Happiest Birthday EVER
Well, I am happy to report that I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl on Tuesday October 11th. It was a pretty scary day actually, but it had the best results! I wanted to share my story with you and express how absolutely amazing Anne Arundel Medical Center is!
I went into labor while teaching classes on Tuesday (for those who don't know, I teach 6-8th grade art so it was an interesting experience - my students were pretty understanding, but I hope I didn't worry them too much!). Around 11am, my contractions began to be around 5-6 minutes apart consistently. I called my Doctor during my planning period to see if I should come in or continue working. She said she wanted me to wait until my contractions were 3 minutes apart for 2 hours. Since this was my first baby, I guess they weren't concerned with her coming early, but it made me nervous. My contractions continued to get worse and by 6th period, they were only a little over 2 minutes apart so I called my Dr back. The one plus about going into labor this day at work was that my long term sub was shadowing me, so when the Dr said to head to her office, she was able to take over and I was able to head out! I am super thankful for that.
Ben was on his way to school to pick me up and we headed to the OB. They did a check in the office, but unfortunately I was only dilated 1cm. I had no idea that when your contractions were that close, you may not be ready to have the baby. They said they were going to send me home and see if I could make some progress. They were confident that I would have her within 24 hours. I was so worried about driving an hour back home, but I obviously don't have a medical degree, so we listened. My Dr. prescribed some Tylenol 3 to try to take away some of the pain and just told me to wait it out. We stopped at the pharmacy in Edgewater to fill my prescription on the way home. We figured it wouldn't take too long to fill and then we'd head back home.
I was still contracting every 2 minutes or less and was miserable so Ben went in to take care of things. Unfortunately, the pharmacy was swamped and they told us that it would be at least an hour. I walked around the parking lot a bit and walked around inside as much as I could without scaring people with my contractions. Inevitably I had to pee, so I went it and realized I was bleeding. This scared the crap out of me (with my first pregnancy ending in miscarriage, I needed a blood transfusion and I did NOT want to have to go through that again) so I called my Dr back. She wanted me to monitor it and call her back if it got worse. We ended up spending almost 2 hours at the pharmacy and I continued to feel worse. I started vomiting and my bleeding increased so when we finally got our prescriptions, we called the Dr again and she had us report to the hospital.
After getting to triage in the birthing center, they told me they were pretty sure that my water had broken and I was now dilated 6cm. This is when things started to get scary. They asked if I wanted an epidural and put a fetal monitor on. Every time I contracted, the baby's heart rate dropped significantly. They whisked me into the labor and delivery room, got me prepped for the epidural and tried to coach me through my contractions. My nurses were absolutely amazing and so was my husband. My Dr. was closely monitoring the baby and me, but didn't like what she was seeing. After I got the epidural, we made the decision to have an emergency c-section because the baby just wasn't stable enough to handle regular birth. It was determined that I had a placental abruption and that's where all of the extra blood was coming from (a tear in my placenta).
Within about a half an hour after that conversation with the Dr, I was having the baby delivered via c-section. She really gave us a scare because they had to rush her to the NICU as soon as she came out. She was as white as a sheet and wasn't making any noise. This really terrified me. I just prayed the entire time and asked God to please help her breathe and help the Dr's and nurses take care of her as best as they could. I am so thankful that he decided to answer those prayers. She ended up having to be intubated and they thought she may need a blood transfusion. However, she pulled through with flying colors! They kept her in the NICU for 4 days and took excellent care of her. It was so difficult to be separated from her for so long. I just wanted her with me and I wanted to be able to help her get better. The nurses were amazing and let me visit her as much as I was able and the NICU nurses were very thorough in explaining what was going on. They were monitoring her liver, her blood count, her kidneys, her blood sugar, her oxygen rate, and her heart. She was hooked up so much that she resembled Frankenstein, but each day, they took out another wire and she slowly started to get some color. I am so grateful to each and every nurse and Dr at Anne Arundel Medical Center for their care, compassion, humor, and understanding. I couldn't have asked for a better hospital to deliver in, especially considering the circumstances. I can't wait to tell baby Aurora about her grand entrance into the world someday when she's older. I am just continuing to pray that she stays healthy, makes great progress and grows strong. She's a fighter and she is the most perfect thing I've ever made. Today is my birthday and my heart just feels so full. I have a supportive and loving husband and the best little girl in the world to spend the rest of my life with. Who could ask for anything more? <3
I went into labor while teaching classes on Tuesday (for those who don't know, I teach 6-8th grade art so it was an interesting experience - my students were pretty understanding, but I hope I didn't worry them too much!). Around 11am, my contractions began to be around 5-6 minutes apart consistently. I called my Doctor during my planning period to see if I should come in or continue working. She said she wanted me to wait until my contractions were 3 minutes apart for 2 hours. Since this was my first baby, I guess they weren't concerned with her coming early, but it made me nervous. My contractions continued to get worse and by 6th period, they were only a little over 2 minutes apart so I called my Dr back. The one plus about going into labor this day at work was that my long term sub was shadowing me, so when the Dr said to head to her office, she was able to take over and I was able to head out! I am super thankful for that.
