'Labor of love' survey

My pregnancy was really normal, until my 38 week appointment when my blood pressure had spiked and the concern of preclampsia arose. My midwife sent me to the hospital to be put on a fetal monitor, where they deemed me fine. However, they had me do a 24 hour urine collection, which is not a fun thing to do, especially since you have to keep it refrigerated until you turn it in. The next day, a Friday which was also the 4th of July, I returned to the hospital to turn in my two jugs of urine and to have my blood pressure taken again. Concerns were back and I was placed on the fetal monitor. They checked me and I was no where near dilated, so we had to wait to see if any proteins of preclampsia was in my collected urine. I was sent home, advised that I may be induced and to pack a bag. After several calls to the OB department at the hospital, the doctor finally phoned me at 11:45 that evening to tell me to come in for induction as I had mild preclampsia. Upon my arrival, I was told to prepare for a long stay as inductions don't happen quickly. A first time mom who now has an incredible fear of "dying" from seisure caused by toximia, I was literally shaking and sure that I would have a baby by the end of the weekend. Not such the case... After several attempts of trying to get my body to dilate and infection, my baby girl was delivered vaginally on July 8th, three days after being induced. Unfortunately, she was no more ready to come than I was ready to deliver her. She did cry. She only grunted. So after letting me hold her for a minute, snap a quick picture, the whisked her away to the NICU. Her daddy went with her and there I sat alone with my thoughts, only receiving reassurance that they were just monitoring her but all seamed fine. I was finally able to visit her two hours later in the nursery, where she remained for the duration of our stay. She was in excellent hands, but it didn't lend a lot for privacy to get to know my daughter, learn how to nurse, so on and so forth. But she was deemed healthy, despite her respiratory distress and sent home with me on my discharge date. I don't know if my story is anything spectacular, it was to me. Quite grueling and frightening, but went home with a beautiful little girl who has completely changed my life and has shown me how to love in a way I could never imagine. Now that we have baby #2 on the way, another little girl, I have fears of going through the same adventure. But when I really put my fears aside, I realize I still came out ahead and would do it all again for these loves of my life.

Early on, I joked that I was having twins because my morning sickness seemed to be twice as agonizing as it should have been. Sure enough, it was confirmed that we were blessed with identical twin boys! Unfortunately, it also turns out I had a complete placenta previa, which meant my placenta completely covered the opening of my uterus. Since previas are known to cause bleeding and early delivery, I was pretty sure to be doing bed rest toward the end of my pregnancy. At that time, all I wanted was the morning sickness to subside so I could bask in the glow of being a mom-to-be. I remember around the time I finally breathed a sigh of relief that my morning sickness had passed, my right rib went out. I could barely move from all the pain! Luckily I was only in excruciating pain day and night for 2 months. Unfortunately, the week the pain ended, I started having contractions and bleeding and had to be hospitalized for the 7 weeks that remained of my pregnancy. In the hospital, I looked and felt like I doubled in size. The hospital staff was kind enough to give me an air mattress because as odd as it sounds, the beds in the neonatal intensive care unit were primarily for birthing, not hospital bed rest, and consequently very uncomfortable. Because I was so heavy in the middle (I gained about 70 pounds during my pregnancy), I popped my mattress almost immediately! You could hear the faint sound of air escaping from below me for 7 weeks. Some of the nurses grew tired of constantly inflating my bed, so I became a pro at pumping it myself. If all this wasn’t enough, I broke out in an itchy rash from head to toe. The doctors confirmed it was cholestasis, a pregnancy-related liver disorder caused by massive amounts of hormones. Needless to say, I was pretty miserable. At 35 weeks of pregnancy, I was scheduled for an emergency c-section due to another episode of bleeding. My husband and I have never been as nervous as the moment we were about to meet our sons for the first time. This moment would change us for the rest of our lives. After all my prenatal turmoil, our baby boys were born perfectly healthy! Gavin was 6 pounds, 3 ounces and Dylan was 5 pounds 9 ounces. It was truly love at first sight. Right now, as I type this, I can hear them breathe over the monitor. Everything I went though was worth it! They are truly perfect!

