On my way out of the building, I was guided by quite the entourage - two EMTs, two police officers, and our doorman Trevor who was looking a little gray. As they loaded me onto the ambulance, they decided to spend some time debating the best route(men, amiright?) before closing the doors and securing them. I was in the back of the ambulance with one of the EMTs whose name I can't remember, but what I do remember was him saying, "You'll be my first birth!" Not exactly what you want to hear, but I was glad that he seemed hopeful.
It's interesting how quickly one's hopes and desires can change based on circumstances. I went from being sad but accepting of a c-section to desperately wanting one to happen as soon as possible when I was being wheeled out of the apartment building because I felt that that was the only way the baby would have any chance of surviving. The faster the better. If I could have convinced the EMT to complete the c-section right then and there in the ambulance using a penknife, I 100% would have. As it was, he asked me a lot of questions about myself, the pregnancy and I tried really hard to see if I could feel the baby moving. I was pretty sure that I did feel some movement at one point but I told myself it could have been the crappy paving on any one of a number of Brooklyn Heights sidestreets.
When we arrived at Brooklyn Hospital(the hospital that no one has ever heard of or knows how to get to), they unloaded me in the ambulance bay and I was rushed into triage. It felt just like the show ER - doctors surrounding the gurney, asking questions of the EMTs but not necessarily of me. Once I was in triage, they had me take off my clothes and while one doctor inspected my cervix, the nurse began to perform a sonogram. The moments before the image popped up on the screen were some of the longest of my life. I just kept asking, "Can you see the baby? Is the baby okay?" and the doctors kept saying, "We're looking, we're looking." Finally, they showed me Seth on the screen and assured me that his heart rate was normal. I felt an incredible wave of relief wash over me. Then Gail, one of the nurses, put the heartbeat monitor on my belly and I could hear his heartbeat reverberate throughout the room. This provided a good amount of reassurance until I couldn't hear it and then I started screaming "I can't hear it!" like a crazy person. Fortunately, Gail was so kind and from there on out made sure that the heartbeat monitor was optimally positioned.
When the doctor inspected my cervix, he determined that I was dilated and I was also experiencing contractions. While I wasn't bleeding anymore(hurray!) and the baby's heartbeat was strong(double hurray!) they decided to move ahead with the emergency c-section due to the labor and the fact that I was 34 weeks. There was a significant lack of communication happening between the doctors and me, and while normally this would have bothered me, I was HIGHLY eager to give this baby the ejector seat as I couldn't help feeling like my womb was not the safest place for a baby to be given the massive hemorrhage. This eagerness was also what led to me being totally okay with the full Brazilian that a nurse gave me(not really medically necessary).
The head ob/gyn on call was already wrist deep in removing someone else's baby, but my doctor was very concerned about getting the baby out sooner rather than later so he kept sending nurses to let the doctor know that he was needed. After about 20 minutes in triage, they began to wheel me into the operating room. They said that we didn't have time for an epidural so they would be giving me general anesthesia which meant a)I wouldn't be awake when the baby was born and b)no skin to skin time. These were two of my stipulations for my planned c-section that were now being taken away. Again, didn't care because JUST GET THE BABY OUT ALIVE. The last thing I remember before going under was the nurse putting a brown substance previously only seen on Grey's Anatomy on my belly.
Seth was born at 7:29, about an hour and 19 minutes after I began hemorrhaging. He needed some help breathing, but his APGAR scores were a 6 and then an 8 after the help - not too shabby for a 34 weeker. We are incredibly lucky to live in a time where medicine is so advanced!
When I woke up, I was in recovery and Eric and Elizabeth were there and my father-in-law Neal would arrive shortly after. I was incredibly groggy, and apparently asked about the APGAR scores and also whether Eric liked the new paint color(definitely on the same level of importance). I was so relieved to hear that Seth was alive and doing pretty well. Unfortunately for me, the general anesthesia was fast wearing off and apparently no one had thought, "Oh, this woman might be in pain given the SURGERY she just endured." because I was feeling a lot of...not great feelings in my belly. I mean, shouldn't they just assume you're going to be in pain and get the morphine going?!? Eventually, they transferred me to a room and put me on a morphine drip. And the rest is history.
