Lightening can strike twice....

    It was not until I joined the community of baby loss, that I realized how true this is.  I have known too many that have suffered tragedies, not once, but twice, and sadly sometimes more.  I surely felt protection that night as we were blissfully unaware that anything was wrong.

    I had been in labor for two days, contracting strongly but not close enough together to warrant a trip to L&D.  So I went to bed only to wake up the next morning picking up were I had left off the day before.  Contractions coming about every 15-20 minutes apart.  My husband began to insist that we go to the hospital just to get checked out, but I didn't want to go, only to be sent home.  I asked him if I could walk to see if they would come closer, so for a walk we went.  At around 4 pm my contractions were about 8 minutes apart, so I finally agreed to go and get checked out.  When we arrived the floor was packed and they didn't have enough nurses to even see me in triage right away.  By the time they got me on the monitors my contractions had spaced out to twelve minutes apart.  I just knew that wouldn't keep me and I had already resigned myself to going home.  The nurse came in and checked me, told me I was 3cm but not having contractions close enough together to warrant keeping me.  She told me to walk the hospital for an hour and come back at 6:30 to see if I had made any progress.  After an hour walk I had managed to get my contractions to 6 minutes apart.  I went back up stairs and they put me back on the monitors, I was contracting every eight minutes at this point, the nurse checked me and to her surprise I had dilated to 4. Still with contractions not close enough together to consider me in "active" labor.  Then it was shift change.


    I knew that with it being as busy as it was, and with my doctor not being on call that day, that I was going to be sent home.  My new nurse came in, an older more seasoned nurse.  She checked the monitor, checked my cervix and then left the room.  She came back and told me that she had spoken with the doctor on call and that she really felt that they should keep me, and the doctor said okay.  I couldn't believe we were actually being admitted.  Once they got me to my room. put in my I.V, and had me fill out paperwork I began contracting every 5 min, then every 3.  My husband went down stairs to give my parents some things for the kids only to come back and find me getting an epidural.  I was now dilated to 6 and feeling much relief.  In fact at one point I had asked the nurses if they could turn my epidural down because I couldn't feel anything!  They kind of snickered at me and then within minutes I told them I was feeling lots of pressure.  I was dilated to 9 with just a little bit of cervix left.  They called the doctor and the nurses began to fill the room , the heater that I had been staring at all night was on and prepared for the living baby I was about to deliver.  There was such a surreal feeling in the room that night as my husband and I watched everyone go into delivery mode and prepared for the arrival of our baby.  It was time to push, and with two contractions, he entered this world with a robust cry and I instantly fell in love.  I sent my husband over to warmer to make sure everything was okay with baby.  The doctor waited patiently for my placenta to make it's way out, and within minutes It was out and I was done.  She looked at my placenta with a look of fear and relief.  She then turned to me and said, "I am glad we didn't send you home, your placenta had already began detaching itself, there was a clot the size of your baby's head on the outside of your placenta were it attaches to the uterus."  "You're lucky mom." If only she knew......


      After all the excitement in the room dwindled down, my husband and I were left all alone with our little miracle, thanking God that He had saved this little one. We couldn't believe how close we had almost come to losing another child.  I'm not sure what would have happened if we hadn't gone to the hospital when we did, if we hadn't had the nurse we had that insisted on keeping us.  She came to our room later that night to see the baby and I thanked her with tears in my eyes for keeping us and that it saved my babies life.

     Not a day goes by that I don't feel blessed for all I have, and that even in losing Nathan, I have so much to be thankful for.