Sunday, Monica noticed her belly had become pretty hard. Almost as if she was having a constant contraction. She could feel very little movement from our little fella, which was very unusual. He normally was a very spunky little guy. He moved almost constantly. We kept calling him our little wild man. We half expected him to come flying out doing some sort of kung fu move! We didn't think too much into it, because she was still feeling him move. We thought it may be the beginning of labor. Sunday came and went. Sunday night, Monica was awakened by intense contractions around 2am. They came about every 30 minutes and lasted until around 6am. I got up and went to work Monday morning, thinking the baby was going to be coming within the next couple days. Little did I know he would make his arrival in less than 12 hours.
Up until now, Monica had her doctor appointment on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. It just so happened that they were booked full and she had to have her appointment on Monday this week. She texted me when she was on her way there. We were both thinking she was probably dilated since she was having contractions the night before (she hadn't been up until now). If she were dilated, her doctor was going to see about trying to help her go into labor. She couldn't be induced because she had a c-section with the boys. She texted me around 10:30 saying she was on her way to the hospital. She said her doctor told her to have me head there as well, as she was probably going to have him today. I immediately called my supervisor and told them I had to go. While I was waiting on someone to come relieve me from the ICU where I was working, I called Monica to get the scoop. She answered crying. I knew something wasn't right. Her first words were "Don't freak out, but the doctor said things aren't bad but they're not great and that I'll probably have the baby today." Don't freak out.... When your wife answers in tears saying her doctor doesn't like the way things look, it's hard not to get a little concerned. I left work and booked it to the hospital.
I got to the hospital just in time for the nurse to walk and tell us Monica's doctor wanted to take the baby by C-section (Monica wasn't dilated). I asked if she knew a timeline of events. She responded by telling us the doctor had already left and was on her way there now. She had Monica get into a wheelchair and took us up to the pre-op room. Her doctor got there very quickly and seemed very impatient. She wanted the baby out quickly. We were getting more concerned by the minute. She kept reassuring us, everything didn't look bad, but it didn't look good either. That is why she was rushing to get things moving before they turned bad. Up until her appointment Monday morning, her pregnancy had been going "perfect" in her doctor's words. Within the hour she had her epidural in and was being wheeled back to the OR.
They took us back to the OR and called for NICU nurses to be at the bedside. I understood the precaution, but it made Monica even more anxious. It wasn't long and we were hearing the squealing of our precious little boy! We had no idea how blessed we were to be hearing that squeal, and just how much God had His hands in our situation.
When the doctor opened her uterus, I heard her say there was a lot of blood in her uterus and there shouldn't be any. Obviously anytime you cut someone open they bleed, but there shouldn't be blood inside the uterus. The boys were born via c-section and they had a little blood on them, which is to be expected. Little Trevor had a lot of blood all over him. There was blood dripping off him. At first I freaked out a little, thinking he may be bleeding, but the nurse quickly wiped him off and checked to make sure he wasn't. Turns out he had been swimming in blood and swallowing it. Monica's uterus was full of blood. When he first came out he wasn't doing the best. Monica's doctor told the nurse she thought Trevor had been swallowing the blood. They had to put a tube into his little tummy and sucked out around 70cc of blood. After that he seemed to be doing better. They gave him some oxygen and he pinked up and was doing great. Before I knew it he was in my arms and they were closing Monica up. Afterwards her doctor told us she had a closed placental abruption. She said placental abruptions are normally extremely painful. The only few symptoms are extreme pain, and a contraction that never ends. However, these are also symptoms for many other aspects of labor. Placental abruptions are hard to diagnose and are pretty rare. The contractions Monica had Sunday night, were likely not contractions, but her placenta tearing away from her uterus. Her doctor kept telling the staff how much of a rock star Monica was. She said Monica has a ridiculously high pain tolerance and never complains about anything. She kept giving Monica praise throughout the rest of the surgery. Along with Monica's doctor praising her, everyone repeatedly told us, God was watching out for us that day.
A placental abruption is a condition where the placenta tears away from the uterus. When this happens it ruptures the arteries and veins in the placenta and blood begins pouring into the uterus, hence Monica's uterus was full of blood. When the placental abruption is closed, it means there are virtually no symptoms and it's extremely difficult to detect. Usually until it's too late. Placental abruptions when not caught often cause the baby to pass away and can be fatal to the mother too. Since the blood is pouring into the uterus, that means none of it is going to baby. This means the baby is not getting any nutrition, but more importantly, is not getting oxygen. I talked to my brother-in-law who is doing his second OB rotation during his residency while taking a break from typing this. He told me they just had a patient who came in for a check-up, and was sent home (not by him)because everything looked OK. She came back the next day because the baby had stopped moving. She had a closed placental abruption and her baby died. She was 38 weeks pregnant. If Monica had not had a her doctor appointment on Monday (a day she normally does not have appointments), it is highly likely, almost certain, that we would have lost baby Trevor and possibly Monica too. I would be writing a very different post today. It was by God's grace that she had her appointment, that her doctor was a great doctor to realize something was unusual and to make the wise decision to take him asap. All the hospital staff have told us repeatedly that God was looking out for us and how incredibly lucky we are. I say we are incredibly blessed and serve an amazing God! We can't say it enough, God is soooooo good!!!!!
And now for some awesome pics of Trevor James Parks, his adorable big brothers, super woman mom, and goofy dad:
