Mikayla's here!

wallycat · November 2009

I usually just lurk and respond - this is my first post ever - but I wanted to share the birth story for my daughter, Mikayla. It was not what we planned for or what we expected but it's what we got and it may help someone else that ends up in my situation.

Our beautiful baby girl was born on Thanksgiving morning, she is truly our Thanksgiving miracle baby. We had planned for her to be delivered around her due date of Dec. 12th (whenever she was ready) with a vaginal birth. That whole plan went completely out the window. Here's her story:

The last couple weeks I was having some elevated blood pressure issues. I had already been to the hospital once because my pressures were so high at a OB appt. Everything was of course completely normal at the hospital. At my appt. last Monday it was recommended that I start monitoring pressures at home to see if the were truly elevated or if it was just at the doctors office from stress. Well last Wed when I took my pressures late in the day (after relaxing at home all day) they were again elevated. I called the OB on call and explained they were up and I was having occasional mild headaches that were coming and going. He said to come in to the hospital to be checked but that he might decide to induce if the pressures didn't come down. At his exam he let me know he considered me to have pregnancy induced hypertension, and since I was at 37 1/2 weeks along he recommended that we stay and have our baby.

According to the OB I was already starting to dilate (4 cm) and having contractions - although I didn't realize it. So he got us admitted at about 9 pm. We got IVs started and Pitocin started to help my contractions along. With the Pitocin I could definitely feel the contractions - I asked for my epidural - please! The epidural was not all that bad to receive (hurt less than getting my IV catheter) although the local did hurt a bit. After that DH and I just went to sleep - we were at a point where the pitocin just had to get the contractions regular and frequent. Around 2:45 am on Thanksgiving day the OB came back in and rechecked my progress - still at 4 cm. He recommended that we go ahead and break my bag of water to help things along. When he broke the bag I immediately began to hemorrhage. He was concerned and ordered an immediate ultrasound, while attempting to get the bleeding to stop. The ultrasound indicated that I had a problem called "vasa previa" where blood vessels from the placenta cross over the cervix. There is no easy way to identify this issue (I had 4 ultrasounds prior for marginal placenta previa that corrected itself - the final ultrasound did not show the vasa previa) it is a very rare condition - but if you have a low lying or marginal placenta previa that moves into the normal range then the risk of vasa previa is much greater. Effectively when the water breaks the vessels get torn and the hemorrhaging occurs. Once the problem was identified he informed me that for Mikayla and my safety we needed an immediate emergency c-section (this was at 3 am). I was prepped and rushed to the OR and the c-section was performed confirming the vasa previa - Mikayla was born at 3:13 am Thanksgiving morning.

Once I was in recovery the OB explained the vasa previa and informed DH and I that if my water had broken in any other way there was over a 90% chance that Mikayla would have died. If my water had broken at home I would not have had enough time to get to the hospital. We ended up in just the perfect scenario being in the hospital and having the OB break my water so he could see the immediate problem. Luckily for us Mikayla had no effects since the surgery was performed so quickly. She is absolutely perfect. She weighed in at 6 lb 13 oz, 19 1/4 inches long, with a full head of dark brown hair at birth.

Even though she was 2 1/2 weeks early and I had to have a c-section (under very scary circumstances) I wouldn't change one second of it. I have my miracle baby - and she has given Thanksgiving a new meaning for DH and I.