Rowan Robert's Birth Story
I’m not going to lie. I have been waiting to write this until I felt like I had wrapped my head around the last few months, and I’m not sure that I have 100% done that yet but I know that sharing Rowan’s story will help!
So, let’s rewind a minute to August 2018 when I was pregnant with Hadley and started having preterm labor contractions. No explanation, and no progress beyond just intense contractions on and off starting at 29 weeks, with multiple hospital visits to calm contractions and then, with her finally arriving via c-section at 36 weeks. So, when we finally got pregnant with Rowan, my doctors warned me that he could arrive early again but if I rested and didn’t push it, I might make it farther than I did with Hadley.
Well, flash forward to being 29 weeks pregnant with Rowan and things were looking good! 30, 31 … I was tired and had the usual pregnancy aches and pains, but nothing bad enough that I thought he was coming early. Then around 32 weeks they started, much less intensely than with Hadley but they were there. So I started taking it easy when I could, being in bed as much as possible and calling in reinforcements for work as needed, while trying to wrap up the busy summer we had and prep the team for the insane fall that was ahead.
On September 9 at 35 weeks, I woke up for a shoot with the team and just felt off. Lots of contractions and my body is didn’t feel well. I joked with the team that “this was my last shoot because I was having the baby tonight.” At the time I was 100% joking because we were scheduled for another two day shoot the following week and I just hoped they would subside once I got off my feet.
At about 6 pm while making dinner, they got worse. More intense and more frequent, so I got in bed and took my last call from bed at 7 hoping they would just go away while I slept, but I was so uncomfortable that I couldn’t sleep and I started getting nervous. At 8 pm I started officially tracking the contractions in time and level of pain and there was no doubt that they were not calming down. A call to the dr and we were on our way to the hospital.
With Hadley this little trip would have resulted in a lot of hydration and we would be home by morning, which is what we were prepared for. But after being there for just 30 minutes of monitoring and hydration, it was clear we weren’t leaving there without our baby. I was TERRIFIED!!
Rowan Robert was born at 2:12 am on September 10 via c-section. 35 weeks is not to term, we were told before he was born that we would get to see him but he would go straight to the NICU for full assessment and likely would need to stay there for a bit as he continued to grow.
But boy was I not prepared for what that meant. And here's where I will stop on his birth and will share more on our NICU experience soon!
Back to baby snuggles now - Cheers!
E