March 11, 2009...the day it all began

This whole thing started with me being a little neurotic, being a first time mom-to-be and all!! I stopped feeling the baby moving today so I called Eric. He told me to call the doctor, so I did. They wanted me to lay down and count how many times I could feel the baby move in one hour. That number was only 1 when it should have been more then 10. They asked me to come in to the office to be monitored. I arrived to Dr. Gallagher's office at about 6:30 and they found the heartbeat with no problems. He told me he would be back in about 15 minutes to see the recorded beats of the baby's heart. When he came back, he told me to get up and go into the ultrasound room. After a peek at the ultrasound he told me to go straight to the hospital. I had no clue what was going on, but I knew it was serious. I got to Mease Countryside Hospital at 7:00 pm and was met by Abbe, one of the labor and delivery nurses. She got me to my room and got me hooked up to everything that would monitor the baby. My mother showed up next with Eric not far behind. The problem that we were having was the baby was dropping it's heart rate and was not able to pick it up fast enough. This was the equivalent of you or I holding our breath for 40-60 seconds. Dr. Gallagher arrived to the hopital and was preforming another ultrasound when he told me that he was going to have to deliver the baby right now. I remember looking up at Eric as they wheeled me away, leaving him behind and I began to cry. The nurses told me that I had to settle down for the baby's sake and that everything was going to be ok. Abbe promised me that she wouldn't leave me and that she would stay by my side through the whole thing. I ended up in the operating room where I then stayed for 4 1/2 hours. When they turned me on my left side, the baby's heart rate was nice and stable, so they figured they would keep us just like that instead of delivering right away. Abbe stayed with me, just as she said she would, and then at about 12:00 am they put me back in my bed and wheeled me back to my room. They kept me on bedrest on my left side so that the baby would be stable overnight. The plan was to keep us this way to try to buy us some more time before we would be forced to deliver. The day was long, but so far so good.