Our Birth Story: Part 1

Our birth story (written by Emily)

Before I begin, let me say this experience was very emotional and scary but throughout our delivery we truly had the opportunity to witness God at work and His provision woven throughout our story.

Friday June 15th we had an appointment at HIROC (High Risk Obstetrician Consulting) at UT.  It was a routine appointment towards the end of our twin pregnancy to do a higher definition ultrasound of the twins and look at their blood flow, etc.  We had debated doing an amino test to see if Mom could be induced, and in the end decided it was not worth it.  Mom was 36 weeks and 6 days. Again, awesome that we made it to this point with two healthy twins!

At the appointment Mom's urine showed +2 for protein.  The doctor was going to send us home with a 24 hour urine collection kit.  On our way out he also decided to go ahead and run some lab work.  He walked Mom back to get her blood drawn, and afterwards Mom and Dad drove back home.

Dad put Mom down for a nap (since she was no longer sleeping very well at night) and said he would work from home that morning.  Less then 15 minutes later, Dad came into the bedroom and woke Mom up saying it was "game time!"  What?  Dad had received a call from the HIROC office saying that we needed to deliver the babies today and to head straight to the hospital.  Dad reminded Mom to eat something before they left as once we arrived, since we knew Mom couldn't have any food once we got to the hospital and into labor.

In the car we were both pretty excited, of course the car was empty on fuel and we had to fill up on our way!  We didn't have any idea why we needed to deliver today, but we just thought they had decided you were both healthy enough for Mom to be induced.  That morning's ultrasound had showed that the babies were doing awesome and each weighed 6lbs (praise God!). Mom called her closest family and friends to tell them of the news. Everyone was so excited!

Once we arrived at the Labor and Delivery floor, we were told to immediately proceed to the nurses station.  There they took us straight to pre-op and we finally found out what was going on.  Mom was put on a gurney and multiple nurses started to ask her questions, family history, etc.  The head nurse finally figured out we didn't know what was happening - and told us that Mom's blood work had come back and showed that she had HELLP syndrome. Her platlet levels were 25,000 - compared to a normal person's who are at least about 200k.  In addition, her liver enzymes were extremely elevated. Prior to this, Mom had shown no symptoms - in fact throughout the pregnancy her blood pressure remained in the normal to low range.

The nurses told me I was the healthiest looking sick person they had seen with HELLP syndrome.

The nurses were amazing. And God watched over and provided for us again when we learned that Emily's favorite doctor was the one on call.  There really isn't anyone we would have trusted as much as her, knowing the confidence she could have in an operating room.  We learned that an emergency c section was really the only thing that could be done to get Emily on the road to feeling better.  Once the anesthesiologists learned Mom had eaten food, they said we'd have to wait 8 hours - what!  But our doctor came and said no way, there was too much on the line and we had to take the babies out within the next hour!  The tough part was that we learned Dad would not be able to come back into the operating room with Mom.  Since Mom's platlets were so low they could not risk doing an epidural or spinal, she'd have to totally be put under.  Of course Mom and Dad were sad but we trusted the doctors and knew this was for the best.

Before we knew it, the nurses were prepping Mom to take her back.  Literally they said within a half an hour Mom would be wheeled back for her emergency c section.  Before they wheeled Mom back, Mom and Dad prayed together and hard.  Thanking God that they had ran the lab work randomly that morning and for the sweet babies who would be arriving shortly.


To be continued....