February 21st and the birth of my turtle.

March 4th was my little turtle's due date.  We anticipated that he may come early, but it would be a controlled labor enviornment if that were to happen...basically, we had no surprises in mind.  My blood was alright, and after one more test I was to find out if we would have a natural un-induced labor for E, or if it would have to be induced so the doctor would know exactly what was going on.  The date to find out that, and for my next prenatal appointment, was February 24th. 

February 21st rolls around and I'm feeling a little bit sick, thinking I have a urinary tract infection I give my doctor a call...unfortunately for me both doctors were out of the office that day and I would have to go to the ER or wait until the 22nd.  Every part of me wanted to go ahead and wait, but after calling my mom I decided to go ahead and get it checked out...it wouldn't hurt anything...and I would get to figure it out and get on medicine a day sooner.  I drove to Bardstown and nearly turned around twice, I didn't want to go that far to pee in a cup and maybe have to wait for medicine by myself.  I pulled p to Flaget and sat in the car for 10 minutes before I finally walked inside.  I got wheeled upstairs and they told me to go use the restroom, while we were waiting the nurse asked if I wanted to put a gown on and monitor baby just to see, and I said yes.  My favorite part of appointments was hearing turtle's heart beat.  I could have listened to that ALL day.  After about 40 minutes of monitoring a semi-concerned nurse came in and told me they were gonna have to lay me down flat.  That had never happened before (and I'd been to the hospital for monitoring 4 times) so I was a bit concerned, however, I was assured it was just because turtle was pretty active and they needed to calm him down.  30 minutes later I was flipped to my left, 10 later they came to put pillows under my side to keep me very uncomfortably on my left.  20 minutes later and I was flipped to my right...then 30 minutes after that Doctor Dodge comes in with an ultrasound machine.  He saw a nice amount of fluid surrounding the baby, and everything looked okay...he assured me I would be fine after an IV or two and he left.  7 minutes and 30 seconds later (I won't ever forget that) a nurse steps in and tells another
"It's been seven minutes, should we call him back?"
"Yeah, we need to call him now".

I was sure some other woman on the floor had a test run and it was time to get results...I was blindly thinking they couldn't be talking about me.  How wrong I was. 10 minutes later the nurse comes back in

"Your son's heartbeat was over 180 for 7 minutes, so we need to have a talk"
"Okay...what do we do about that?"
"We're going to need to do an Emergency C-Section, please don't freak out...we've got to get the baby out now"

I started crying, only not a cry...I was literally bawling my eyes out.  I thought for sure I would lose my turtle, or my own life...I didn't want a C-Section, and I didnt want anything to be wrong with my son.  Everything there was a blur, I called my mom hysterical and Patrick the same way, then Doctor Dodge came in asking (in a loud, mean voice) why no one had me ready for surgery yet and why they had such a hard time understanding the words STAT and EMERGENCY.  This obviously made me feel no better and from then on I couldn't catch my breath.  They wheeled me into the room and a cold liquid was poured over my tummy while they asked me questions i knew no answer to.  I was mad myself and crying so much they finally gave me something to knock me out.  The last time I looked at the clock it was 7:30.  My baby turtle was born at 8:09 PM.  I was not awake until 10:15.  I had no idea what happened at all.  When I woke up I was told the cord was wrapped very tightly around his neck twice and once around his head.  I just begged them to let me see him and they made me wait another 15 minutes to see how I was reacting to being awake and getting the morphine because when I woke up my pain level was above a 10. 

Finally, way too late, they wheeled my son into my room and I immediately started to cry.  I had been waiting for that moment for such a long time, I had no strength left in me...but he was finally here.  I was shaking so much at first the nurse helped me hold him until I finally calmed down a little bit.  I got to be with my son for a few minutes before they brought Patrick in and finally my mom!  I was so excited to have everyone inside with me, sharing in his little life. 

Considering everything that happened, I know how close I was to losing turtle and I almost can't think about it without crying and getting sort of upset...that entire afternoon something was evidentely wrong but nothing was done about it until, to me it seems, it was almost too late.  However, my son is now and has been since we found out about him, a miracle.  I believe he was a gift directly from God and I try every day to live up to the image of what I'm sure God has in mind for me..especially since he gave me such a beautiful, wonderful, life changing gift.

I am the luckiest, most blessed, mother in the world.