Delivery

During delivery, Dr. Lunn discovered that Madeline's placenta had partially separated. There was no way of knowing if the premature labor had caused the separation or if the separation was the cause of the labor. No matter, with Madeline's placenta slowly tearing away, she would not have made it much longer and I would have bled to death.

Once both girls were born, I can remember the first thing I asked, "Are they dead?" As horrible a question as it is, it was a fear that had plagued me since I had been admitted to the hospital. Jeff and the doctors assured me over and over that they were alive, but my fear made it difficult to believe them. Cadence made the slightest whimper that sounded like a kitten when she was born. Madeline didn't make a sound. I just knew they were dead.

Fortunately, they weren't. Immediately after delivery, they were cleaned up and examined, each by their own team of nurses and a neonatologist. They both scored surprisingly well on the Apgar scale. Cadence scored eight out of ten and Madeline scored seven out of ten. Some term infants don't even score that well, so we were encouraged. While most mothers get to hold their child almost immediately after delivery, I only got to see a glimpse of our fragile, beautiful girls as they were whisked away to the Saint Francis EOPC. Jeff and I braced ourselves for a rocky future and tried to prepare for a long NICU stay.