Ella Georgia (Miracle bub) - The baby we were told to terminate was born perfect!!!!
:D:DElla Georgia (Miracle Bub) ? Birth Story
I know its a long story but its been a long journey to have Ella so here goes...
I feel I need to start right at the beginning as it has been a long journey for myself, Ella and my fantastic husband.
After being diagnosed with Endometriosis we were advised not to put off having children for long. When we began trying to conceive my cycles became incredibly long and irregular. After a few long cycles we saw my gyno who prescribed clomid as I was also diagnosed with Polycystic ovarian syndrome (fertility drugs) to begin after a blood test. After the blood test we discovered we were pregnant and hadn?t even taken the drugs yet! But that bub was an angel baby we found out we lost at 8.5 weeks. The feeling of desperation to be pregnant again just moved up to another intensity and after not having another cycle since our loss of our first bub we were prescribed clomid again ? this is where Ella?s journey began.
The fertility drugs did what they were meant to do and I found out I was pregnant 11 dpo, the 2nd line was soooo faint my hubby thought I was just seeing things. I was ecstatic though incredibly nervous and anxious.
At 7 weeks we had our first ultrasound and saw our gorgeous Ella as a tiny 1.4cm blob on the screen, I have never felt so much relief. Just 2 weeks later our relief turned to absolute fear when the Obstetrician told us as we looked at the ultrasound that our baby had fluid on her body. We were told it was probably a fatal chromosomal disorder, that would mean our bubba had no chance at a viable life. We were given the option to terminate and were sent for a specialist ultrasound the following morning. This confirmed what we had just heard and we were once again told it did not look good, especially since it had been picked up so clearly, so early. Again we were told many women would choose to terminate in this instance. We were told we needed to wait till 11.5 weeks to have CVS testing which might give some answers though were also warned we may lose our baby before this time. The wait was agonising and the thought of losing another baby when we had CVS testing was incredibly scary but I felt we really needed more answers and information of what were dealing with. We had the CVS testing done and the results came back all clear. Now we were told since in wasn?t a chromosomal disorder it may be a heart defect or something else as increased nuchal fluid can mean this.
We met with a geneticist and genetic counsellor who explained the various problems our baby may or may not have and the chances of something still being wrong after getting the all clear from the CVS test. We were told that if at the 19 week foetal anomaly scan everything looked normal and the fluid had resolved then we had an excellent chance that our baby would be born healthy. Thankfully by about 16 weeks the fluid was already starting to resolve. At 19 weeks our baby looked perfect. At 24 weeks our baby had a cardiac scan to check her heart again (just in case) and then another scan at 35 weeks in case something was missed. In addition to this the obstetrician did a scan at every appointment which was approximately every 2 weeks.
At 38 weeks and 1 day I was in a panic as I had not felt any movements in hours. I went and saw my obstetrician who sent me to the hospital for monitoring of the baby, Thankfully this showed lots of movements even though I couldn?t feel them. My obstetrician sent me home and told me to come and see him the next morning at 9am.
At 38 weeks and 2 days on September 30th I went and saw my Obstetrician who examined me and told me to my surprise I was 4cms dilated, effaced and had bulging waters and that I was going to have my baby that day! Little did I know that he was going to offer me an induction the following day as he and I both knew I had come to the end of what I could handle emotionally and just had to meet my baby to know that she was ok.
\I was sent over to the hospital and was given the drip to speed things along. After awhile I used the gas, then had an epidural which didn?t work and then pethidine and then another epidural that worked. I stayed on the bed the whole time as I did not have the energy to do anything else. I was also vomiting fairly frequently too. There were many points where a c-section was talked about by my Ob as things were not progressing as they should. I fainted after taking in the gas every single time. Once the epidural worked I felt fantastic.
By 10pm I was finally ready to start pushing. I pushed for 2 hours, some of that time without any feeling with the epidural and then it was turned off. My husband, sister, midwife and Ob kept telling me they could see the head and I kept yelling at them to stop lying to me as they must have been saying that to keep me pushing!!!! Finally just before midnight my baby was getting distressed (and so was I, as I just knew she was not going to fit!) and the Ob quickly got the vacuum out. The epi was turned back up and the next thing I know I?m being told to pull my baby up onto me!
Ella Georgia arrived at 11:53pm on the 30th September 2009. She was born perfect and healthy at 3.280kgs and 54cm?s long and I guess we will never know why she had extra nuchal fluid so early in the pregnancy. She even scored 9 on the apgar scores!
She really is out miracle baby and I am so glad we didn?t put our faith in science and what the doctors told us. We had many people praying for us and I know this is what got us though and what gave us out little miracle Ella! She is such a blessing to us all.
