It seems everyone else in the NICU expected a normal birth only to have something go wrong and their babies were suddenly whisked away, even life-flighted to Portland NICU.
My story is the opposite.
I had a couple months mentally preparing for my baby to be whisked away. I came to the City ready to stay in the Ronald McDonald House for as long as my baby is in the NICU.
If Lioness had moved her hands out of the way so we could clearly see her jaw on the ultrasounds, I think the doctors would have been a lot more concerned about her ability to breath. They probably would have wanted to induce me so she would be born during the day, with all the right doctors there. Instead I was able to go into labor on my own and have a completely natural birth.
During labor, as I pushed out her head, I heard nothing. Pushed again, still silence. Duane told me that once her head was out, I wasn’t able to push hard enough to get her shoulders out, so they pulled her out. She is going to need to go to the chiropractor!
Time stopped. The silence confirmed she wasn’t breathing. I was thankful we had a whole team doctors in the room waiting to do whatever necessary to get her breathing. I hoped they really could keep her alive.
Suddenly she was screaming. A squirming baby was placed in my arms. I was shocked and confused. Overwhelming emotions. Shaking and crying. She’s breathing. She’s ok. She’s really breathing. I could not even wrap my mind around it. I am holding my baby. I got to hold my baby. She is ok.
Looking at her beautiful little face, her perfectly formed ears. Noticing cute little indents below her eyes, just like Dada’s missing cheek bones, but even smaller. Her tiny lower jaw. So small I had to wonder, “how is she breathing?”
Then they did take her so the breathing team could check her and then they gave her back to me. She had lots of skin-to-skin time as we tried nursing. At some point the took her again to weigh her and do all the normal newborn things. Then they gave her back to me again! Monkey & Grandma came to see her in labor and delivery. I don’t think family normally is even allowed to visit until mama & baby are moved to their hospital room. I had from 3:08 pm until 7pm, with her in our arms, enjoying the miracle of our little “breath of life”, while the doctors decided if she even needed to go to NICU.
As Duane has said, “you let them take the kid to the NICU to observe her overnight, and you don’t get her back.” Maybe they knew all along she would need to stay in the NICU for a while. They just made it a very gentle version of being whisked away.
