On The Day You Were Born

I should have written this day down last year, but I didn't. I guess this makes their 2nd Birthday kind of special. Ella and Bradley, this is the story of the day you were born. Happy Birthday!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 was easily the happiest day of my life. It was also one of the scariest. I had no idea that this would be the day I would give birth, but looking back there were so many clues.

The previous Sunday I had developed this awful rash all over my belly, I thought I had taken too hot of a shower and burned it. It itched HORRIBLY!!! For the next two days I tried anti-itch lotion, calamine lotion and multiple oatmeal baths. Nothing worked. Turns out this is one of the signs of HELLP, basically your liver and kidney function starts to deteriorate, not good.

On Monday I had a melt down at work and just started sobbing. I itched, I was tired (I hadn't had a good night sleep since the beginning of November and at this point I was sleeping in a recliner in our bedroom), still getting morning sickness, horrific heartburn and I couldn't imagine another 6 weeks of all this. Someone once told me that you feel awful right before you deliver.....hmmmmm.

Tuesday morning I woke up and started getting ready for work. My upper back had been hurting for a while, but this particular morning it was different. Pain would come in waves and I felt like I needed to sit down and after a minute it was gone and I would be able to resume getting ready. At the time I didn't think it could be contractions because the pain was in my upper back (and they tell you it will hurt in your lower back). About an hour later I just knew something wasn't right. I called the hospital and told them what was happening and that I was expecting twins. They told me to come in immediately.

I didn't feel comfortable driving myself, so called my mom and no answer. Called Matt, no answer. Called each of them multiple times and NO ANSWER! I finally called my mother-in-law and she answered!! I felt so awful making her miss work, but she came to my rescue and drove me to the hospital and stayed until Matt got there.

At the hospital they hooked me up to all sorts of monitors, one for each babies heart rate, one to monitor contractions and one to take my blood pressure every 5 minutes. Both babies were doing great and I was having contractions every 6-8 minutes (sometimes more often, but I couldn't feel them all). My first blood pressure reading was 154/125, not good. This was the beginning of the end.

My blood pressure would automatically be taken every 5 minutes and it went up every time. I thought I would have to be on bed rest, which sounded great to me because working 4, 10 hour shifts a week was really starting to take it's toll or stay in the hospital until the babies were ready to come out. Then the results came back from my urine sample....my doctor (who I LOVE) came to give me the news. She told me I had pre-eclampsia and that my organs were starting to fail. The babies would have to be delivered today.

I was shocked. I thought, this cannot be happening, it's too soon. I'm not even 34 weeks pregnant. She said we would start the induction immediately, but needed to do an ultrasound first to make sure both babies were head down (as they had been the previous Friday). Just as I had wrapped my head around the idea of being induced my doctor told me that "Baby B" had flipped and was now head up. This meant I'd have a Cesarean. I lost it. It was too much to digest in such a short amount of time. I was not against having Cesarean if it was what was best for my babies, I just wasn't expecting any of this.

We expected the delivery to be in the early afternoon (and it was currently about 10:30 in the morning), so we called all our parents and close friends. We quickly had to call them all back when the doctor came in and announced we'd be having the surgery in just a few minutes. Everything happened so quickly after that. Before I knew it I was on the operating table.

As I laid there with this huge sheet hanging over my chest I became so thankful that we had waited to find out the sex of our babies. I was not ready for them to come, but I was so excited to find out who they were. This took the edge off of a really scary situation (and for the record, I don't judge other couples who do choose to find out the sex of their baby- it's a surprise either way). They said it would take about 45 minutes and I thought it would take forever, but time flew by and before I knew it they were about to deliver "Baby A". I just knew it was going to be a boy.

My amazing doctor had memorized the names we had picked out, so that she could announce each baby by name. As she pulled out the first baby I heard, baby A, miss Ella!  I honestly couldn't believe it! I thought she was a he! I could barely see the NICU doctor and nurses working on her since there was a sheet in the way. Almost immediately my doctor announced that the second baby was coming. Baby B, Mr. Bradley! I started crying. How incredible, a girl and a boy!

Ella was having a hard time breathing and they took her to the NICU pretty quickly. Bradley was doing better and they wrapped him up and brought him over to me. He was so perfect. All I really remember was his nose. It was so cute. Just like a little button. They let me give him a kiss on that perfect little nose and took him away. As they were leaving they asked Matt if he wanted to go. He looked at me and I told him to go. As they wheeled Bradley into the hallway I heard a group of people cheer. Turns out, our families saw Ella and the nurses told them to stay put because Bradley would be along soon.

Ella Elizabeth Eckert- 11:25am,  3 lbs 13 oz, 16 3/4 inches

Bradley David Eckert- 11:26am, 4 lbs, 17 inches

I don't like to look back at these pictures because they hurt my heart. My little angels were so beautiful, but it was obvious they were weak and under developed.  However, these pictures were all I had. I was on medication that didn't allow me to leave my room to go and visit the NICU, so my mom brought me pictures so I could see what they looked like. Fortunately, they progressed VERY quickly and were off the CPAP machines (the white part wrapped around their heads) by the time I was able to visit. 

It's hard to imagine that two years ago I had two little premature babies, you'd never know it looking at them now! I am truly blessed to have these little kiddos in my life and can't imagine living without them.

Happy Birthday, Ella and Bradley!