Evelyn's Birth Story- The Long Version

*I realize some of these details mean nothing and seem silly, but I want to write every bit down as I remember my last day with Evie. So that's why it's called The Long Version. :)  

 Late on a Sunday night, January 18th, 2015, I was laying in bed, pretty restless, while my husband was getting some work done in the other room. I suddenly realized that the slight wet feeling was not in my imagination after all, but was real, as proven by the wet spot on the sheets (I know, gross way to start a story! Sorry. That's just the way the story goes.)

I gingerly got up, trying to stay calm, all the while knowing (but somehow pretending not to know) that my water had broken at 31 weeks as my LBWC friends had warned me would likely happen. I went into the office and got Liam's attention, and said calmly, "Don't freak out, but..." and of course I see the panic rise up in his eyes right away. "But... one of two things has happened. Either I wet the bed... or my water broke.... so I'm going to call the doctor now. Don't. Freak. Out." My hands were shaking, and I called my doctor's office. The on-call doctor, who had been flippant in my previous encounters with her, insisted that I leave right away for the hospital, so I knew it was serious.

I vividly remember standing in my bedroom, looking at Liam, and wondering what to take with me. The house was a mess- ironically, I had planned to spend the next day, Martin Luther King Day, cleaning the house, packing a hospital bag, and finishing up my interim lesson plans for school. I felt like my brain was trudging through mud. "Well... I guess I should wear... pants?" Liam agreed that pants were a good idea. I knew somewhere deep in my heart that this was THE trip to the hospital, and I had a vague recollection of all the hospital packing lists I had pinned, but I just couldn't wrap my head around it. So Liam (remarkably calm, although not without great effort) ushered me to the car with nothing more than the clothes I had on (which DID include pants) and several copies of the ultrasound report, which Dr. A very wisely suggested I bring with me to any emergency room visit.

  The 30 minute-or-so ride to the hospital was incredibly peaceful. We were on a normally very busy highway, but at around one in the morning, naturally it was empty. At some point we called both our parents, and told them we would update them as we learned more. We drove through the dark with no radio, holding hands and laughing, truly at peace and happy. It was incredible.

*I guess I should clarify that because of the nature of the birth defect, I knew ahead of time I would have a c-section. I also wasn't having any contractions, so that helped contribute to my peaceful state of mind.

 We went in through the emergency room entrance, as our doctor instructed, and told the women behind the desk that my water had broken. "Oh no!" she said. "You can't wait here. We'll take you to the OB wing." I thought it was funny that the ER nurses, who probably see severed limbs and gunshot wounds fairly routinely, were freaked out at the thought of someone giving birth in the waiting room.

  When I arrived at the OB wing and they started asking me the routine questions, I told the nurses right away that my baby was different, handed them my packet of information from Dr. A, and briefly explained a bit of my situation, and that Evelyn was diagnosed as incompatible with life (but not love! <3 ). They didn't do a very good job masking their shock and horror, but I pretended not to notice. Thank goodness Dr. A had thought to give me the ultrasound report. Having to fully explain to those nurses the extent of Evelyn's difficulties might have put me over the edge.

 They strapped monitors to me to check on Evelyn, and they had a hard time getting them to sit just right to hear her heartbeat. It was comforting to hear her little heart thumping along like nothing was wrong, but it stressed me out to wear the monitor. I was constantly waiting for her heart to stop. I was oddly relieved when they told me I could take the monitor off, and I could just trust that she was fine. At one point one of the nurses referred to me as "Mom." That was really cool to hear!

At this point, I was still riding the high of, "We finally get to hold our baby!" Liam and I were nervous, but still so happy. We can hear some woman down the hall in obvious pain, and I laughed and said "I'm glad I don't feel like that right now!" (Way worse physical pain was to come. C-sections are no joke.) Looking back, I have no clue why I was so carefree. I can only assume that it was the supernatural power of God to shield both of us from dwelling on the sad part of the story. I was fully aware that I was going to have to say goodbye to Evelyn, but at the same time, I was SO relieved that she had made it far enough to be born alive! Stillbirth was a real risk, so much so that I went to the doctor weekly to hear the heartbeat. My dream was to get to hold her alive, and it looked like it was really going to happen!

After many (uncomfortable) tests, they determined that my water really had broken, and that given the circumstances, the best course of action would be a c-section first thing in the morning. I agreed- I didn't want to put it off, and risk not meeting Evelyn alive. Thankfully, by divine intervention, all the doctors I were familiar with were able to be there for the birth. Dr. W (my high risk OB), the NICU doctor I had met, and the perinatal hospice nurse were all already scheduled that day. Dr. A didn't have privileges at that hospital and I knew she wouldn't be there, but I felt good knowing someone promised to keep her in the loop, and later she sent flowers. (Can I just say that I LOVED all my doctors? So many ladies in my position have had horrible experiences with their doctors. I loved every single one- even the pro-choice ones. They were so supportive, and treated Evelyn with such dignity).

