My Story, Part I

I have been asked a lot of questions about what happened this summer during and after my delivery of Lucas. I am willing to share but I still get pretty overwhelmed and sometimes have a hard time. I really do need to document what happened so that I never forget. It was such a scary time for our family and friends. It was such a humbling and life changing time for me as well. I want to document it because I want to remember. I need to remember. I was given a gift – on so many different levels. So maybe this will be a series of posts – I’m not sure, but I have to start somewhere, so here it goes…

Let me start with the hospital I was at – Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH). When I had my childrens boutique I met a lot of moms-to-be that were checking out alternative birthing options, so of course I was curious. Quite a few believed at home births and deliveries by midwives were the best options for their families. I knew because of my previous high-risk pregnancy that neither of those were an option for me. I heard a lot of people refer to NMH as a “baby factory” and had negative things to say, but my overall experience there when I was pregnant with Aidan was very positive (including 5 weeks of hospital bed rest). My delivery with Aidan was uneventful and I really felt we had great doctors and nurses. Absolutely no complaints.

When I found out I was pregnant with Lucas I opted to go with a high risk practice at NMH that was recommended by my very good friend, Elisabeth McKenna. She had a great experience with them and she and I had similar medical issues so I thought this was a good fit for us. Dr. Socol was great – the nurses even referred to me as one of “Socol’s girls.” As in most OB practices you are supposed to rotate your visits with all of the doctors in the practice so you are familiar with each one because you don’t know exactly who will be delivering you. Dr. Socol tried to always have me come in when he was there so that he could see me himself. I was kind of a medical mystery – the complications I had with my pregnancy with Aidan were not present this time and that was pretty unusual.

We knew that Lucas was measuring big (they were estimating 8 lbs.) so at 39 weeks they decided it was best to induce me. I was scheduled to go in at midnight but at 11:30 p.m. my water broke, so off we were! I don’t remember much about labor – I know I pushed for a long time. Dr. Su was the doctor delivering Lucas. At some point she determined that for the safety of Lucas it was time for an emergency c-section. I remember going into the operating room…I remember Lucas being born and Nate showing him to me…and after that it was lights out for two weeks.

Click here to go to Part II

Part II