Please enjoy this last picture I ever took of my baby bump
To start off, I will first let all you future mamas out there know that NOTHING went according to my birth plan. I heard so many people say this and thought that wouldn't happen to me, but it did. So when you are in labor, just do whatever it takes to get baby there safe.
The Monday my water broke went just as usual. I was home while Philip went to school. That day I was 38 weeks and 3 days pregnant thinking I was FOR SURE going to go over my due date on May 4th. So I made a list of all the stuff I needed to do before she got here and had it all set up to get done in the next few days.
Philip got home from school around 8:00 p.m. and after a few minutes we decided to go over my birth plan. We even said, "let's print this tomorrow so we have it ready to go". Little did we know that in less than 24 hours we would be holding our baby girl in our arms.
We were laying in bed when Philip got up to turn off the lights in the living room and I got up to go brush my teeth around 9:30 p.m. Everyone told me that when your water breaks, it's nothing like the movies. Well, mine was like the movies! Hahahaha! The minute my feet hit the floor I felt a little trickle come out and thought that maybe I just had to pee super bad. Took a few steps and the trickle came more and then it just flooded. I was literally waddling to the bathroom yelling, "Babe! Oh my goodness. OH MY GOSH!". Phil came running in and saw me waddle to the toilet and just more water kept coming. After freaking out for a good minute we got all of our stuff (which wasn't ready to go AT ALL!) and headed straight to the hospital. Stupid me didn't even think about wearing something in case more water came out and sure enough it did before we even left our apartment complex.
In triage they checked me and I was almost to a 2 (and checking the cervix hurts like none other. Sorry to scare you, but it sucks). They didn't admit me after a good 2 hours though because me and a million other women decided to have our babies at the same time and the hospital was packed.
I tried to sleep from 12:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. but the contractions kept waking me up and kept getting worse. Around 6:00 a.m or 7:00 a.m. they checked me again and I was only to a 3. A freaking 3! I as infuriated and the nurse immediately said lets get you on pitocin. I didn't want pitocin at all. I asked them to let me mentally prepare/think about it and to come back at 8:00 a.m. I ended up taking the pitocin and those contractions were even worse. My heart goes out to all the mamas who get induced with pitocin because that drug is vicious.
I only lasted a good 40 minutes on pitocin before I begged Phil to call for the epidural (I was planning on getting an epidural from the beginning). The anesthesiologist was there so fast it was amazing. Now I don't know if it was my fear of giving birth or if it really was true, but the epidural hurt so bad. I've never felt so much pain and it wasn't even the numbing needle, but the pressure that comes after. Phil said watching me get the epidural was the worse part. Even though it hurt, it was beyond worth it. They checked me pretty soon after and I was almost to a 6. I guess that dang pitocin was doing it's job!
Right after the epidural kicked in they had me lay on my side and put a peanut ball in between my legs. If you don't know what a peanut ball is, there is a picture right below this.
I was so exhausted by this point that I fell asleep right away with this between my legs. After maybe 30 minutes (my times are probably way inaccurate!) I started to feel tons of pressure on my pelvic bone and called the nurse. She checked me again (and with the epidural you don't feel it at ALL! Epidurals are heaven sent) and I was to a 10! A 10!!!! I was so scared and excited that this was almost over. Of course I had to hurry and call Phil who was in the cafeteria eating jalapeno poppers. Hahaha and then he comes back with a huge slice of pizza! The guy is so lucky I was too tired to care.
The nurse called my doctor and had my sit up and lowered my legs so gravity could help get her down even more. In an hour the doctor was there and started to get her stuff all ready. Then it was time to push.
Pushing literally feels like you're just pooping. Hahahaha! Maybe that's just with an epidural, but it really feels like I was just pooping a big one. I pushed and pushed and we started creeping up on an hour of pushing. This is when everything became one big blur for the next 5 hours of my life. Here I was pushing a baby out of me, hearing 2-3 nurses telling me I was almost there, having my husband hold my leg and saying I can do this, and looking into the eyes of my doctor telling me the same. Suddenly though after a big push I look up to see my doctor hurry, grab a pair of scissors to do an episiotomy, grab the vacuum, and tell me to hurry and push one last big one. Marlee's heartbeat had dropped too quickly. I screamed while pushing, felt her head come out, felt her shoulders come out, and suddenly my sweet little girl was on my chest. I heard the doctor tell my husband he had to cut the cord now because we needed to get her checked out ASAP. The umbilical cord had been wrapped around her neck twice.
Not even more than 1 minute on my chest, Marlee was taken to little bed they had for her. It was such a daze and a blur. Here I am just asking my husband over and over again if she is okay. He wouldn't answer me and then I yelled, "IS SHE OKAY?!?!?" and he quietly said that she was fine. I knew he was lying by the tone of his voice. After looking at her they wrapped her up, let me hold her for just one picture, then whisked her away to the NICU.
By this time the doctor had finished stitching me up and Phil came to tell me that Marlee was covered in bruises and that even on her left foot her toes didn't grow all the way. I was so worried and so was Phil that we just sat there and cried. We didn't know what to do and we didn't know what was going to happen to Marlee. I knew she needed a blessing and told Phil to call Bishop to come and help give her one.
Our sweet Bishop was there so quickly and they went to the NICU to give Marlee a blessing. I wish I could have been there for that, but I still couldn't walk from the epidural. Phil received more answers from the nurses and doctors while in the NICU and came back to tell me what was going on. They had tested her blood and found that her platelet levels had dropped below the critical level and were only at 11,000. For any blood experts out there, you know that is way too low for platelets. So they had decided to do a blood transfusion to hopefully get her platelet levels back up. Also, she had a huge red bruise on her head from where the doctor used the vacuum and had decided she needed to get an ultrasound to make sure there was no internal bleeding. At this point I was still so out of it I didn't realize the seriousness of the situation.
Phil and Bishop also gave me a blessing and then it was time for me to move into the post-partum room. After getting up, we headed straight to the NICU so I could see Marlee.
When I first saw her all hooked up to these machines, my heart was crushed. Her poor little head was so swollen and not fully comprehending what was going on scared me. I couldn't quite believe that it was all happening so quickly. I remember sitting there holding her hand and just crying.
Later that day the nurse told us her platelets had gone up to 96,000 and that her ultrasound came back negative so she had no internal bleeding. It was a huge relief to hear that and know that she was improving.
As for her little foot where the toes didn't grow, we will be going to Phoenix Children's Hospital to run tests and see where to go from there. I personally think her tiny toes are adorable!
Marlee got better each day and her platelets just kept going up and up. She was born on a Tuesday and that Thursday was discharged. I was also discharged Thursday, but a few hours before her. Leaving the hospital without your baby is the worst feeling in the world. I don't think I ever cried so much. Phil had to keep reminding me that we were just running errands. We tidied up our house and my mom rolled into town about the same time the hospital called us and said we could go pick her up.
While Phil was feeding her right before being discharged, I left the NICU to find my mom and she happened to be talking to my doctor. My doctor told me and my mom that Marlee should have suffered from a hematoma in her head because of how low her platelet levels were. She said Marlee was a pure miracle and then pointed upward and said, "You know who to thank for this".
Marlee sure gave us one big scare, but I will always be grateful for my Heavenly Father for protecting her and answering the many prayers that were said for her. I know without a doubt that Marlee has one strong spirit and is so special. It really was a true medical miracle that she made it. I am grateful for modern medicine and the medical staff who cared for her. We love her SOOOOOO much and can't even remember our lives before she got here. She's our miracle baby :)
