Tomorrow I become an uncle again. My sister is scheduled for a C-Section at 9am to deliver her girl, Ella Grace. This has been a very tense week and tomorrow will be very surreal - happy, but difficult.
Last year at this same time my mom and I were sitting in the same hospital waiting for her second child, Eveyn to be born. We could go to the nurses station and see the progress of everything on a dry erase board. So, every 5-10 minutes I was checking to see if anything had changed. The last time I went up there, her name was erased. Normally, one would assume that this meant the baby was born. I thought otherwise.
We switched to a closer waiting room while trying to get the doctors' and nurses' attention. They just kept avoiding us. Finally we saw a couple of nurses crying, followed by the doctor. She was walking towards us like that scene you see in movies when someone is dead. She took us into a side room. Eveyn had died during the birth.
The umbilical cord was tied in a "true knot". When she descended into the birth canal the knot tightened cutting off her oxygen supply. This is an extremely rare complication and one that cannot be predicted. She was full term and perfectly healthy. It was a fluke.
My sister wasn't planning on having another child until awhile later, but the universe had other plans. She became pregnant in June. Ella is technically due a week before Eveyn was, but they decided to deliver by C-Section to minimize risk. It was scheduled 2 weeks early so there wouldn't be a chance that she would go into labor unexpectedly.
With her first child, my sister had complications and was rushed to emergency surgery. She lost a lot of blood and things were very touch and go. The second was a tragedy. The third? It will be fine. We're very excited and this time there will be many more of us at the hospital than last time. While I'm looking forward to holding my neice, I know I'll be confronting a lot of emotions tied to last year at this same time.
I will try to post pictures tomorrow.
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3 comments:
I'm sure everything will turn out just fine. We'll be thinking of you.
Doesn't this make you an Aunt?
I'll be home all day tomorrow working on my f'ing paper.
I'll be thinking about everyone. Give me a call when Ella gets here!
What a beautiful name! My daughter's middle name is Grace too.
A dear friend of ours lost her second baby with a true knot too. She was passed her due date when the baby stopped moving. She had to deliver after the baby was already gone. It was horrible and heartbreaking. I was out of town and not even there for her.
I know everything will be better than fine tomorrow. Happy uncle-dom! We'll be thinking about you.
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