Our baby(ies) story: Pt 1

Although I have written about my days in the ICU, I have never told the story of the delivery and my "crash," so here it is.

I had a very uneventful pregnancy until 23 weeks (except for some ultrasonic markers that indicated R might have Downs syndrome, but that is another post for another day). I worked until I was 22 weeks pregnant, then at my perinatologist visit the following week I was placed on home bedrest due to a shortening cervix. One week later, a follow up appointment revealed that my cervix was still shortening/effacing and I was having contractions. I was admitted to the High Risk Perinatal Unit at Northside Hospital for the remainder of my pregnancy (8 more weeks).

I was blessed to have a fairly uneventful experience there...no real scares once I was stabilized. I was placed on a Terbutaline pump. This allowed a drug to be continuously administered to my body to keep the contractions at bay and allow my little ones to gestate as long as possible.

Around 31 weeks there were changes in my liver numbers and other lab results that concerned my doctors. K's amniotic fluid was getting low and my body was starting to display signs of the stress of the pregnancy. After another round of steroid shots to strengthen the babies' lungs and an ultrasound that determined they were all at or above 4 lbs, my T-pump was removed so nature could take its course. I was told this could take hours or days. My labor intensified overnight. The next morning, around 7am the OB decided it was "Baby Day." I get chillbumps just typing that phrase...I was excited, relieved and terrified.

I paged my husband, who was already at work making rounds in our town (an hour and a half from the hospital where I was), and let him know I had OR time scheduled at 12:30 that day. May 26, 2004 was Baby Day.
to be continued