September 10th 1996 started out as any normal day. I knew that I was close to going into labor, but did not feel as though it was that day. Around 4 in the afternoon, I started to feel some small contractions. My neighbor had come over to visit, and she quickly ran home to make me a tea. She told me to walk around the block and that it would help. Pretty soon, everyone on my block knew that I may be going into labor, and all the kids from the neighborhood were walking around the block with me. After a couple of hours, we called my OB and he recommended that we head to the hospital.
Sierra Vista is about an hour away from Douglas, so we informed our family, and just Sal and I left. When we arrived, the nurse that was helping me was so nice, and she quickly connected me to the fetal monitor. By then, the pain was getting worse, but I was showing no signs of dialating. My water was intact, and the Dr. felt that it was false labor. I was instantly scared, the pain was so bad, that I was nervous. If this pain was false labor, what would real labor feel like. My nurse was not comfortable sending me home. She saw how much pain I was in. She said she would take her time filling out discharge paperwork as to give me some time. After about an hour, she finally couldn't wait any longer. We had decided to get a hotel rather than make the drive back home in the middle of the night. When I sat up to get off the bed, my water broke.
She immediately ran to get a test strip. Her instinct was right, something was not right. My water was not clear, it was dirty. The test strip confirmed that there was meconium in the fluid and that Kassie was in distress. Immediately things went from normal to bad. Since I was still connected to the fetal monitor, you could hear Kassie's heart beating steadily. Then, once my water broke, and I started to have contractions, her heart would slow down, and then come to a complete stop. The doctors did not think this was really happening, thinking that I was moving too much and causing a false read.
They ordered an internal fetal monitor which could accurately measure her heartbeat. Sure enough, once I had a contraction, the same thing was happening. They tried multiple things to help her. Nothing was working. I had my eyes closed for most of the time, because my contractions were not giving me a break. They gave me a medication in my IV to stop my contractions. When they stopped, I opened my eyes, and there were at least 15 nurses and doctors in my room. When I looked at Sal, his eyes were red and swollen, I knew something was wrong.
I was wheeled out of the room straight to the OR for an emergency C-section. All I could do was pray. As I laid there waiting for this surgery, I couldn't help but have visions of coming home empty handed. It was as if I was dreaming, but the dream was so clear. Walking into her nursery, and no baby to lay in the crib. I tortured myself with that vision for what seemed like hours.
The doctors were fast, and within minutes, I was being cut into. I was very aware of what was going on. I could feel the pulling and tugging, but no pain. Sal was by my side watching the whole thing. When Kassie was born, he looked and said. "She's here." I waited for a cry, but nothing. They took her and immediately started clearing out all of the meconium from her mouth and nose. It took a while before she finally cried. They took her and barely gave me a glance. There was no laying her on my chest for me to examine. I didn't have the chance to count her fingers and toes. She was gone. Sal went with Kassie and I was left there to pray and hope that she would be ok. I kept her little face in my head. For the second I saw her, I knew that she was not a healthy pink color. She was purple/blue. I later found out that it was because of the lack of oxygen.
As I sat in recovery I could not get the vision of this limp baby being taken away from me. It took a while for them to come in and tell me that she was doing great, and that they were just doing all of the necessary tests on her.
About an hour later, I was wheeled back to my room, and I anxiously waited for my princess to meet me. They handed me this perfect little girl all swaddled and she was now a pretty pink color. She looked right at me, and it looked like she had blue eyes. I immediately unwrapped her, and she was perfect. She had a small red birth mark on her forehead, and when I asked the nurse about it, she told me it was a stork bite. We laughed as her dad said he wanted to find that stork for biting his little girl.
For two days straight, Kassie had endless visitors at the hospital. She was a social butterfly from day one. From one person to another, she was never not being held. She slept well, and was such a great baby.
When we finally made it home, I thanked god for lending her to us and letting us bring her home. She was everything we had wanted and more.
I want to end this post with a disclaimer and make sure and clarify that I DO NOT place any blame on the hospital staff where Kassie was born. Based on articles and research that I have done, there is a possibility that Kassie's learning disability could have come about at birth, based on the fact that she lacked oxygen during my labor with her. It is not something that I have pursued, or even plan to. Like the title of this blog claims....she is perfect to me. I give nothing but praise for the fast acting nurses and doctors that were able to deliver her and helped us take home that pink little bundle.
No comments:
Post a Comment