Welcome Baby....

    Well as I’m sure you have figured out from my absence from blogging ,we gave birth to our baby girl! So this post will my birth story. Here we go!

                                                                             First Photo out of the womb 08/17/12
         
Ok , I should start out with a warning… This is probably going to be a rough read for some people, but it will be an honest account of Ziva’s birth and what we went through. And it may be a bit lengthy… but I’ll try to keep it from becoming a novel! Lol

Well… where to begin.. I was 29 weeks and 6 days pregnant on August 17th. On the morning of the 17th I woke up at 2:00 am. Out of nowhere I woke up with a sharp pain under my right breast. The pain shot straight back to my back. I got up and was pacing around the living room. I tried heart burn medicine, Tylenol , heating pads , Lying on the floor , massage, nothing helped at all. So I waited till about 7 am and called my really good friend Kayla ,who is also a doula and studying to be a midwife, and I told her what was going on. She said that it didn’t sound good that I should call my OB and tell them. I got off the phone with her and looked up my symptoms on the net and a few different things popped up, but none had a good outcome. Now at this point I’m a little worried … all these weird things going on with my body , but what scared me the most was Ziva’s fetal movements went from 15 to 17 times the day before, down to just 6 …. I knew enough to know that decreased fetal movement was a bad thing. So I called my triage nurse and told her what was going on. Her exact words were “ Melody , listen closely to me , you need to go to the hospital … now”. So , of course, that freaked me out… But then I was also thinking maybe she was just being cautious because of me having high blood pressure and being high risk and all , but anyway…

So I called Michael and told him everything that had transpired since he had left that morning. While quickly searching for a clean pair of clothes I explained the need to go to the hospital. He told me that he would meet me there and we’ll go from there. Thankfully the hospital is 7 minutes from my house. So I got there and went into the triage again (read last blog post-total craziness) to start the admission process.

And then… it started…..

The nurse came and took my blood pressure . It was very high. It was spiking high enough that they were getting concerned that I would have a stroke. My highest pressure ended up being 223/178.… If you know anything about high blood pressure you’d know I was bored line to having a stroke! It was by the grace of G-d that I didn’t! So they called in the lady to give me an I.V. Well She couldn’t get it . She ended up trying 5 times before she called the I.V. team from the adult ICU. So the high risk doctor came in and she said we need to do an ultrasound and check the baby and my placenta. So they took me upstairs to the Labor an Delivery room. At that point I was starting to wonder where we were going this…

So they get me in the room and the I.V. team met me in there. They tried 2 times before they got it . I was beginning to think NOBODY could get an I.V. in me. My veins had retracted because of being slightly dehydrated and my body being slightly in shock.. But the I.V team was really sweet though. Since I was a crying mess from the whole thing and from being poked 7 times , they brought me a balloon later!!! But anyhow, I was admitted around 10am ,and now its about 12:30pm . I’m just now calming down and out of nowhere my doctor walks in …(remember, im in the hospital and here comes my OB). She sits down on the side of my bed and starts explaining..

She said that I had developed “Hellp Syndrome” and that I my baby and I were not doing “so well” and we needed to take the baby .. Right now. I just stared at her and said “ are you serious…like “now” now” and she said yes .. “Like now”. I just started balling. Having the baby this early was definitely not in my birthing plan.

(For those of you who do not know what Hellp syndrome is I’ll explain.)
 HELLP syndrome is a life-threatening pregnancy complication usually considered to be a variant of preeclampsia. Both conditions usually occur during the later stages of pregnancy, or sometimes after childbirth.
H (hemolysis, which is the breaking down of red blood cells),
EL (elevated liver enzymes) and
LP (low platelet count).

So anyhow, I started crying . I could tell Michael was scared too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so ash-white. So they hooked me up to the I.V. and stated giving “MAG”. MAG is short for Magnesium Sulphate. Magnesium Sulphate is the anticonvulsant for women who have pre-eclampsia. It is used for women with a concern of eclampsia and management of an eclamptic seizures. So in a nutshell its basically a high powered ,total body muscle relaxer…. Now the sides effects of this crap were/are awful. Its like flu symptoms. Fever, body aches , headache , your veins feel like they are on fire, etc.

