October 4, 2009

The day I will always remember.  The day that changed my life forever.  The day my beautiful children were born.

It was a Sunday and the days preceding it were "off".  I worked from home that Thursday and had an appointment with the perinatologist that morning.  When I got there, the ultrasound tech did her thing and said both babies looked fine.  She left the room and said the doctor would be in shortly.  About 5 minutes later, she came back and said he was called over to the hospital but I was welcome to wait, if I wanted.  She didn't know how long he'd be gone and I had been feeling OK so I decided to come back home.  The afternoon went fine but by early evening, I started having some back pain.  I knew Christopher had been sitting low and thought he was probably just laying on my pelvic bone.  By 8:00, the pain was uncomfortable enough for me to take a Tylenol.  I also put myself on bedrest for the rest of the evening and the next day.

Friday and Saturday, I felt fine.  No pain.  No aches.

Sunday, around mid-morning, I started feeling like I had to pee every 5 minutes.  I've had my share of UTIs and thought that I was probably getting one - although there was no pain when I did go and most times, it was just a trickle.  I layed on the couch for most of the day watching football.

At 4:30, I got up to pee for oh, the 10th time that day.  Again, I thought either UTI or that Christopher was sitting on my bladder.  I had absolutely no idea - I've never been pregnant!

I also noticed an increase in pressure but again, I had no idea if it was normal.  After all, I was carrying 40 lbs of fluid and baby.  Why wouldn't there be pressure?

And then, all of the sudden, I started peeing like I hadn't gone in 6 months.  After a few seconds, I thought, "This is weird" and I looked in the toilet. 

Bright. red. blood.

Thank God I knew I had a partial placenta previa or else I would have FREAKED out!

I opened the door and yelled, "DH!  I'm bleeding and I think my water broke.  I need a pad and a ride to the hospital"!

We arrived at the hospital in 10 minutes and I explained what happened.  They were very casual about the whole thing.  Which I guess is good in hindsight.

If they freaked, I would have freaked more than I was.  I remember the nurse just kept saying, "It's going to be OK.  You're 32 weeks".

They confirmed both babies were doing fine and the doctor ordered an ultrasound to see where the blood was coming from.  They also confirmed that my water was leaking.

I was starting to feel a little cramping but the doctor assured me it was normal with bleeding.  It was tolerable.  A 4 on a scale of 1-10.

The doctor finally said I was on immediate bedrest and that he wanted to get me to 34 weeks.  Oh, and that I wasn't leaving the hospital until I had the babies.  I got checked into a regular room and then the fun began.

The cramping really picked up and the back pain came back.  With a vengeance.  Oh, and the heartburn too.  Out of my whole "labor" experience, I remember the heart burn the most.

Since I was bleeding, I had to lay flat.  Which is pure torture when you have heartburn.  We left the house in such a hurry that I didn't grab anything.  Including my sacred Tums.

I called my sister and my mom and told them I was admitted to the hospital and that I thought I was in labor but the doctor thought the contractions would taper off as the bleeding stopped. 

After an hour, the contractions were picking up.  The nurse came in and looked at the tape and asked if I was feeling them.  I said, "yeah" as I squirmed in the bed and she said, "You're really cranking those out - every minute or so".   And then she said she was going to call the doctor because it was obvious they weren't going away.

10 minutes later, she said they were prepping the ER for an emergency c-section.

The c-section started normally.  I got the epidural and some medicine for the heart burn (finally!).  The kids were born without incident - both cried immediately.

I thought everything was fine until I heard the doctor say, "I need a mop, my hysterectomy kit and 2 units of blood".   It still didn't register with me.  I thought he just needed something out of this kit, like a tool?

And then I heard the nurse tell DH that he needed to go with her.  I didn't really think anything of it because I thought it was procedure for him to leave with the babies. 

Finally, I asked the anesthesiologist (because he was the only one I could see) if I was having a hysterectomy.  He politely replied, "Yes, you've had a complication". 

From here on out, it was organized chaos.  Everyone remained calm but I could tell there was definitely a sense of urgency.  Another team was pulled off another c-section to assist.  Suddenly, there were double the people in the room.

I heard the doctor ask for 2 more units of blood.  At this point, I was still aware of what was happening but starting to feel funny.  I was shaking uncontrollably and started feeling really, really sleepy.  I also got really cold.

I heard the anesthesiologist say, "Her blood pressure is 80/30" and then he ordered  4 more medications.

I don't really remember much after that.  I'm pretty sure I passed out for a period of time.  When I came to, I was still on the operating table and they were counting all of the instruments to make sure they recovered all of them.  I still don't know how long I was actually in the operating room but I suspect it was over 2 hours.

I was in recovery for another 2 hours and then finally moved to a room where I could see DH.  He assured me the babies were fine and showed me their first pictures.

Christopher was born at 11:00 pm weighing 4 lbs 7 oz.  Kendall was born at 11:01 pm weighing 3 lbs 15 oz.

I received 4 units of blood throughout the night and wasn't allowed to get up to see the babies until 6:30 Monday night.

It wasn't until the next day that I realized the severity of the delivery.  The doctor came in to see me and apologized for doing the hysterectomy but said, "I had to do it to save your life".   He told me I hemorrhaged when he attempted to remove one of the placentas and lost 1/2 of my total blood volume in 20 minutes.  I almost bled to death.

Wow. 

Here we are 2 years later and I'm thankful every day for the blessings I have.  They have filled my heart with more joy than I could ever imagine. 

Happy Birthday my babies.  I love you.