So Monday night we are sitting at the kitchen table and I look to Charlie and say "Are you excited?" He says "Yes, but you take all the excitement out of things." I said "What does that mean"...Well he says, "You have everything planned out and have everything done so it's hard to be super excited, but of course I'm still excited."
He really should have watched what he said because 24 hours later, I was asking him in the middle of my c-section if this was enough excitement for him.
So, let's back up a little. Tuesday morning, I wake up and Mary is not her active little self. Monday she was super active so I thought maybe she was just tired. We do our normal morning routine and off to work and school we all go. Sitting at my desk all morning, I notice she is still kind of sluggish but I just keep going. I had a meeting at 11am going over all my duties and who needs to do what while I am out. After the meeting, I'm still not really feeling her and I debate calling the doctor.
Before I call the doctor I check in with my go to girls for all my questions, both my sister in laws. They both tell me to call the doctor for peace of mind. I then call Charlie and he tells me to call too. Of course I call while the office is closed and hesitate to leave a message but I do. The doc on call calls back and tells me to go directly to the office. I run out of my office telling everyone I will see them on Thursday and no worries, I will be back.
Charlie meets me at the Doctor's office and we go into to see the doc. No protein, my blood pressure is good and Mary's heartbeat sounds beautiful but they want me to head to labor and delivery to have a non stress test and an ultrasound. She just kept saying just in case there is something we can't see and I am sure everything is fine.
Off to L&D we go. We register and they put me into a room, but not just any room, the same room I delivered Henry in, lucky #13. They hook me up to the non stress test and Charlie and I just sit and joke about how crazy it would be if we delivered again in that room in Feb. Everything looks good with her heart rate and I am taking for the ultra sound.
I had the tech check to make sure Mary was still a "Mary" and sure enough she was. After the ultra sound we are sent back to room #13. A nurse comes in and says I'm not sure if we are suppose to hook you back up but I guess I will. Then something weird happened and she kind of just stared at the machine. She left and then my doc came in. Apparently, Mary's rate fell into the 60's and was taking too long to go back up but that everything else looked great but we needed to go and have another ultrasound because now they want to check the cord and the placenta.
Back downstairs to see the ultrasound tech and then back upstairs to the room to wait for more results. At this time it is getting late and we had to make plans for Henry. Thank goodness Melissa was able to help us out. At this point I was told there was a chance I would stay the night but maybe not. My doctor was leaving and walked out with Charlie telling him, I'm sure everything will be ok but we just need to keep watching her because what they saw they didn't like.
Another 30/45 minutes pass and the doctor on call comes in. About five minutes earlier a nurse comes in and starts asking me some questions. I look at Charlie and say to him - I don't think I'm leaving, those questions she was asking are not leaving questions. The doc looks at us and says everything looks great BUT the radiologist said her cord ratio is 4:5 and it should be 1:2. This means Mary is not getting enough oxygen and there is a chance the cord is wrapped around her neck. She tells us that it was a divine intervention that the nurse put the monitor back on when she did because we might not have caught this. I could have been sent home and come back and the outcome could have have been a still birth.
Well, now I think Charlie and I look like ghosts and are in complete shock. She then tells us, we have two options, they can start to induce me or we can do a c-section. The induction would start and probably give birth the next day but there is a chance that would put too much stress on her and I would probably still need to have the c-section. Charlie and I discussed and decided with the c-section option because we didn't want anymore stress put on her.
Charlie asked if he could go home and the doctor said "No, we are delivering this baby in the next hour." I'm pretty sure I started to cry and almost fell off the bed. The next 30 mins are a blur. I had nurses hooking me hoop, doctors coming in, iv's being put in and Charlie was getting dressed into his scrubs. We were trying to contact family as quickly as we could because we were having Mary soon.
My mind is racing...a c section, this is happening to someone who has never been in the hospital except to give birth to Henry. I had no clue what was going on. The room was ice cold but the doctors and nurses were the best. They were calm and that made me calm and before we knew it Mary was here.
The doctor came over, brushed my head and said you two made the right decision. She then talked to Charlie and told him, me being so aware that she was not moving saved her life. She thinks that Mary was tiny because she was already feeling the effects of not getting enough oxygen and that this all could have had a bad ending if we did not call that morning.
So, that is the story of Mary and how she came into our lives three weeks and two days early. We are in love and our family is complete, not much more we could ask for.