I paced the house all night before I finally laid down around 4 am. After falling asleep for what seemed like 30 minutes, I was woken up at 5:30 am to excruciating lower back pain and the strong urge to use the bathroom. As soon as I got up and sat on the toilet, I heard this "pop" sound and an uncontrollable gush started running down my leg. My first thought was "oh thank god my water finally broke" , but when I looked down I knew immediately that something was very wrong.
There was an enormous amount of bright red blood in the toilet and it was still coming. I started yelling for Brett, but since he was in the other bedroom he couldn't hear me. I knew I had to act fast. I ran into his bedroom, yelled for him to get up and get my suitcase and get me to the hospital right away. I grabbed an armful of towels out of the bathroom and got in the backseat of my jeep. After arriving at the hospital, Brett got me a wheelchair and ran me up to labor and delivery. I told the nurses what happened and they could see that all of my towels had already been soaked through. They hooked me up to the monitors and Summer was looking fine...they weren't quite sure what was going on, but I could see the concern on their faces. They called for the doctor to come in and see me, and in the time it took her to get down to me Summer's heart rate had dropped dramatically. Dr. Skinner came rushing in and explained that my placenta had completely abrupted, which meant that my placenta had completely torn away from the uterine wall and that all oxygen supply was being cut off from Summer. This was why her heart rate was dropping so fast. She explained that there was little time to waste and that I was going to need an emergency C-section right away. She assured us that she was going to take good care of me and that Summer would be okay. She told Brett and I that I was going to have to be put to sleep for this since there was no time for an epidural, and that Brett would not be allowed in the operating room. While all of this was going on, I didn't even realize that the anesthesiologist was already in the room administering drugs through an IV he had already hooked me up to.
Within seconds I was wheeled into a bright operating room with at least 20 nurses and the doctor yelling orders to them...I felt like I was in a horrible movie and was completely lifeless and in shock. The nurses moved me onto the operating table, pulled the blue curtain up over my head, and I could feel Dr. Skinner rubbing the betadine onto my skin....I wasn't asleep yet. I just knew that I was going to feel the whole thing, but I didn't even care, I just wanted my baby to make it out alive and well.
Before I knew it, I saw Brett's face. The first words out of my mouth was "is she okay?" He told me that she was and that she was absolutely beautiful. I wanted to cry but I couldn't, I was too drugged up to say anything else. The doctor came in shortly after and explained to me that Summer was going to make it, but that she had inhaled alot of blood when my placenta abrupted, and that she was going to have to stay in intensive care for several days. She said that if we would have arrived at the hospital 5 minutes later than we did, that neither one of us would have made it. She said that I definitely had an angel in the operating room with me that morning. Summer Rhea Daniels arrived under a full moon Friday morning September 4th, at 6:40 am weighing 6lbs 5ounces and measuring 19 3/4" long. I was just so grateful that Summer was alive and I couldn't wait to finally meet her.
Once I got out of recovery, my nurse took me by the special care nursery on the way to my room. I was still pretty out of it, but all I remember was how fast Summer was breathing and it immediately broke my heart. She was in an oxygen bubble and hooked up to hundreds of wires and tubes to deliver antibiotics to her. I kept praying that she would completely recover and that all of this would be over soon.
I didn't get to see Summer for the rest of the day because she had alot of recovering to do and so did I. Since I had lost over half of my blood volume I had to get a blood transfusion that day. Brett kept going down to the nursery to check on her and he would take a picture each time to bring back and show me... the blood was working its way out of her lungs and she was getting stronger by the hour. I made him promise me that no one would hold her until I got to. I was so upset that I wasn't going to get to hold my little girl on the day that she was born.
I finally was recovered enough to get out of bed and go see my baby girl the next day, and Summer had gotten strong enough to have her oxygen bubble taken off and to breathe in regular room air. It was the best feeling in the world to hold my sweet girl for the first time, and I couldn't get over how beautiful she was. Her nose was my favorite and her eyes were such a deep shade of blue that I couldn't stop staring at them. I felt on top of the world. We spent most of the day with her, but since she was still in the intensive care nursery, we had certain visiting hours that we could see her and then we would have to go back to our room for them to have a break period.
Summer was looking increasingly better every hour, but the doctor wanted to keep her in the nursery until all the blood was cleared from her lungs, and until she felt fully comfortable with her going home. I was sent home on Monday, September 7th, and we had to leave Summer to spend hopefully only one more night in the nursery. We were right back up at the hospital the next morning to see our baby girl, and the doctor told us that Summer would be good to go home in a few hours. After filling out all of her discharge paperwork, we packed up Summer's things and strapped her in for her first ride in a car....we couldn't wait to welcome her into her new home :)
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