At 32 weeks they determined through ultrasound that Erin was breech. She could not flip because my amniotic fluid level was extremely low. After being on an IV for 5 days, they figured that my placenta was overworked and was giving up. I was disappointed that I was going to have a c-section. I wanted everything to be "normal". I wanted to go into labor, I wanted Warren to drive me to the hospital in a panic, and yes, I even wanted to go through the entire painful experience. Little did I know, that having a c-section was the least of my problems.
The nurse informed us, "We're going to take you and your husband back to the Operating Room. We are going to deliver your baby, clean her up a little, wrap her in a blanket and hand her to you. Then we will take her and your husband back to the nursery so that the pediatrician can exam her." Unfortunately those plans had failed as well. This is the actual, not sugar coated, story of Erin Rose.
The first four spinals had failed, so they gave me an epidural thankfully, so I could not feel anything but them moving my belly around. All the sudden I hear her. The sweetest cry in the World. I couldn't help but to cry at the sound. I was speechless. So were the doctors. All the sudden someone says, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" in a panicked voice. Then all the sudden the pediatrician and 5 or 6 nurses run into the operating room. I responded, "What is going on, is everything ok?" and Warren says, "I thought the pediatrician was suppose to meet us in the nursery" One of the nurses appears from around the sheet. She says, "Her skin is" she pauses trying to come up with the words to tell us, "Not the color it needs to be." So my first thought is jaundice. "Ok, jaundice" I think to myself, "That's not horrible I guess, Warren and I had jaundice, and so did my brother and sisters." Then the nurse tells us that we need to call both of our parents right away and ask them if port wine stains run in either of our families. So Warren pulls out his cell phone and immediately dials his mother and mine. Since everyone is in a panic he's trying to hurry the conversations. Accidentally, not informing our mothers that, yes, the baby is born.
Warren informs the nurse that no one in either family has port wine stains. At that moment I hear the peditrician and nurses say to eachother, "70 percent of her skin is affected", "It can't be port wine stains, her skin is falling off." They take her out of the operating room, Warren follows suit. All I could think of was, this is the part of the nightmare where I wake up......anytime now......
Its scary when your laying there and theres nothing you can do. When all you want to do is take your child into your arms and make all the bad go away.
ReplyDelete