Ben was on his way to school to pick me up and we headed to the OB. They did a check in the office, but unfortunately I was only dilated 1cm. I had no idea that when your contractions were that close, you may not be ready to have the baby. They said they were going to send me home and see if I could make some progress. They were confident that I would have her within 24 hours. I was so worried about driving an hour back home, but I obviously don't have a medical degree, so we listened. My Dr. prescribed some Tylenol 3 to try to take away some of the pain and just told me to wait it out. We stopped at the pharmacy in Edgewater to fill my prescription on the way home. We figured it wouldn't take too long to fill and then we'd head back home.
I was still contracting every 2 minutes or less and was miserable so Ben went in to take care of things. Unfortunately, the pharmacy was swamped and they told us that it would be at least an hour. I walked around the parking lot a bit and walked around inside as much as I could without scaring people with my contractions. Inevitably I had to pee, so I went it and realized I was bleeding. This scared the crap out of me (with my first pregnancy ending in miscarriage, I needed a blood transfusion and I did NOT want to have to go through that again) so I called my Dr back. She wanted me to monitor it and call her back if it got worse. We ended up spending almost 2 hours at the pharmacy and I continued to feel worse. I started vomiting and my bleeding increased so when we finally got our prescriptions, we called the Dr again and she had us report to the hospital.
After getting to triage in the birthing center, they told me they were pretty sure that my water had broken and I was now dilated 6cm. This is when things started to get scary. They asked if I wanted an epidural and put a fetal monitor on. Every time I contracted, the baby's heart rate dropped significantly. They whisked me into the labor and delivery room, got me prepped for the epidural and tried to coach me through my contractions. My nurses were absolutely amazing and so was my husband. My Dr. was closely monitoring the baby and me, but didn't like what she was seeing. After I got the epidural, we made the decision to have an emergency c-section because the baby just wasn't stable enough to handle regular birth. It was determined that I had a placental abruption and that's where all of the extra blood was coming from (a tear in my placenta).
Within about a half an hour after that conversation with the Dr, I was having the baby delivered via c-section. She really gave us a scare because they had to rush her to the NICU as soon as she came out. She was as white as a sheet and wasn't making any noise. This really terrified me. I just prayed the entire time and asked God to please help her breathe and help the Dr's and nurses take care of her as best as they could. I am so thankful that he decided to answer those prayers. She ended up having to be intubated and they thought she may need a blood transfusion. However, she pulled through with flying colors! They kept her in the NICU for 4 days and took excellent care of her. It was so difficult to be separated from her for so long. I just wanted her with me and I wanted to be able to help her get better. The nurses were amazing and let me visit her as much as I was able and the NICU nurses were very thorough in explaining what was going on. They were monitoring her liver, her blood count, her kidneys, her blood sugar, her oxygen rate, and her heart. She was hooked up so much that she resembled Frankenstein, but each day, they took out another wire and she slowly started to get some color. I am so grateful to each and every nurse and Dr at Anne Arundel Medical Center for their care, compassion, humor, and understanding. I couldn't have asked for a better hospital to deliver in, especially considering the circumstances. I can't wait to tell baby Aurora about her grand entrance into the world someday when she's older. I am just continuing to pray that she stays healthy, makes great progress and grows strong. She's a fighter and she is the most perfect thing I've ever made. Today is my birthday and my heart just feels so full. I have a supportive and loving husband and the best little girl in the world to spend the rest of my life with. Who could ask for anything more? <3
That's exactly how I felt when I had my first son, Noah, via c-section and second son, Christian, also c-section on my birthday! They are the best gifts I will ever receive in this life. <3 Enjoy your beautiful family!! Evelyn :-)
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