Hi Ladies!!

 

It feels so good to write all of this down and walk you through what we went through prior to Eloise’s birth! Just a heads up this is going to be LONNGGG post. But truly it is such a story of The Lord and how He works everything out perfectly in His timing that I do not want to spare any details!

• I want to start off by saying without our OB paying attention to every single detail and being so thorough Eloise would not be here safe and sound like she is now, we are forever grateful for her.

Back when we had our 20 week ultrasound the doctor saw that Eolise’s stomach looked a little enlarged, so she said most likely it was that she had simply swallowed too much amniotic fluid and it was no big deal. I cried and did tons of research for about 24 hours ( you never like to hear something is wrong with your baby). The nurse in me was worried about everything under the sun.  After making myself sick for almost a full day I decided I totally just had to give it to the Lord and let it go until our next scan at 24 weeks.

24 week scan – Her belly was completely normal but now they saw that my placenta was too low for vaginal delivery,  if it stayed low C section was going to be our next step. So now I had to get another ultrasound at 32 weeks. I honestly wasn’t too worried because baby girl was totally healthy and fine, it didn’t matter to me how we got  her here as long as she was safe.

32 week scan – At this point we are a little over the ultrasounds, it’s something you look forward to when you find out you’re pregnant but it just felt like with every ultrasound there was something else we were watching and going to have to re-scan for in a few weeks. At this scan my placenta was in a great spot but my amniotic fluid was a little on the low side …. you guessed it scan at next visit. At this visit we were told they like the fluid between 8-18 and my was between 6 and 7. Our doctor told me to drink TONS of water (like 2 -3 liters a day). Hence why my dad showed up with all the water in the grocery store and dropped it off on our door step, he’s so sweet!

35 week scan – I hadn’t worried too much about the fluid because I knew I had been drinking so much water it was nuts. I was starting to swell in my face, in my legs but looking back I should have been more aware that she was moving much less then normal (all due to low atomic fluid). Literally the night before this appointment we finished the wallpaper in the nursery.

At this appointment we had our favorite ultrasound tech and we love her so much. Once she started the scan, it was clear things weren’t as good as we wanted them to be. We were measuring at 3 on our amniotic fluid. They didn’t even have us go to the waiting room we just went straight back to our room. I was hysterical because I knew our fluid was low but had no idea what the future steps would look like for us, but I had stomach full of knots.

I just need to add our OB is the MOST thorough MD I have even had and it is because she made us get scan after scan that Eloise is alive and well. We are forever indebted to her and LOVE her more than words. She came in and told us that we should go home and pack bags. She had made us an appointment at the specialist for 3:30 that afternoon and wanted them to take closer look at the fluid. She had us pack bags thinking we “might” be admitted but she didn’t know what they would say.

I am not going to lie, I looked at Brittany (Loverlygreys) Blog post on what to pack for the hospital and I went on Pinterest to see what everyone said were must have items to take to the hospital. We packed bags as fast as we could and went to the specialist apt. After they scanned us, we got the results that our fluid was really down to 3 and to our surprise they wanted us to be admitted right then until we had the baby, which at this point we thought was still 5 weeks away. So we called all our family and told them that we were probably in the hospital for the foreseeable future until we had the baby…..which is not what we woke up that day thinking was going to happen.

The following day I got on stories and talked with y’all and gave a brief update that our fluid was low and we were admitted….and that was pretty much all we knew. We were admitted to the high risk pregnancy wing but were probably the most stable patients up there. I wasn’t on bedrest and we could come and go as we pleased. There were so many women up there who were on full bedrest and had been there for months, it definitely made me count my blessings.

Friday morning, March 3rd, no on had told us that at 7 am we had an ultrasound (we just knew it would be sometime that day). Andrew and I were both sound asleep and we hear a knock on the door. They wheel us down first thing and do another ultrasound to check on my fluid. At this point because the fluid was so low my OB was hoping that we could make it to 36 weeks (which would be Monday) and they could induce me and I would be able to have a vaginal birth. Well at this ultrasound the tech wasn’t saying a whole lot and before the specialty doctor could even come in my OB called me on my cell phone to tell us the news. We had ZERO amniotic fluid left. Writing this just now gave me chills everywhere. I still remember hearing this thinking WHAT DO WE DO NOW and feeling terror. That honestly is the only word to describe it…..terror. There is a such a lack of control that you have, I just burst into tears. The plan then became we need to do a C section within an hour, your going back to your room to get prepped, call you family now. One doctor literally described it to us saying “it’s like she is trapped in a plastic bag and we need to get her out now.” Hearing that made my heart stop and I am crying my eyes out right now even still thinking of how Eloise must have felt.

The part that was a struggle for me was that my personal OB wouldnt be doing the C section, we had such a special connection with her but she called again and had already spoken to the doctors for us and was our biggest advocate. Within an hour we were wheeled downstairs and being prepped for surgery. Mine and Andrew’s entire family passed the phone and prayed for us on speaker.

A fun fact that you might not know is I work at the Children’s Hospital directly across the street from where I was delivering. The doctors that I have worked with for the past 6 years made all the calls to their buddies at Northside. We had doctors coming in left and right saying they got a call from someone at CHOA (Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, were I work) and they are taking care of us. This brought so much peace. Another doctor called a Respiratory Therapist that I have worked with for years who picks up shifts at the Northside and she took our case and was Eloise’s Respiratory therapist during the C section.

The last way God brought us so much comfort during this time was one of my co workers from the PICU had gone on to CRNA school and now was working OB at Northside. She texted me and said   ” Why is your name of the surgical board at Northside?”……she ended up coming in and taking our case and did my anesthesia during the surgery……LITERALLY God sent people from everywhere to comfort and provide care. It was so overwhelming.

While laying there getting ready for the C section I kept says Exodus 14:14 “The Lord with defend you, you need only be still”

From here it is pretty calm, sweet baby girl was born at 12:30, weighed 4 lbs 7 oz. Because she was so small they took her to what is called “Transition” — it is a step below the NICU. Her initial blood sugar was 28 so they were taking care of that and we ended up not getting to see her for about 7 hours which was the absolute hardest part. Once we got her I never wanted to let her go. We are so thankful for every single person who reached out in prayer and was thinking of us. It was such a time of feeling out of control and having to have faith over fear and trust that the Lord would take care of us and He did in BIG ways.

 

Side note- They think that my placenta overly calcified too quickly and stopped producing amniotic fluid. No one is really sure and it was sent of for studies, but we may never fully know why I stopped making fluid.

Thank you for reading … if you made it this far you are amazing! Thank you for your prayers over our family and being a part of our lives.

 

xoxoxo

Mary Margaret