Rose's Birth Story: Part One

September 3rd, 2015

Matt and I walked into my 35 week doctor appointment at 8:40am like we had all of our appointments before. Little did we know this would be my last appointment pregnant ever. We were excited to see our little girl on the big ultrasound screen and eager to find out how much she's grown since the last time we saw her. During my ultrasound I had had a few contractions our ultrasound tech would stop and watch as my stomach would go lopsided and hard for a few seconds and then back and few minutes later it would start again. Rose was estimated to weigh 5lbs 3oz via the ultrasound.

The tech told my doctor who knows my history of preterm labor and she decided it would be best to have me do a non stress test. They hooked me up to the monitors and right away Matt and I saw contraction after contraction they weren't painful at that point, but they were uncomfortable. They were coming every 2 to 4 minutes. My doctor came back in after 20 minutes and said  "I am going to have to give you a shot of Terbutaline." I had to get two of these shots on Monday when we went to the hospital because of contractions. I absolutely hated the feeling of this shot. The best way to describe it that its like taking speed according to my doctor. My heart started racing, my body started shaking (especially my hands) and I got really hot. My doctor needed me to have this shot as a precaution so my uterus wouldn't rupture on the 45 minute car ride to the hospital. Before we left she checked me and my cervix was short, soft and a fingertip dilated my doctor said "her head is very low, she has dropped."

Matt and I left the doctors with me shaking mostly from the Terbutaline, but also because I was terrified. We went right home where my parents were watching our boys to grab a few last minute things and to kiss them all over. The drive to the hospital felt like hours. Not knowing if this is it, if we were going to be meeting her today and being scared out of my mind. There were a million questions running through my head. I wanted to be happy like Matt was, but I was too scared to be.

Once we got up to labor and delivery to be monitored my contractions were coming again after they had slowed down for the past hour in the car. From that moment on I realized Rose was coming whether or not I was ready mentally or physically so I needed to enjoy these last few hours of being pregnant. I had Matt snap a few last belly pictures and he talked to her for the last time ever in my tummy telling her how excited he was to meet her and how much she is loved already. One of the doctors from my practice came in to check me and I was 2cm. She decided today is the day Rose would be born!

Around 2:40pm I walked down the hall with a nurse to the OR where Matt would meet me after I got my spinal. The OR was freezing, I was still a little shaky from my Terbutaline the nurses gave me a pillow and told me to hold on to it and hunch over and stay as still as I could. I felt the pinch in my spine and a little burn within seconds I was reminded of the awful feeling of going numb. First my toes got warm, then my feet, my legs they told me to quickly lay down before I go totally numb. Once laying down they gave me oxygen. One nurse next to me asked if she could undo my gown at the top so I can cuddle my girl when she comes out and a nurse to rudely replied "I doubt she will be allowed to she's only 35 weeks." I didn't let her comment bother me, but that is when they must have noticed Rose wasn't moving or something because they put a monitor on my stomach to check her heart rate which I don't remember them doing with any of my other c-sections. What happened next was one of the scariest things to ever happen to me. I heard a nurse say "baby's heart rate is dropping 90bpm... 80... 70... we have to get her out! Where is the doctor?!" Matt all of the sudden appears at my side and I whispered "her heart rate, they have to hurry." I felt the tears welled up in my eyes and a knot in my throat and then so much pressure on my stomach.

Just like that at 3:04pm the most beautiful sound in the world my baby, my baby girl crying! I will never forget the sound of her girly, high pitched, sweet cry. She was taken over to be examined by the NICU there must have been 10 nurses surrounding her I told Matt "go to her!" he too was tearing up.  He turned around and said "she's beautiful! she's perfect! 8/8 on her Apgar, 4lbs, 15oz!" And then she stopped crying. I repeatedly asked "is she okay?" he kept replying "Yes, yes she's just happy, she's just looking around." One by one the nurses trickled out of the operating room. Matt brought her over to me to hold and she just looked at me wide eyed listening to me tell her how I have been waiting my whole life for her. A few minutes later Matt left with our perfect bundle to meet me in recovery. It felt like forever while I laid there on the cold operating table getting stitched up. The doctor that delivered our first baby, Landon was able to be there to help deliver our last baby and I couldn't have been happier about it. My surgery went the best it could have, I had minimal blood loss and they were able to find both my tubes to tie.

Once in recovery, I nursed Rose for a few minutes, but she was pretty exhausted, so I didn't push her. Matt said she hadn't cried the whole time he was with her she just stared at him with her big beautiful brown eyes. She was perfect in every way and I just wanted to hold her and watch her. I must have kissed her a million times. Transport took a long time to get there we didn't get upstairs to our room until 5:40pm.

To be continued...