Eric and I feel so lucky that things turned out the way that they did - that we have a healthy baby is so fortunate on so many levels. We know that Seth would not be here today without the help of so many people(neighbors, police, nurses, doctors, family). Seth's birth wasn't what I had imagined it would be, but I wouldn't want it any other way because now we have this guy:
It's interesting how quickly one's hopes and desires can change based on circumstances. I went from being sad but accepting of a c-section to desperately wanting one to happen as soon as possible when I was being wheeled out of the apartment building because I felt that that was the only way the baby would have any chance of surviving. The faster the better. If I could have convinced the EMT to complete the c-section right then and there in the ambulance using a penknife, I 100% would have. As it was, he asked me a lot of questions about myself, the pregnancy and I tried really hard to see if I could feel the baby moving. I was pretty sure that I did feel some movement at one point but I told myself it could have been the crappy paving on any one of a number of Brooklyn Heights sidestreets.
When we arrived at Brooklyn Hospital(the hospital that no one has ever heard of or knows how to get to), they unloaded me in the ambulance bay and I was rushed into triage. It felt just like the show ER - doctors surrounding the gurney, asking questions of the EMTs but not necessarily of me. Once I was in triage, they had me take off my clothes and while one doctor inspected my cervix, the nurse began to perform a sonogram. The moments before the image popped up on the screen were some of the longest of my life. I just kept asking, "Can you see the baby? Is the baby okay?" and the doctors kept saying, "We're looking, we're looking." Finally, they showed me Seth on the screen and assured me that his heart rate was normal. I felt an incredible wave of relief wash over me. Then Gail, one of the nurses, put the heartbeat monitor on my belly and I could hear his heartbeat reverberate throughout the room. This provided a good amount of reassurance until I couldn't hear it and then I started screaming "I can't hear it!" like a crazy person. Fortunately, Gail was so kind and from there on out made sure that the heartbeat monitor was optimally positioned.
When the doctor inspected my cervix, he determined that I was dilated and I was also experiencing contractions. While I wasn't bleeding anymore(hurray!) and the baby's heartbeat was strong(double hurray!) they decided to move ahead with the emergency c-section due to the labor and the fact that I was 34 weeks. There was a significant lack of communication happening between the doctors and me, and while normally this would have bothered me, I was HIGHLY eager to give this baby the ejector seat as I couldn't help feeling like my womb was not the safest place for a baby to be given the massive hemorrhage. This eagerness was also what led to me being totally okay with the full Brazilian that a nurse gave me(not really medically necessary).
The head ob/gyn on call was already wrist deep in removing someone else's baby, but my doctor was very concerned about getting the baby out sooner rather than later so he kept sending nurses to let the doctor know that he was needed. After about 20 minutes in triage, they began to wheel me into the operating room. They said that we didn't have time for an epidural so they would be giving me general anesthesia which meant a)I wouldn't be awake when the baby was born and b)no skin to skin time. These were two of my stipulations for my planned c-section that were now being taken away. Again, didn't care because JUST GET THE BABY OUT ALIVE. The last thing I remember before going under was the nurse putting a brown substance previously only seen on Grey's Anatomy on my belly.
Seth was born at 7:29, about an hour and 19 minutes after I began hemorrhaging. He needed some help breathing, but his APGAR scores were a 6 and then an 8 after the help - not too shabby for a 34 weeker. We are incredibly lucky to live in a time where medicine is so advanced!
When I woke up, I was in recovery and Eric and Elizabeth were there and my father-in-law Neal would arrive shortly after. I was incredibly groggy, and apparently asked about the APGAR scores and also whether Eric liked the new paint color(definitely on the same level of importance). I was so relieved to hear that Seth was alive and doing pretty well. Unfortunately for me, the general anesthesia was fast wearing off and apparently no one had thought, "Oh, this woman might be in pain given the SURGERY she just endured." because I was feeling a lot of...not great feelings in my belly. I mean, shouldn't they just assume you're going to be in pain and get the morphine going?!? Eventually, they transferred me to a room and put me on a morphine drip. And the rest is history.
Eric and I feel so lucky that things turned out the way that they did - that we have a healthy baby is so fortunate on so many levels. We know that Seth would not be here today without the help of so many people(neighbors, police, nurses, doctors, family). Seth's birth wasn't what I had imagined it would be, but I wouldn't want it any other way because now we have this guy:
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