Journey to Baby: Tuesday, April 16,2013

This day will forever be, by far, the greatest, most memorable and love-filled day of my life!!! There is much more to the story but I wanted to take a minute to announce the birth of my amazing, beautiful and sweet baby!!

I was at work, had been sleeping for a few hours when I awoke to use the bathroom, and felt an unusual trickle of fluid. I used the bathroom, waited a few minutes and it happened again. I suspected my membranes had ruptured. I was 36 weeks and 4 days along. So I got up, packed up my things and went in to the NICU. Talked with two of the nurses there and decided to call my OB. She told me to come in to the hospital to be checked out. I had to wait for someone to come in to cover the unit, then I went home to shower and pack my bag. I was in no pain at all, just leaking fluid occasionally. Drove myself to the hospital and arrived in L & D. I had a great nurse, kind, calm and patient, just like I had wished for.

The longest 2 minutes of my life happened soon after being admitted. The nurse went to apply the fetal monitor and could not find baby's heart beat. I had felt the baby move during my drive to the hospital but it was sooo incredibly scary as she searched and searched for the heart beat. I was in tears, thinking I'd come this far, please don't let it end like this. I remembered at my last appt the OB said there was some extra fluid and though baby was head down then, there was lots of room for him/her to move around. And a few days prior I felt a big movement that I said I thought could have been baby flipping back to breech. So I mentioned that to her and she moved the device high up on my abdomen and there it was!! A perfect, normal little baby heartbeat. The nurse admitted after the fact that she too was beginning to sweat a little. Whew!! The tears flowed in relief. Of course this high position made us suspect that baby was breech. An ultrasound was done to confirm that, and showed baby high in my uterus and head up. My cervix was still closed so the decision was made to proceed to C-section. Lucky for me, my OB was still in the country and was able to do the surgery herself!

My sweet friend, that also accompanied me to Colorado for cycle number one, was with me in the OR as it all happened too fast for any of my family to get here. They were on the way from Pittsburgh as soon as I knew it was for sure delivery day. Lisa was great, sitting with me prior to surgery and at my side during the operation. I will always have a special place in my heart for her as she was with me during such important moments of my life! My lifelong dream come true entered this world at 12:44 PM on April 16th.

I didn't want for anyone to tell me if I had a boy or girl but wanted to discover it for myself. Everyone in the OR was made aware of my wishes and it happened just like that. One of the NICU nurses was in the OR to do baby care, so the baby was handed to her and she came around the drape for me to see that I had a baby boy! It was just a quick peek, then he went to the warmer as expected. He was brought over to me a few minutes later, but was having some respiratory difficulties. I was able to hold him on my chest for a few minutes but he couldn't stay long due to his troubles. After working with him for about 45 minutes the NICU nurse decided to call the neonatologist over to examine him. My boss, and good friend, was on that day and came to see him. I knew that he'd be going to the NICU based on his work of breathing. I held him as much as possible, even allowed to hold him skin to skin, but it wasn't long before I was ready to let him go and get help for his breathing. He was really working hard and I know that look and sound all too well. So off to the NICU my baby boy went...