I was panicking that Joe wouldn't be there for the birth of our baby.
The nurses were swarming me with papers to sign, taking blood, giving me a steroid shot (for Elena's lung development), putting in a catheter and rolling me from side to side. I was terrified. Only a few hours ago I had asked the doctor if Elena would be ok if I had her at only 30 weeks. He (so politely) told me that I didn't want to have her now and that she would have a very hard time surviving. Thanks a lot. The helicopter landed and was signing me out as my sister and mom came running down the hall. But Elena's heart rate plummeted and my doctor told me that it was time to take Elena....NOW.
She told me that the Medical Center could handle my situation but was not equipped for such a premature baby. That's why they were life flighting me to Pittsburgh, right?! How was I supposed to have Elena now? The rushed me down the hall to the OR and started strapping me down. About 20 people were swarming around me. I was terrified and shaking so hard I couldn't even think straight. They quickly explained to me that I was going to be put to sleep since they had no time to wait for an epidural. I was so scared that they were going to start cutting before I was asleep. Seriously, they were rushing so fast. What if I wasn't asleep?! And that's it....that's all I remember until I woke up in a ton of pain. The helicopter team wheeled a tiny 3 pound 3 ounce 16 1/2 inch baby girl in an incubator into my room. I got to hold her tiny hand while they told me that they would fly her to Magee's NICU. I politely thanked them and invited them to Elena's first birthday party...I was a bit drugged up.
Later on I found out that my doctor was able to get Elena out in 63 seconds from the time I fell asleep. She said that I was lucky that I could get a regular C-section and that she didn't cut vertically. I couldn't imagine how horrible that would have been to recover from. Elena required 2 minutes of resuscitation since she was not breathing. She received an Apgar score of 1 at 1 minute and 4 at 10 minutes (the test that all newborns receive to check their health at 1 minute and 5 if necessary, most receive between 7-9 on a scale of 0-10). We were so close to losing our sweet little baby. So. very. close.
I went into a recovery room and was visited by so many friendly faces. I tried to pump as much as I could but had to dump it all since I was under anesthesia for the surgery. I was pretty out of it, thank God. I'm not sure how I made it through since my "plan" was to not have Elena leave my side while she nursed after my natural perfect delivery on my due date. You know, it pretty much happened that way. Elena was just 45 minutes away from me. Joe went to visit Elena and brought me back the amazing gift of pictures. The nurses printed them out with the words "Hi Mommy" on it. Joe framed them and brought back the little stuffed bear that he took a picture of her with. I realized after a few hours just how tiny Elena was. The bear looked like a huge bear next to her but was really only the size of my Styrofoam cup. I was able to call the NICU nurse that was taking care of Elena that day and night to check on her. They informed me that she was doing great. She was on a ventilator to help her breath but she looked great. I had so much hope and faith in God that she was going to be ok. I was so anxious but able to keep myself together.
Since my doctor is amazing and had her own preemie daughter she knew the hell that I was going through being so far away from my baby. I was bound and determined to get myself out of bed and not need much medication so that I could prove to her that I was ok. She released me only 24 hours after my C-section.
That begins out NICU adventure...I'll share that in another post. This one is long enough!! Thanks so much for reading our precious Elena's story. :)
