Charlotte's Birth Story - May 7th and 8th

I haven’t blogged in forever because I “didn’t have time”, but after the past month, I have decided that I have time for whatever I want to do, and that includes blogging in order to be able to remember and look back on our lives. I think it's only appropriate to start back blogging with Charlotte’s birth story, but before I begin I want to thank everyone for all of their thoughts and prayers over the past month. Charlotte and I are evidence that God is still in the miracle business, and we are only here today because of Him and the power of prayer. I thank God that he chose to bless us with life and so many faithful prayer warriors on our side.

Charlotte’s birth story was supposed to start on May 7^th, my birthday. We planned to be induced to help with scheduling all of the family coming from out of town and having a plan for Caleb, and the day my doctor happened to be on call that week was the 7^th.  I woke up around 5 and hopped in the shower to get ready to be at the hospital by 6:30. While I was in the shower, my phone rang and it was Brookwood. They had an influx of people who went into labor naturally and didn’t have a room for me to be induced. The plan was to call me when a room was available, but at the time we still thought we were going to be induced on that day. Around 7:30, they called again to say that they were going to reschedule me for the 8^th. I was so upset that I wouldn’t be having her that day. If you know me at all, you know that I am a planner, and this wasn’t in my plan. I had decided that it would be really cool to share a birthday with Charlotte and was bummed that this wouldn’t be the case, plus I had already taken and posted our last picture as a family of three J I was also just ready to have her by this point … I hadn’t been sleeping well, I felt huge, and I was ready to meet her. Little did I know that my plan was insignificant and being rescheduled was all a part of God’s plan.

Thursday, May 8^th, started like the day before, with me waking up at 5 … only this time there was no phone call to delay the induction and we were at the hospital by 6:30. I was admitted quickly and my IV fluids were started by 7. When my OB first got there to check me, I was 2.5 centimeters, so she broke my water and started the Pitocin. Joey and I were the only ones at the hospital at this time and all of our parents were at the house waiting on the call that the epidural was in and they could come on up. Around 10 my contractions had reached a level where I wanted the epidural, so my nurse checked me and I was already 6 centimeters. I remember being so proud of myself for making it to 6 centimeters without asking for the epidural. I was never one of those girls that wanted to go naturally, and got an epidural at 3 centimeters with Caleb, so I was proud I held out until 6 this time. I got the epidural and Joey called the parents to tell them to come on up (but of course they hadn’t stuck to the plan and were already on their way to the hospital). Around 10:30, our parents made it to the room and we were all hanging out in the room talking, and the last thing I remember saying was that I was glad my Dad didn’t have to see me in pain because he had a problem with that with Caleb. I do not remember anything else for the rest of the day and most of the day Friday, so the rest will be from what I have been told.

Shortly after our parents arrived, I sat up in the bed and said I did not feel well. With Caleb’s delivery, the epidural had made me sick and so Joey and my mom remembered this and so the nurse turned to get me a bag in case I got sick this time. Only this time instead of getting sick, I passed out and started seizing. Joey rushed to get his parents and my dad out of the room, while my mom went into nurse mode and started yelling to get an Ambu (one of those bag things they put over your mouth to help you breathe). Within seconds, several people flooded the room and started working on me and Charlotte. They allowed Joey and mom to stay for a little while, but eventually made them leave. From 10:00 until this point, I had fully dilated so they tried to get Charlotte out with a vacuum since I could not push. When they couldn’t get her out, they rushed me to do an emergency C-section. All this time, no one really knew what was going on, just that I had stopped breathing and they were having to do chest compressions. Joey and my mom had stayed right outside the door, and they did hear me screaming that I couldn’t breathe right before they took me to do the C-section, so somewhere in the midst of all of this, they were able to resuscitate me and I regained consciousness (though I don’t remember any of it).

Charlotte was born via C-section at 11:13. She was 7 pounds 14 ounces, and was 20 ½ inches long. When she was born, she was unresponsive (or as her neonatologist put it “as limp as a dishrag”, and had an APGAR score of 2. She had a heart rate and decent color, but was not breathing on her own. They intubated her and within 10 minutes her APGAR score was a 7 (most healthy babies are born with a score of 8 or 9) but she still was on the ventilator.  Although I didn’t know it at the time, I have now learned more than I ever cared to know about APGAR scores and apparently this is a good sign. They brought Charlotte up to the NICU and allowed my mom and Joey to go in and see her and talk to the doctors. The doctors mentioned this cooling blanket therapy that helps maintain a lower body temperature for three days, which causes the baby’s metabolic processes to slow. This decreases the severity and extent of potential brain injury. Basically, the doctors did not know how long Charlotte had gone without oxygen, and because she was born with such a low APGAR score, the cooling therapy could potentially help her (if she was in a bad enough condition), but either way would not hurt her. This had to be started within six hours and could not be stopped for three days, so although they didn’t know how bad her condition was, they decided to go ahead and put her on the cooling blanket. While on the cooling blanket, they were also able to remove her ventilator within six hours, which was also a good sign, and Charlotte was able to breathe on her own continuously after that. She is such a fighter!

In the meantime, my doctors had determined that what happened was one of two things: a pulmonary embolism or an amniotic fluid embolism. They told the family this, and said that they hoped it was a pulmonary embolism because it was easier to fix, and the amniotic fluid embolism was more of an uncharted territory. I’m not sure when and how they determined it, but it was determined that it was an amniotic fluid embolism (I will do a separate post on what I have since learned about an AFE). After the C-section, the doctors could not get my blood to clot and my uterus to stop bleeding, and could not get my vital signs - blood pressure, pulse, etc. to stabilize because of the massive bleeding. In total that first 24 hours, I received over 54 units of blood products. Later that night, after they had exhausted all other measures, they decided to perform a partial hysterectomy to stop the bleeding. A good sign after the second surgery was that my vitals were better after I had the surgery than they were before I went into surgery, however they still expected me to be in a coma for approximately 2-3 days. The next morning, they said the goal for the day was to get me off of my blood pressure medication but did not expect me to get off of the ventilator. About 30 minutes later, they came to ask my family if they wanted to see me … that I was conscious and off the ventilator. I am determined that this was God showing out and showing that he was in control. This was the biggest sign so far that I would survive the AFE and now the goal would be to monitor me and determine if I had any brain damage or damage to any of the major organs - kidneys, liver, intestines, etc . The rest of the story will have to wait until the next post, but *SPOILER ALERT* we are both healthy and have no evidence of any permanent damage J

To God Be the Glory!