We Made It - The Story of Durham

Here's the short version:

Durham Everett Curtis was born Tuesday, July 13th at 4:23 p.m. weighing in at 6 pounds, 12 ounces, 19 inches long. We went through a very scary ordeal to get him here via emergency c-section, but we are thankful he and I made it through it. We feel very blessed to have beat the odds and have a healthy baby and a healthy mama.

Here's the long version:

My doctor gave me the option of being induced at 39 weeks and considering how big and miserable I was I decided to do it. My induction was scheduled for Tuesday, July 13th so I spent all day Monday preparing to bring home our little guy possibly Wednesday. Dan had gone to work that day, but ended up leaving early because he couldn't concentrate on anything else besides the fact that his little boy would be here the next day. I made some yummy (easy) chicken and baked potatos for dinner and the grandparents came over to eat with us and talk about how we would soon get to meet our little angel.

Me at 39 weeks pregnant

The morning of the 13th, the hospital called me at 5 a.m. and said my induction would have to be postponed until later in the day because there were too many women already in labor there. So Dan and I took the opportunity to get a few extra hours of sleep and were nice and rested up when the hospital called and said they were ready for us a few hours later.

We arrived to the hospital at about 9:30 a.m. and we met our nurse, Lily. She was great from the very beginning. We immediately connected when she was telling us she was from Milan and Dan told her about his time in Spain for his mission. Then she told us she was a member of the church as well and we connected even more. She was so great the entire time, but they took her away to work in triage and gave us another nurse who was nice, but seemed kind of new and shy. Then we got the best news - they were sending Lily back to be with us because the other nurse was needed to help with another patient in labor.

Me and Lily

Dan and I were just hanging out in our delivery suite with nurse Lily then my mom arrived and the three of us were there just waiting for progress. The contractions were getting pretty painful and I had decided from the beginning of my pregnancy that when it came to delivering there was no need for me to try to be tough - I will get the drugs if they are readily available! So I got an epidural and the world became a much better place. :) I tell ya, I don't know why anyone would go through labor without one, but to each their own!

After getting the epidural I was feeling great and didn't even notice when contractions were coming. Lily was monitoring them and was kind of concerned because they would just stop altogether for chunks of time so she put in a catheter to better monitor the contractions. Not much later my contractions were becoming sporadic again so Lily decided to flush the catheter to be sure there was nothing blocking it causing it to read incorrectly. After flushing the catheter she lowered me down in bed to check my progress and that is when everything changed for the worse. I felt an immediate rush of heat in my ear lobes and felt like I was going to pass out. I said aloud, "I feel hot." This set off an alarm in Lily and she jumped up and pushed the "major emergency only" button she had shown us earlier and said "I need someone in here NOW!" Then I began coughing and I couldn't breathe. I had this pain in my chest that felt like someone had set bricks on top of my lungs, crushing them. The anasthesiologist came rushing into the room and the next thing I knew there were a bunch of other people around my bedside unplugging everything. I was semi-conscious but I remember them running my bed across the hall into the O.R., the anasthesiologist holding my hand the entire time having me squeeze his hand and a lot of other background yelling... "Get Dr. Hutchison here NOW" "Get any OB doctor here NOW", etc. In my mind all I kept thinking was that I was going to leave Dan alone with a brand new baby or completely alone with no baby and no wife because I was feeling pretty certain that I wasn't going to make it and wasn't sure if the baby would either. However, there was a feeling deep inside that I knew I needed to try to remain calm. I didn't know why but I tried to calm myself within. My doctor rushed into the O.R., scrubbed up and leaned in toward my face and said, "We're gonna have this baby now." And that's the last I remember.

