Lilly was scheduled to be induced at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, July 4, 2010. (Her due date of June 17 was well past.) I was dreading that so Lilly apparently took pity on me. At 3:39 a.m. I suddenly jolted awake with a contraction. I waited to be sure what that was and then when I felt the next one (6 minutes later) I jumped up and told my husband we were leaving and we'd call the midwife on the way.
I know that is not the norm - you're supposed to stay home, time contractions and all. But my labor and delivery of my son was only about 3.5 hours total and so my midwife was concerned about us all making it in time to the hospital for this one.
Thankfully there was no traffic and we made the usually 55 minute drive in record time. My contractions were amazingly manageable. (I credit drinking red raspberry tea to this.) We got to use "stork parking" at the hospital. But still my husband had to go back outside to look at our license plate to fill out the form. Then a walk to another floor. At check in there I had to answer a bunch of questions and sign a form. (So much different than the birthing center where you can just go in and have your baby!) Next we went to our room. And then another nurse started asking me lots of questions. I had to keep stopping to breathe through a contraction and admit I was feeling rather irritated. Why hadn't they asked me those questions in advance? This seemed to be the worst timing.
Then my midwife M. rushed in thankful that she made it in time. I was still feeling OK overall and didn't think I was ready yet. But then a few minutes later - wham. Lilly was delivered naturally in the breech position.
When Lilly was first born she was pale and so still. They laid her on me and covered us with a warm blanket. My husband and M. watched with tears in their eyes. M. put her hand on me and said "we'll keep praying and see what happens." Then she and the nurses left us alone with Lilly.
Suddenly, an hour later, Lilly started crying. Excitement filled the place and things became more normal. Lilly was taken to be cleaned up and weighed and all those normal baby things. She was deemed too small to breastfeed so we got a small bottle. Lilly took it with gusto. Her coloring was great. More joy. The morning sunrise was beautiful and there was so much life in Lilly.
Then a few hours later we were allowed to take Lilly home! Highly unusual to skip the required 24 hour stay. But, since the doctors didn't give her much hope, we were allowed to hurry her home to meet her siblings.
Praise God.
Four days later, a photographer from Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep came to take pictures of Lilly with our family. Beautiful, sweet pictures. This group offers free pictures to families with babies that aren't supposed to live long. Our photographer, who has a special needs son of his own, did such good work that we have hired him to come back. And we look forward to marking Lilly's one-year birthday with another photo shoot. :) If you live in our area I highly recommend Steve Rubin. http://www.steverubinphotography.com/
Two days after that, we thought we were going to loose Lilly. That afternoon she suddenly started having either seizures or apnea. Her whole body went rigid, her eyes rolled back, and her skin turned blue as she stopped breathing. Then after what seemed like eternity she would gasp and start breathing. Her skin was a ghastly color. This happened at least 6 times. My husband had to blow on her nose and mouth to get her to start breathing during a couple of the episodes. We sent out a frantic prayer request. Then about 30 minutes after that, the episodes stopped. And she's never had one since.
Lilly was born on Independence Day and she's proved to be our Little Firecraker!
Hey, Lilly, I talked about that in "Living With Lilly!" - I mean - the "epsodes" as Mamma called it.
ReplyDeleteYou know, when you turned blue.