For my third pregnancy I decided to forgo the epidural process and try a non-medicated birth. Thankfully, my OB-GYN was on board and I hired a doula. I did all the research and was fully prepared for what was to come. When I finally went into labor, I called my doula and she said she'd get ready and be over soon. Within minutes of hanging up with her, I could no longer talk through my contractions and told my husband it was time to get to the hospital. Thankfully, our hospital is within walking distance of our house, but we were taking the car anyway. During the less than five minute car ride, I told my husband 'forget what we planned- this hurts and I want the epidural!' At the hospital entrance I got out of the car and realized that the baby was coming out. Someone went inside to alert the hospital, someone else brought out a wheelchair, and I just wanted to take my pants off and get the baby out! The nursing staff brought out a gurney and I climbed on. We got into the service elevator (no need to go through the main entrance with a mom in LOUD labor!!). My husband told me that we were in the elevator for what seemed like minutes before someone pressed the button to take us to the correct floor! Once we got to the birthing room the nursing staff kept trying to get me to turn over onto my back because when I got on the gurney, I crawled on and was on my hands and knees. I refused to turn over and my daughter was subsequently delivered by a doctor whose name I still don't know (I never got the chance to call my OB), before my doula arrived, and while I was on my hands and knees! If that wasn't enough, once I did turn over, I realized that I knew BOTH of the LDR nurses and one told me that she actually held my baby in with her hand while we traveled from the front of the hospital to the hospital room. It was the most intense and amazing 45 minutes of my life!

The birth of my first daughter was great. She came out perfect. She looked just like me; dark brown hair, brown eyes & olive skin. When I gave birth to my second daughter, everyone in the delivery room was shocked. She came out with bright red hair, dark green eyes & the lightest skin. The doctor looked at my husband (whose also brunette) and says, "the mailman?" He gave her a dirty look. She looked back with a scared face like "did I just stick my foot in my mouth?" My husband put her at ease & informed her that red hair ran in his family. The doctor sighed with relief. My husband loves to share that story.

A week before my due date, I had a busy Saturday of running errands and organizing the baby’s room. Throughout the day I was having sharp pains at random times low in my abdomen, making me very uncomfortable. At about 5:00pm, I decided to sit down for a little while to see if that helped the pain I was having. I was playing a card game with my 12 year old stepdaughter, Jessica, and when the pain kept coming at increasingly regular intervals I finally realized that I was in labor! I felt so silly for not realizing that I was in labor, but the Braxton Hicks contractions I had earlier in the week didn’t feel like that! I e-mailed my husband Bill, who was at work, with the subject “Might be having contractions” with the comment “Um, ouch” in the body of the e-mail. He wrote back asking “Big or little?” and called when I responded “More painful and lower than before.” Then I sent another email to Bill asking “When are you coming home?” and he called me immediately. When we talked, he wasn’t convinced that I was ready to go to the hospital because, as he stated, “you don’t go from nothing to having a baby.” At that point, he didn’t know that what I thought were random pregnancy pains or an upset stomach all day long were actually contractions. Needless to say, he came home immediately, and we spent the next half hour timing and recording contractions. My stepson, Jacob (16) was getting ready for a night out with friends, and we decided to let him continue with his plans for the evening since his status as a teenager renders him disinterested in the silliness of having a baby! Jessica, being the sweetest young lady on the planet, was quite worried about me and was right by my side every step of the way. We quickly realized it was time to call the doctor, and after reporting our status, Bill, Jessica and I were off to the hospital! Initially, they thought they would send me home, but the baby and I ended up staying on monitors because his heartrate was not rebounding after contractions the way it should have. Lukas Gabriel Bracken was born six hours later via c-section because of fetal distress. God blessed us with 6 pounds 11 ounces and 20 inches of perfection! Now, two months later, we are completely in love with our beautiful, happy, baby boy!