Leah's Story

I had been anxiously awaiting the birth of our second baby girl, Leah Brook. I was so excited to have a baby again, to watch Taylor be a big sister, to figure out this new life of ours. But, God had other plans for us.

My water broke around 4:00am on January 7th. Yes, January 7th, the day of the National Championship game. Adam was in Orlando, on his way to Miami for the game. My doctor was on call and knew he was gone to the game. Her first words when she called me back were, "No way!". When I called Adam to let him know, he answered, "No way!". Thankfully they were still in Orlando and he was staying 2 minutes from the airport. He was able to get a flight and would be at the hospital by 11:00 am. Leah just had to hold off for a few hours. 

It was hard to know if my water broke because it didn't gush like it did with Taylor, it was just barely coming out. I laid in bed for about 30 minutes wondering if it had and timing contractions, praying I was wrong since Adam wasn't home. When I realized the contractions were consistent, I got up to check and sure enough, my water had broken. Mom was staying with me just in case this happened since Taylor came early too. I got her up and she got Taylor ready, while I put the last few things in the hospital bag. We dropped Taylor off at a friends' house and headed for the hospital. When I called the doctor, I was having minor contractions, nothing any worse than I'd had for the previous 3 weeks, but full blown contractions came on very quickly. Mom had to turn the hazard lights on and drive 90 mph. 

We got to the hospital and got hooked up pretty quickly. When they got the heart rate monitor on, Leah's heart rate was 190. I turned to Mom and said, "I'm probably going to have a C-section." They continued doing everything normally and eventually I got an epidural. When my doctor came into the room I told her Adam would be there by 11:00. She said we could definitely wait if Leah were doing okay, but her heart rate hadn't come down and was dropping every time I had a contraction. I also had a fever, which signaled an infection. She decided we had to get her out ASAP. They quickly got me ready for a C-section and told Mom they would come right back to get her so she could see her being delivered. They cut me open and got Leah out so quickly once we were in there, Mom didn't even make it in the room. She was born at 7:25 am. 

I remember hearing the doctor say, "We made the right decision, Bevin. She needed to come out." But nothing was registering with me. I didn't notice Mom's worried look, I didn't notice that Leah wasn't crying, I didn't notice anything. I think back now and wonder how I missed all of that. I think I was in a state of shock.

This is the only picture we have of her without tubes everywhere.
You can  look at her eyes and tell how sick she was, my poor baby. 

I asked Mom later why she didn't get more pictures of her. She told me that the nurses had to stop bagging Leah for her to take the picture. Like I said, I had no idea how sick she was until much, much later.

They brought Leah around for me to see her before they took her to the NICU. At that time, they told me she wasn't breathing effectively, but they were helping her and it was possible she would have to be put on a vent. I try to keep that picture of her looking at me in my head because she looked so sweet. I thought she looked so much like Taylor when she was first born. 

They took me back into recovery and told me I would get to see her in the NICU before going to my room. After about an hour or so, I finally got to go see her, and she was on a vent. I immediately started crying. At that time, I still don't think the doctor knew what was wrong with her, it would be several days later before we had any answers. 

Obviously, this is not the way a mom should be seeing her newborn.

 I only got to see her for a few minutes before they took me to my room and continued working on Leah. When Adam got there he came to my room and spent a few minutes with me, but I asked him to go check on Leah. I couldn't go back down to the NICU until I could get in a wheelchair and they wouldn't let me try until 8 hours after delivery. Everyone was trying to protect me and wouldn't tell me how bad she was. Finally, around 4:00, the NICU doctor came to talk to us. He told us that Leah was the sickest baby he had seen in a long time. She was septic and needed to go on ECMO. The only place they have ECMO is at Children's Hospital and he wasn't sure she would survive the transfer, but he had her as stable as he could and thought this was the best time.

They finally let me in a wheelchair to go see Leah until the transfer team got there. By that time, they had done many things to her and she had tubes everywhere. She was also on a high frequency vent and it was making her little body shake. We only got a few minutes with her before the transfer team got there. Then, it took them a long time to get her ready for transfer.

Unbelievable how much stuff she was hooked up to

I didn't process that Dr. Mena told us she might not survive the transfer. Everyone kept asking if she made it and I kept saying, Adam will text me when they get there, not even realizing the severity of what was going on. Leah made the transfer and made it through surgery. Adam said she immediately turned pink after the surgery.

ECMO

When that day started, I thought the worst thing we were going to have to deal with was Adam missing her birth. Little did I know how terrible that day would end up.

I hoped they would discharge me on Tuesday so I could go see her, but they made me stay for 48 hours of antibiotics since I had a fever and an infection. All I could get on Tuesday were updates and pictures from Adam. It was so hard sitting in a different hospital from Leah and not getting to be with her. The shock of Monday finally started wearing off and I cried almost non-stop for about 4 hours that morning.

All we knew on Tuesday was that she was swelling from fluid retention, but that was completely normal with ECMO. I think we all began to breathe a little bit easier since everything seemed to be going okay. Again, little did we know that Wednesday would start a whole new roller coaster, which will be in another post.