So, at this point, we didn’t even have time for family to be here. She said she was bumping somebody else and was taking me in their place. We were going down the hall to the O.R. at 1:45... I was freaking out. I didn’t feel well , the anxiety was getting to me and at this point I was …..all alone. So what did I do ??? I grabbed my phone and called my doula while going down the hall. The nurses looked at me funny but I was like “ I’m calling her… I’ve GOT to” … So they let me and I called Kayla back. I was crying and she said “ Calm down , you are going to be just fine. The baby is old enough to take, and Mel…If I were in your shoes I’d be doing the same thing”. Now , for whatever reason, that’s what I needed to hear. I calmed right down and dealt with the moment. Now I do have to say, there were A LOT of people praying for us so I guarantee G-d was helping me through this. Otherwise I would have been a basket-case! So they got me up on the table and I started crying again.. Guess who is TERRIFIED of needles… meeeee! So the nurse held me and let me cry in her shoulder while the anesthesiologist was putting needles in my back. So what the anesthesiologist did not know (since we ere pressed for time) is that I have scoliosis and I’m 1/4th inch shorter on my right side. I told her that and she said that unfortunately for me she was going to have to wing it because we didn’t have time for an X-ray. So as she went in to put the needle in my spine she gabbed my hip 3 times… she had to pull it out and start over. Now I could feel that even though she numbed the area… it was not a good feeling in the least. But she was a nice lady , she did her best. By the way, I would recommend a Spinal to anyone. In the grand scheme of things it wasn’t that bad. They numbed me up really good and then put up the curtain so I couldn’t see and pumped me full of morphine! My husband came in and the doctor began cutting.

It took less than 10 minutes to cut me open and pull her out. At 2:38pm ,3lb 1oz  & 14 inches long, Ziva Eden Ratliff was born!!! They immediately started to go to work on her. She was breathing on her own and was doing really well for being so premature. They swaddled her up and let me kiss her and took her away to the NICU. It made me cry. As the Dr. was sewing me up she said she had a hunch that she knew what was causing the decrease in fetal movement. So she took my placenta and sent it out for testing. She came up to my recovery room 3 days later and told me that I had developed a blood clot ( as she had thought) in my placenta. It formed right at the base of the umbilical cord and was cutting off half of the blood flow…. Because of the Hellp Syndrome and the blood clot the doctor said if I would have waited 48 hours later    ….Ziva and I would be dead….

So now.. We are in recovery. I was in recovery for 7 days .. Most C-sections are a 3 day stay ..that’s it. But because of the Hellp Syndrome my surgery was much more intense and so was its recovery. The next 4 weeks would prove to be some of the most emotional I have ever been through. From being separated from my baby , to boundaries being crossed , to fighting for the right to have my voice heard for my baby’s sake ,to learning the ins and outs of lactation! And so many more emotional hurdles. It was really rough . There were days that all I did was cry . And days that I smiled a little…. Not many though. In the next 3 weeks to follow I was re-admitted 3 more time do to my blood pressure. Hellp Syndrome can leave symptoms even after birth. Its possible to have symptoms up to 6 weeks after. I had other complications as well . My C-section incision split open and got infected… that was interesting , and then I ended up getting an infection in my intestines from something I caught in the O.R. ….. So by the time 6 weeks was over I was more than thankful to take my baby and go home. But … the most wonderful day was coming!!!!  The best day was when I walked in one morning and the nurse  practitioner came in and said “ I’ve got something to ask you , what do you think about taking Ziva home in a day or two”

I CRIED!!!!!

I was like “YES”!! So we had to pass a car seat test, heart murmur test , and a hearing test. And she did. So the next day I walked in and the doctor came and said “I think you can take her home today” I was so happy I about hugged the man! 

Now don’t get me wrong , there were so many tender moments that were shared between hubby, me, and the baby. So many in depth little loves that would make you cry. Some personal things that hubby helped me with that I will remember for a lifetime and adore him forever for. In sickness and in health took on a whole new meaning for us.

But now is our new beginning… Our little darling is home with us and we are soaking up every second of her sweet little life! Everything this little love does is soothing to my soul. Her beautiful coo’s , her bright-eyed stares.. I can’t tell you how much good it does my soul when we have our little moments. Like our “all-nighters”. Late at night, when the house is really quiet we share little quiet moments just staring into each others eyes and making memories.

Well , that was my birth story …believe it or not … that was the shorter version…all the tiny details would require and few hours of reading . And after all , this is a blog, not a novel.... :0)

                                                                        Our first bath that we gave her ^^^

                                                                        Ziva's first babysitter Nurse Emily

                                                                               First bottle as a big girl

                                                                              So sad... so many tubes and wires ^^