Meredith - Charlotte Olivia

I had a perfect pregnancy.  I was very well throughout and all of my tests and the routine ultrasound at 20 weeks confirmed that everything was going well. My husband and I were so excited.  We both really wanted a child to share our love.  We prepared a nursery, bought cute baby outfits and all the baby essentials. 

As my due date came and went, I began getting anxious.  We couldn’t wait to meet our precious baby!  On Monday, May 14, I called the midwife to discuss my concern.  We talked for a while and I felt better.  She said we would talk more about inducing the baby at my regularly scheduled appointment on Wednesday. 

On Tuesday, May 15 (41 weeks pregnant), I did some errands, met my husband for lunch, came home and decided to take a nap.  At about 4:00p.m. I woke up.  I felt something, I thought my water had broken.  I tried not to get excited.  I felt another drop and instinctively reached down to find I had been dripping blood.  I grabbed the phone and ran into the bathroom.  I took down my trousers to find blood running down my legs.  I called my husband and told him to come home because I was gushing blood. Then, I called the midwife and explained to her what was happening.  By this point I was standing in the bathtub because there was so much blood.  She told me to hang up and call 911 (emergency); she would meet me at the hospital. 

The police and ambulance came.  They put me in the ambulance and told my husband to grab my suitcase and follow behind—we were going to have a baby soon.  I asked the paramedic if he had a Doppler so we could listen to the baby’s heart.  The ambulance did not have one.  I thought I felt her move, I was still thinking she was okay.  When I arrived at the hospital, they first tried to find a heartbeat with the Doppler, there was none.  They next tried a scalp monitor (I think), but that didn’t find a heartbeat either.  They brought in an ultrasound that confirmed that our sweet baby had died. 

I don’t really remember too much, everything happened so quickly. I was crying and saying I’m sorry.  We had to call our family and tell them what had happened. They began inducing my labor with pitocin.  I chose to go through several hours of labor unmedicated, but eventually had an epidural.  The midwife told me that she was pretty sure I had Vasa Previa.  She explained what she thought had happened; she was very compassionate and loving.  My mother, sister, and brother-in-law arrived from out of town. 

At 3:03 our baby girl was born.  She weighed 7 lbs. 4 oz. and was 23 inches long.  She was perfect.  She looked just like her mother—she had my chin and nose, she had her aunt’s lips, adorable chubby cheeks.  And to me she was the most beautiful baby in the world.  We named her Charlotte Olivia.  When the placenta was delivered the midwife showed it to me.  She explained and showed me that the cord was not inserted correctly.  It was Vasa Previa.  We held Charlotte for a longtime and had a lot of photographs taken.  We had her baptized.  We had to say goodbye when we had only just said hello.