Thursday July, 26th 2018
31 Weeks & 4 Days Pregnant
(continued)
I opened my eyes and my whole body felt numb and heavy.
While I was trying to figure out where I was and what had happened, I felt this sharp pain.
I heard myself let out a yelp and my eyes closed again.
My eyes reopened and I heard two voices – Sam and our nurse, Kay. Then I felt the sharp pain again. This time I realized Kay was pressing down on my stomach.
“Why are you doing that?” I cried out.
(Later I was told it was to help make sure my organs went back to their original position)
I looked over in the direction of Sam’s voice. I could barely keep my eyes open for longer than a minute or two.
My mouth was so dry. It felt as though I swallowed a thousand cotton balls. Sam told me to open my mouth and he started to feed my ice chips little by little as I continued to wake up more and more.
(In between Sam giving me ice chips, Kay pushing on the belly, and my eyes opening & closing, it felt as though so little time had passed, but I know now that wasn’t the case. I was still coming off the anesthesia.)
Sam was talking to me and informed me of all that I had missed. He told me how they moved us to a different room and his family arrived right as I was being wheeled to the OR. Then he told me when my mom and brother arrived.
We finally go to the topic I was most excited about – our daughter. I asked how everything went and how she was. Even though I was half out of it still, all I could focus on was her. How she was, how she looked, how tiny she was.
Sam told me that he had to leave the OR right after I fell asleep, and they completed the C-Section in 4 minutes. Our daughter was then passed through a door on the back wall of the OR room #1 and sent into the NICU to get cleaned up and examined.
Kay then asked if I wanted to go see her.
YES! (I thought I screamed, but my throat was still so dry I’m sure it only came out as a whisper)
They unlocked the bed and we began the journey down multiple hallways until I was finally wheeled into another room.
It was filled with nurses and there was an incubator in the middle of the room with a yellow blanket draped over the top. They wheeled my bed right beside the incubator and opened one of the right side doors for me to put my hand inside. I was able to feel her soft, delicate skin. I could barely see her face. She had a face oxygen mask and hat on that covered most of her tiny head.
“Would you like to hold her?”
“Yes,” I could already feel the tears starting to fill my eyes.
The top of the incubator lifted up and two of the nurses scooped up this little bundle in a diaper and laid her on top of my chest.
I started to cry.
It was the most beautiful connection I ever felt with someone. I looked at this tiny baby laying on top of my chest and I knew she was mine. She was a part of me, I was a part of her, and we will always be a part of each other forever. She held my heart in her little hand. I couldn’t believe that I was able to bring this little miracle into the world.
“She’s so beautiful,” was all I could say or think. Emotions overwhelmed me.
After a few minutes the nurses picked her up and laid her back down in her incubator. I watched the top slowly close back down as Kay, Sam and I left the room. They wheeled me back down the maze of hallways until we finally arrived at L&D 6.
All the family was sitting around the room; on the couch and on the floor. Everyone woke up and became alert as we entered the room and one by one came to see how I was doing before leaving for the night.
After everyone was gone, I looked at the clock. It was past 3:30am.
“What time was she born?” I asked Sam.
“12:29am,” he replied.
“I told you she wouldn’t be born on the 26th,” as I drifted off to sleep.
Adalyn Grace Irwin
7/27/2018 @ 12:29am
Weight = 3 oz.
Length = 39.5 in.
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