Happy Birthday Charlotte!

In the very early morning of November 1st I woke up to find myself lying in a puddle of blood on the bed. My first thought was that I must be losing the baby at just a little over 23 weeks gestation there was no way I could be bleeding this much and not be miscarrying. Panicked, I woke Ned up and had him call my parents to come watch the boys while I called my doctor. The bleeding had stopped so we made our way to Reston Hospital praying all the way that what we expected would not be the case. My doctor was on vacation and Dr Alfreda Jones was on call for him. By the time we got to the hospital everything seemed completely normal. They did a couple tests on me to see if my water had broken and immediately hooked me up to monitors for the baby. Charlotte seemed to be doing great...her heart rate and respiratory rate were completely normal but I was having very small contractions. They took me downstairs for an ultrasound which determined my water had not broken but they saw something of concern on my uterus. After two more ultrasounds they told me what they saw on the ultrasound were blood clots on my uterus; this is what had caused the sudden bleeding. I had what they call a placenta abruption (where the placenta tears away from the uterine lining) and in some cases this heals on it's own but because of the huge concern they had for me with the large blood clots they wanted to keep me at the hospital on strict bed rest and monitoring. Later that afternoon after a ultrasound done by a high risk doctor they saw that my water would most likely rupture in the next 24 to 48 hours and talked to us about our "options." If we decided to work to save our little girl I would have to be taken to Fairfax Hospital since Reston Hospital is not prepared to care for a baby under 26 weeks. Of course we wanted to do everything we could to save little Charlotte and as soon as we caught on to what this doctor was asking, we quickly told him we wanted to talk to our doctor and take the next steps to ensure that Lottie was taken care of.

Off we went by ambulance to Fairfax Hospital and up to the high risk floor I went to remain on bed rest until Charlotte was born. After I was settled in I sent Ned home to be with the boys thinking it could be days or weeks before I actually had her. Not more than two hours after he left, I started hemorrhaging again. I lost quite a bit of blood and they felt it was necessary to take me to labor and delivery. I called Ned to come back but knew it would take him a while so I called his sister Heather who lived down the road from the hospital and she came and stayed with me until Ned got there. Charlotte still seemed fine but the growing concern were the clots that were dislodging and the loss of blood. We went all day on the 2nd like this (bleeding on and off and multiple ultrasounds and shots to stop labor) and most of the day on the 3rd the same. On the afternoon of November 3rd the ultrasound they did found that my water had ruptured but they still thought the best thing for Lottie was to stay in the womb. Early on the morning 4th we were met in our room by Dr Jones, the neonatologist, and the high risk doctor. They were all helping prepare us for Charlotte's delivery. They told us that the ultrasound they did earlier that morning showed that the blood clots on my uterus were getting bigger and causing lots of risk for me, they were also concerned that keeping Charlotte in the womb much longer would increase her risk of infection and make it harder for her in the long run. They wanted to deliver her as soon as possible. Ned and I hardly had time to take it all in before they were wheeling me into surgery! Ahhh...the joy I felt seeing Charlotte for the first time right before they took her to the NICU. What a sweet and perfect baby girl!

I had some trouble after the delivery. I lost alot of blood and had to have a transfusion. The worst part was I wasn't able to see my little girl again for 2 days! When I finally did make it down to the NICU what I saw was amazing! I remember thinking of Psalm 139, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." I had no idea really what to expect and I'm kinda glad...He promises never to give us more than we can handle. It would be six incredibly long weeks before I could even hold her for the first time. It was over 8 weeks before I heard her cry for the first time (the things we take for granted) I remember hearing other babies in the NICU cry and having to hold back tears . What I wouldn't give to just hear her sweet cry. We are so thankful for the most amazing doctors and nurses! We got the three best nurses Fairfax Hospital has to offer!! They really loved on our little Charlotte when we weren't there to do it.

Charlotte is 1 year old today and we've been so busy celebrating that I'm just now updating the blog! God is so good! He continues to show His mercies are new every morning! She is such a joy and blessing to us. She's such a happy baby laughing and "talking" to us! We are working on her birthday video and will post it as soon as it's finished. Thanks to all who have loved our little girl and prayed so faithfully!

Looking Back...

Holding Charlotte tonight, listening to her laugh and watching her smile, I can't help but think about a year ago tonight and how close we were to loosing her. Tomorrow Charlotte will be one year old and we are truly celebrating what a year it has been! This time one year ago, I was at Fairfax Hospital praying (after finding out through ultrasound that my water had broken) that we'd be able to hold off delivering our sweet baby Charlotte for another week at least. At 23 weeks and 6 days gestation, every day she could stay in the womb increased her chances of survival. There was also some concern for me since I had a placenta abruption (where the placenta pulls away from the uterine lining) and I was hemorrhaging on and off. Blood clots were forming inside of me and periodically dislodging, causing significant bleeding...this had started around 2:30am on November 1st, and continued on and off up until the delivered her on the 4th.

We have witnessed first hand the miracle of little Charlotte! We are so grateful to everyone who prayed for her and for us! I will post pictures and another update tomorrow on her birthday.:)

The picture above is of me going in for my last ultrasound where they determined they needed to go ahead and deliver Charlotte as quickly as possible.