I groggily woke up later (not even sure how much later) to see Dan sitting beside my bed wearing a white jumpsuit, holding my hand. Lily and the anasthesiologist were there too. They had stayed past their shift to make sure everything was fine when I woke up. At first I was really confused. I wasn't sure if I was in reality or not because I was honestly surprised to be alive. Then it hit me, where was the baby??? I remember all I kept asking about was the baby. In fact, Dan told me I kept asking the same questions and he thought I had lost my mind. "Where's the baby? Is the baby ok?" I think it was because I didn't really expect to wake up, so when I did I needed the reassurance that my baby was okay and that I wasn't in a dream. He showed me pictures he had taken of our baby when they let him come inside the nursery while they were cleaning him up. I remember I kept saying "He's so cute" and I know I made Dan show me the pictures more than once. :) Dan told me that the doctor had the baby out in a matter of 7 minutes from the time they rushed me out of the room to the O.R. The doctor told us that when they pulled Durham out he was screaming like crazy before they could even get him all the way out. Poor little guy.

Then I got wheeled out to get a CAT (sp?) scan and a chest x-ray. I wasn't sure why at that point but I was still too groggy and confused to ask many questions. Lily came with me and stayed with me the whole time. She was talking with me in the hall of the hospital and she broke down and cried and told me she thought that they were going to lose me and that she knew that Heavenly Father had been watching over me and everyone involved. She also said that someone who went through what I had just gone through should be in the ICU, not awake and getting tests done. I asked her what happened because I didn't even know why they rushed me to get an emergency C-section other than that I felt like I was dying. She told me after I told her I was hot my blood pressure shot up and the baby's heart rate decreased by over 50%. She also told me that my lungs had started to collapse, that's why I had the excruciating chest pain. She explained to me once we got back to my room that the doctor believed I had an amniotic fluid embolism, but a small one that was able to resolve itself.

I still hadn't gotten to see but pictures of my baby so after all the chaos had settled I kept asking the nurse if they could bring the baby down from the nursery so I could see him. I finally met my son around 10 p.m., nearly 6 hours after he was born. I was in love and in awe that only hours before that I was sure that I was taking my last breaths and then there I was, alive and holding a beautiful baby boy in front of me. It was surreal. He had to spend the night in the nursery so they could closely monitor me through the night, so we only got to spend about an hour or so with him.

Meeting Durham for the first time

Later that night I looked up more information about an amniotic fluid embolism and was even more shocked to be alive after learning about it. Apparently it has an 80 - 90 percent mortality rate in the women that go through it and the women who survive it usually have neurological damage. I could not fall asleep that night for the life of me. I was terrified that I would fall asleep and never wake up. They had me hooked up to monitors to watch my oxygen levels and put me on oxygen in the middle of the night because they said my oxygen levels would decrease whenever I would fall asleep. Dan said he couldn't sleep either because he was afraid something would happen while he was asleep and was scared after everything we had just gotten through.

We got the news that my scans had come back clear and that everything was fine. We had to stay in the hospital until Friday and I was so ready to come home by that point. You really get absolutely no rest in the hospital between hospital staff and visitors coming all the time so I was exhausted and ready to be home. Dan stayed with me the entire time we were at the hospital. The only times he left were a few times to run to the cafeteria to eat. He told me he was afraid to leave me. After all, the day Durham was born things changed drastically in the blink of an eye so he wanted to be sure he was with me at all times, just in case.

The doctor told me that what happened to me is extremely rare, occurring in about 1 in 13,000 women and that it should never happen to me again. She said she had only seen it one other time in her career, about ten years ago, and that the woman had neurological damage from it. I feel so blessed to be alive and not have any damage from what I went through. I am so, so thankful to be able to be here with my family and be able to see my beautiful baby grow and get to be with my husband. I know that Heavenly Father was watching over me and Durham that day and that the people at the hospital working to save us had His blessing. For whatever reason, it was not my time to go and I am so grateful to be alive. Each day with my husband and child is such a blessing that I will never take for granted.

Durham is healthy and strong. He could hold his head up when he was not even a day old. Hard to believe, but here's proof.

We love this little guy and are enjoying being new parents. He's a very sweet baby and we feel very blessed to have him in our lives.

We appreciate the love and support we have received from family and friends. We love you all and are thankful for all you do for us.