She Has Arrived! (Early)

   It’s been a scary journey, but she is finally here – earlier than expected, but healthy! Despite all my complications, especially at the end of it all. She was born August 25, 2021 at 11:11 am, 5 pounds 6 ounces and 17.5 inches long – small but mighty! Today’s blog is going to document the chaos of Elizabeth’s un-timely arrival along with a few photos captured before and after. Sorry it has been awhile since I’ve written, but as you can imagine having a baby under any circumstances, is a new kind of insanity. Especially when your only experience with children is babysitting. I wasn’t even good at it, my way of entertaining them was playing fetch… That’s right, I used to throw a ball out in the backyard and have the kid retrieve it. So help me God! Hopefully I will not have a barking baby that drinks out of the toilet.

     Mid-day August 23, 2021 I received a call from my mom asking me how I was doing. I explained to her that I was not feeling too well, but my “water” has not broken so I was not worried that I was in labor quite yet. I was only 37 weeks and few days pregnant anyway… Too early. Or so I thought. Moreover, my Doula came out to the house to check on me earlier that day anyway. She did however keep looking at me in a funny way… and suggested I check my blood pressure. All I wanted to do though was moan and groan about my pain! So I put off taking the blood pressure reading until hours later. When I finally did check it I told my husband to bring me new batteries because “I think this thing is broken or needs new batteries.” I checked my blood pressure 5 times  and the readings were ridiculously high, I could not believe the numbers I was getting 200+/100+. I convinced myself that the cuff was broken, besides if it were correct I would be dead, right? Long story short, when my mom called I told her all this and she urged me to text her a photo of the reading (above is the actual photo I sent my mom). She told me I needed to go to the hospital “NOW!” and I argued with her, like I always did. Then she suggested to have my husband check his- and it was normal… So I got dressed and grabbed my to-go bag hospital bound.

     After the doctors were able to stabilize my blood pressure enough, they started the induction process on August 24, 2021 around noon. I was pumped up with Magnesium Sulfate from the day before and had an endless supply of Fentanyl for the pain. So needless to say, I was pretty out of it and looking like a hot mess. It was not long after that my “water” broke – on August 25,  2021  at 2:55am. At this time I thought things were moving in the right direction… but I soon found out the reality of my situation. My induction was failing and I was not dilatating like I should be;  in fact, I have been in labor for over 24 hours now and I was only 1 centimeter dilated. Finally after almost 8 hours of trying more inducing drugs  a doctor walks in and frankly  says, “You have 3 choices. You can continue the induction. We can schedule right now for a caesarean, or you can have an emergency c-section in about 2-3 hours.” I was shocked. However it did not take long for my husband and I to come to a decision. We would schedule the c-section right then because we did not want to test our luck with anymore “emergencies”. Above is a picture of my husband suiting up to go into the Operating Room.

    My husband says watching the surgery was like, “watching a rocket launch in slow-motion.” At 11:11am on August 25, 2021 she was delivered while kicking and screaming. I remember right before i heard her for the first time, a doctor said, “not a very big baby.” Which made my heart stop and I immediately thought Elizabeth was not well and was going to the NICU. My worst nightmare was  playing out in my mind, I could not imagine being separated from my baby. Fortunately, although she was a tiny baby, but she was healthy.

     I cannot tell you an exact day we took our beautiful little girl home, but I do remember how elated I was to finally get some fresh air. It seemed like I had been in that hospital bed for eternity, without solid food, a shower or a breathe of fresh air. I also know for a fact that I had not walked nor have I had any continuous sleep since I was admitted. Every 15 minutes you get woken up to either get a blood pressure check, IV meds or get blood sucked out of you. It was enough to make me go crazy, for real. With all the drugs administered to me before, during and after the surgery and combine it with very little sleep – you get visual hallucinations every second your awake. When you finally do get some sleep you are awakened  by auditory hallucinations. It was an experience I would not wish on my worst enemy. We were glad to be home with our new baby girl, even though I had to return less than a week later, but that is a story for another time. Right now it is happy time with the new bundle.