Serena's Birth Story

The day Serena was born, was the scariest day.  When I was diagnosed with placenta previa as described here, I was always concerned about vaginal bleeding.  The morning of the day (starting from five minutes to 5AM in the morning) you were born, it started out with bleeding, heavy bleeding that would not stop, and bathroom was the first stop as it woke me up.  It just kept flowing down, like someone had turned on the faucet.  I was so scared.  All I heard in my head was the doctor saying "This is serious, the placenta cannot come before the baby.  You could  bleed to death.  It could put you and the baby at risk.  Do you want to die?  I do not want a dead patient!"  I was rubbing my belly, telling my little baby to move, move for mommy.  I did not scream out  loud as it was so early in the morning, and I did not want to wait up Lina<3.  After a few minutes, I went back to my bedroom to wake daddy up, and told him what had happened.  I called the doctor was not able to reach for some reason.  I think it was because I was so scared, and petrified that I could not focus.  I wanted my baby to move.  As I laid down on the floor with pillows, and lots of towels, I rubbed my belly a lot, in hopes that you will move.  As soon as Daddy spoke, my baby moved right away, it put me at ease a tiny bit, and made me chuckled a little.  I had no other symptoms besides the bleeding.

Meanwhile Daddy called 911, because I was not able to reach the doctor.  The ambulance came 10-15 minutes later, which felt like hours and hours.  I was saying in my head, "Don't they know that I am pregnant, and bleeding?  Don't they care about my unborn baby?"  When the ambulance people did come, they seemed so nonchalant, and were so slow (the whole process was so slow). Another 15-20mintues, I left in an ambulance to the hospital of my choice, since the hospital where my doctor delivers is not within the time zone.  Daddy stayed at home to take care of Lina<3, get her ready for PorPor's house before meeting me in the hospital.  Got the hospital at 5:45AM.  We went right up to labor and delivery, and the nurses connected the doctor, who came after 7AM.  The nurses monitored me and the baby, stated that the baby was fine, and the heartbeat was strong.  I saw the doctor, and she said, "You are lucky that I have not bled until now, which was extremely fortunate because she had five other pregnant patients who had placenta previa.  One of my patients at 18 weeks pregnant had already been to the ER for vaginal bleeding. So you are extremely fortunate."  Within less than an hour of seeing the doctor, she said that the contractions were too close, we need to go into surgery within the hour, and your husband better be here; which was unusual to me since I did not feel any contractions at all.  After getting that news, Daddy finally came.

The OR that I was going into was a main operating room, and not within the labor and delivery floor.  It had to be in the main OR in case I lost too much blood in surgery, and needed blood transfusion.  The wheel down to the OR was long, and a little scary, but Daddy was right there with me.  Going into the OR was cold, and scary, all those light, big white room with medical equipments, and was not a warm place at all, in both sense that it was freezing in temperature and not warm, as not cozy.  It was terrible getting the spinal anesthesia (then I was numbed), and the IV ports in my right arm.  My doctor did a wonderful job comforting me, making me relax, and distracting me while the IV ports were being put into my arm which took forever, and was very painful.  The anesthesiologist, nurses, and a student followed suit into distracting me, with different stories of my doctor's choice into GYN, racism, and her family.  Finally the IV ports were in, my doctor was ready to cut me open, and Daddy came in, all suited up in scrubs, seated next me, my head because everything else was off-limits.  The conversations continue as I listened to my doctor do her cutting business, nervous, curious at what is my doctor doing, shaking a lot due to the cold temperature in the room.  Minutes later, my doctor said, taking out the baby, and there was crying, the most beautiful sound I ever heard.

My doctor showed me my little girl, before handing her off to the nurses to be cleaned up.  There was a lot of crying, a lot of swinging of your arms and legs.  Mommy saw how you scratched your head, pulled your hair (yes, you had a head full of head; and Daddy and I said "Stop scratching" and "it is okay."  Daddy and I were very happy that our baby was finally here.  The nurses said my baby was so strong, as your arms were tugging on their arms hard as they cleaned you.  It was beautiful watching my little baby, as I was being sewed up by my doctor.  I was so cold, and sleepy since the beginning of the cutting.  The nurses handed over my baby to Daddy to hold, Mommy was able to look closely, to kiss, and to take pictures.  Serena was born, and at six pounds.

The pictures can be found here, as her first days, and here, as her first days at home.

It was the scariest day, the recovery process was hard and difficult the first day.  My little Serena is here.  Daddy and I love Serena so much.  The name was a right fit for her and sounded so right as I held her for the first time :D