Bonnie's Birth Story

The weekend of November 16th was one I had been very much looking forward to. My sister and mom hosted a beautiful joyous baby shower for me that Saturday (post coming soon). It was so fun celebrating this sweet girl an envisioning using all the gifts we received for her. Little did we know they would be put to use much sooner than expected.
The following night around 9 PM I experienced some bleeding and called our doctor. The doctor said to try waiting it out and if it continued to just come in. This was not the first time this pregnancy, so we weren't initially too concerned - but concerned, nonetheless. We went to bed and I woke up in the middle of the night to a lot more blood. I went to the hospital around 2 AM and tried to get some sleep in triage for about 3 hours while they ran some tests. They determined there was amniotic fluid in the blood which meant I would have to stay in the hospital until this baby was born. At the time I was 34 weeks, 1 day pregnant.
When I came in I was 50% effaced and was having consistent contractions about 2-3 minutes apart. They admitted me around 5:30 AM and gave me drugs to help slow labor, as well as steroids to help baby's lungs develop. I stayed in bed all morning and just planned to wait things out. Later that day (this is when I stopped paying attention to the timing of everything), a new doctor came on and decided the best idea was to induce labor and get baby out. They started me on pitocin and again, we waited throughout the day to see how things would progress. We labored through Monday and into Tuesday with very little sleep since Saturday night. They watched me closely and came in constantly to check my and baby's vitals.

Tuesday my mom and sister came to visit close to lunchtime. Not long after they left, I had some excessive bleeding. All the sudden we had a swarm of people in our room prepping me for a c-section. The doctor came up from another surgery she was in and advised it was 'urgent' that we get the baby out.
Now I never really had specific expectations about my labor/delivery experience. And at this point, I had been doing pretty well 'going with the flow' given that everything had happened so unexpectedly. But when I was told we had to immediately go to c-section, I lost it. I couldn't stop crying all the way from the delivery room to the operating room. It all felt very out of control. Thankfully Eric was so calm and positive reassuring me everything was going to be just fine.

They wheeled me into the OR around 1:45 PM and Eric suited himself up. Once we were ready, they got to work. I will avoid too many details, but will say it was a terrible experience for me. I was extremely nauseous and although I was laying on my back and had no working ab muscles, somehow I vomited through the entire thing. The pressure was intense and I had extreme neck pain for some reason.
This went on for about 15 minutes before we heard a beautiful cry at 2:16 PM. On November 19th Bonnie Jean-Marie was here, 4 pounds 8.7 ounces, and 18 inches long. I was so relieved to hear her and I was still so miserable I didn't even really think about anything being wrong with her. She was whisked away before we were able to see her. They called dad back to see her for a few while they continued working on me. The anesthesiologist was great at stepping in for Eric while he was checking on our baby. Eric came back to sit with me for the rest of the procedure, he was torn between myself and our baby but didn't want to leave my side. After what felt like hours, I was finally going back to recovery just before 3 PM.
Eric was a rock. He was fielding questions from numerous concerned friends and family, checking on our baby, being the middle man between me and everyone else, and still not leaving my side but for a minute at a time. He showed me a picture of our baby, which was surreal to see. We realized I may not get a chance to really see or hold her for a while, so looking at that picture we made a final decision on her name. I just couldn't wait to hold her.

While we were still in the recovery room, we were told Bonnie would have to be airlifted to the NICU at VCU in Richmond for respiratory distress. I got to see her for a quick minute strapped up in the incubator before she was loaded into the helicopter. I could barely even see her. Again, Eric didn't want to leave me but we knew he had to. We wanted her to hear a familiar voice, so he got in his car and followed her to Richmond. My mom and Dave took care of things for us at the house and my sister stayed with my that night in the hospital.

I was checked on constantly and neither of us really got any sleep. But it was good to have my sister there with a medical background, experience with a c-section, and advocating for my release. In the morning my sister left and my mom stayed with me during the day. I'm so thankful I wasn't in the hospital by myself during such an anxiety-ridden time. Eric was able to FaceTime me a few times in Richmond so I was able to meet some of Bonnie's doctors and nurses and get updates.  We basically were doing everything we could so that I could get discharged that day and go meet up with Eric and Bonnie. By around 5:30 that afternoon, we were able to finally leave the hospital. We ran home and I was a mess trying to figure out what to pack for the NICU, not knowing how long we would be there. Mom and Dave drove me to Richmond the night of the 20th.


Our NICU experience is something I will save for another post. But I will at least say, she is thriving and healthy now. That night I finally got to hold my girl. It was so strange knowing I had this baby and we didn't know each other at all. I was just happy Eric and her and I were all together again. Happy birthday little bird.


34 weeks

36 weeks