The Giesen Family: Charlotte's Birth Story

The first thing I remember from Friday morning was me trying to pull the intubation tube out, which is how it went from telling my family I would probably be intubated another day to the nurses getting me off the ventilator and Joey and my parents being able to see me in a matter of about thirty minutes. Apparently I was on Propofol (or as Joey says, “the Michael Jackson drug”), and they were gradually decreasing that and my blood pressure medicine to see how I would handle it, and I was able to handle it well enough to be extubated. When my family came back to my room, the biggest thing they were worried about was would I be “myself”; would I remember them, would I know that I had been pregnant and was supposed to deliver Charlotte, etc. At the time, I was not coherent enough to talk to them, but could answer yes and no questions and was able to answer enough questions that they knew that my long-term memory had not been seriously affected.

Although I don’t remember much from Friday, I do remember multiple people from Brookwood coming in and wanting to talk to me and see me. At the time, I was so confused, and probably not very gracious. I had no clue what had happened and did not understand why all of these people knew who I was and wanted to see me. Each time my family or the doctors came in, they would try to tell me the big picture and explain what happened, but I would forget after they left and ask the same questions every time. I was confused as to why people kept referring to “yesterday” and didn’t realize I had lost a full day. I kept asking where Charlotte was and why she was in the NICU. Throughout the day on Friday and as the medication continued to wear off, I slowly began talking, comprehending, and remembering more and more. Eventually I would learn that all the staff from Brookwood that came to see me wanted to see me because they were either in the operating room or had prayed incessantly for me and knew what a miracle it was that both me and Charlotte were doing so well.

Even though Joey kept telling me that Charlotte was doing great, and everything that had been done to her was preventative, all I wanted was to go see her myself, but of course I couldn’t leave the ICU room and she couldn’t leave the cooling blanket and the NICU. My sister-in-law Kayla took some gorgeous pictures of her and had them printed for me, and Joey thought of FaceTime and got that set up between my phone and the iPad so that I was able to see her one of the times he was visiting her. Joey was so amazing the couple of days I was not able to see her. He made sure that no one took a picture with her or of him with her, or posted any of her pictures on social media, because he thought that I should be the first one to get my picture made with her and post her picture. Even though her name had been decided for a couple of months, he would not officially complete her birth certificate until I was coherent enough to sign off on it. He would not let anyone but family back to see me because he knew how upset I was and how much it physically hurt me to cry. Because Charlotte was on the cooling blanket and in NICU, no one was able to hold her and Joey was the only person able to touch her. This was a blessing in disguise because it meant that even though I didn’t get to see her for three days, I was the first one able to hold her and the second person that was able to touch her. In a way, I was able to have the typical experiences from a normal delivery, even though our delivery was anything but normal.

Sometime either late Friday or early Saturday, I decided to google this Amniotic Fluid Embolism that I kept hearing referenced. Only then, after I saw the statistics of the mortality rate as well as the percentage of the people that survived but with severe complications, did I truly understand the miracle that happened. The fact that I made it through the first surgery to have Charlotte delivered was astonishing in itself, but then that I had survived the day after developing DIC (which is an acronym for a fancy term that basically means my blood wouldn’t clot and I was bleeding from everywhere) and was stable after the second surgery was nothing short of a miracle. From the second I was able to express myself, I knew this was a “God thing”, but over the next week I would learn how true that was. I had people from all over the world praying for me. The staff at Brookwood is such a Godly staff and I am blessed to have delivered there. Everyone I met was not ashamed to tell me they had prayed and would continue praying for me. Everyone that was in the operating room acknowledged that this was God’s doing and they were just instruments for His will. It also did not go unnoticed by anyone that had I delivered on the 7^th when I was scheduled, the staff at Brookwood may have been too busy to respond as fast as they did and the outcome would have been different. That had I delivered at night or on the weekend, the staff I needed (OB, cardiology, pulmonology, etc.) would have to be called in and it would take too long, and the outcome would have been different. That even if I went into labor during the day but had not been scheduled for an induction, I may have stayed at home to labor too long, and the outcome would have been different. That had I delivered at a smaller hospital, they may not have had the staff or supplies needed to handle the situation, and the outcome would have been different. It’s all a little overwhelming to think about, but no matter what, I know that everything happened according to God’s plan and I will forever be grateful He chose to use me and Charlotte as a couple of His modern-day miracles.

On Saturday, I was able to see more family, sit up more, clean up a little and put on makeup. My vitals remained stable, my organs were functioning properly, and I was able to remember what I had been told the day before. Toward the end of the day, I was able to move to a step down unit and walked to my new room. I had an audience of nurses and staff watching my journey to the new room, and they all kept saying how they couldn’t believe they were seeing this after witnessing what they did on Thursday and Friday. The best part of the day was them telling me that I would possibly be able to meet my sweet Charlotte the next day, Mother’s Day.