Around 4 in the morning, they gave me a room, set Liam up with some sheets on the pull-out recliner, and told us to get some rest because they would be coming to wake me up at 6 (ha). Liam fell asleep immediately- husbands can sleep through anything! I, of course, lay awake staring at the ceiling in total disbelief.

*I haven't even gotten to the birth yet- do you see why this is called the long version?

At 6 AM, I was prepped for surgery that (of course) got pushed back. At some point I know my mom came in to see me, and I know my dad and sister and in-laws were there too, although I don't remember seeing them, so maybe they stayed in the waiting room? (Sorry, family. This is where it gets fuzzy.)

  I remember the anesthesiologist came to talk to me, and she had kind of an earth-mother vibe with huge glasses that reminded me of Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter. (Google it- it's worth it). Talking to her was interesting, because I could kind of sense that she thought I was a little looney for going through with this instead of ending my pregnancy earlier (when clearly, she was the looney one with the hilariously enormous glasses).

After she had dutifully listed all the worst-case scenarios (but really, the worst case was already real), they wheeled me down toward the operating room in a wheelchair, and Liam put on the blue scrubs. The nurses told us that they would take pictures for us, so we handed one of them his phone and I told them that I needed a picture of how cute he looked in his scrubs. I love that picture now- it's the "before" picture.

They let us pick out the music in the OR, so I told them to put on the "Classical Music for Studying" station on Pandora. It's my go-to happy place music.

They graciously let Liam stay and hold me still while they put the enormous needle in my back. I was shaking so badly now that the moment was here; the room seemed huge and full of scary lights and equipment and way, way too many people. I tried not to look at anyone or anything I didn't know, and just focused on Liam.

As I was laying on the table, and things were swirling around me, I was vaguely aware of the instrumental music in the background. It was a violin cover of something that seemed incredibly familiar... then one of the nurses hesitantly asks, "Is that... Nirvana?" It SO was. So, my dear Evie, when you talk to the other babies in heaven that were brought into the world to something lame and predictable, you can tell all the other kids that you were listening to an instrumental version of Smells Like Teen Spirit. Because I think you'd be rock and roll like that. <3

  After I had gotten the epidural, they pinched my skin to see if I was numb. My right side was, but my left side SUPER wasn't. They gave me another one, but I still wasn't numb quite as far up on my left side as my right. They decided that was as good as it was going to get without knocking me out (and I was NOT going to let that happen) so up went the blue curtain and things got started.

Laying on the table with my arms splayed out, I tried to be as patient as I could. I was aware that Liam was sitting to my right and squeezing my hand, and I could see the nurse anesthetist pop her head into my line of vision to ask if I was okay every few minutes, but other than that, I just tried to imagine the most peaceful thing I could to try to remove myself from the situation until Evelyn was born.

Eventually (I have no clue how long it took), Dr. W said, "You're going to feel some tugging here," and I knew that she was almost here.  She wasn't kidding about the tugging (that was not fun) and then someone said something that let me know Evelyn was here in the world. They took her over to a table away from me to check her out (as per my request- if there was anything they could do for her, I wanted it done!) and they waved Liam over immediately. She was silent. He looked at me to see if I was all right, and I told him to "GO!" It was a flurry of people over there, so I had no clue what was going on. About that time, I was in a lot of pain, and felt incredibly hot and nauseous, but I was trying to ignore it to see what was going on with Evie. I don't know how much time had passed, but Liam eventually carried her over towards me, wrapped up in a sweet little blanket.

Now, I feel like I've done a pretty good job describing what has happened so far, but you're going to have to use your imagination for this next part because words cannot describe the amount of love in that room. My worst fear was that she wasn't alive, but I don't remember if I actually asked the question or not. Liam lowered her down near my head, and I could see that she was so, so little, and straining to open her eyes just a crack, and she was ALIVE and absolutely the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

It took a long time for them to finish up on the other side of the blue curtain, but when they put me on the stretcher to wheel me into recovery and placed her into my arms, I remember feeling so proud. Like, someone is letting me hold this sweet thing?? Are you sure you trust me with her?? I was beaming at everyone in the hallway. I was holding the greatest physical treasure on Earth.

She weighed 2.5 lbs and was 11 1/2 inches long, just an itty bitty little girl. She arrived with beautiful red hair and looked so peaceful for the entire hour and a half she was alive. The pictures we have from that time are the most treasured things I own.

The days and months that followed were more dark than I ever could have imagined or could describe, but thank you, Jesus, that her birth is completely unadulterated joy in my mind. I cannot imagine having to endure the pain of losing her without the joy of her birthday to balance it out, and I know that our reunion in heaven is going to be far better.