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Rebekah's Birth

I was 42 and 8 months when I gave birth to my first child, Rebekah. How
I got there is a long story - but we had In Vitro Fertilization due to a
problem with my husband's sperm.  Three embryos were transferred to my
uterus and 12 days later I got a positive pregnancy test.  At 6.5 weeks
I started having severe pain in my left pelvis and some bleeding.

Assuming I was having a miscarriage I tried to stick it out in our hotel
room (we were on vacation) but soon realized something was terribly
wrong and had to call an ambulance.  At the ER two sacs were seen in my
uterus and a "mass" around my left ovary.

Two weeks and two emergency rooms later I was still having terrible pain
on the left side and my blood pressure kept dropping.  I was also having
intermittent bleeding. We were back home and our IVF doctor performed an
emergency Laporoscopy to find that an ectopic pregnancy had ruptured my
left tube.  He removed the tube and all the blood and guts.  The most
amazing thing about all this was that my uterus still contained one
PERFECT little embryo, although the other embryo was gone.  And that
brave little embryo turned out to be Rebekah.

The rest of my pregnancy was normal with the usual complaints and
inconveniences (and we all know what they are!).  I had a herpes
outbreak a week before my due date.  The doctor said that if I went into
labor less than 8 days after the outbreak I would have to have a
c-section.  I didn't care how - I just wanted my baby safe in my arms!

Five days after the outbreak my water broke at about 1 AM and I went
into labor right away.  We called the doctor and he said to come on in
and get prepped for surgery.  We got to the hospital and my contractions
were strong and 4 minutes apart.  They prepped me and started the spinal
and then let my husband in the operating room.  I was freaking out from
the sensation of the spinal and just wanted the baby to be out!  My
husband was sitting next to me and holding my hand and all of a sudden
there was a huge smile on his face - they had her head out of my
abdomen.  Then the doctor lifted her up, one hand on the scruff of her
neck, and one holding her feet, for my inspection.  She looked annoyed!

Bob went off with the nurse-anesthetist to weigh her and she was exactly
5 lbs.  Her apgars were 9/9 and she was perfect in every way.  In the
mean time I was in recovery shaking uncontrollably and they were giving
me IV drugs to stop the shaking. I remember Bob coming in and talking to
me and holding the baby but I really couldn't concentrate.  I was in a
semi-private room later and relatives started showing up and there was a
lot of celebrating but I was out of it.  They put Rebekah down next to
me and helped me nurse her right away.  I was really out of it from all
the drugs, and I was in a lot of pain too.  Turned out they didn't show
me how to use the morphine machiine!  So I suffered a lot unneccesarily.

She was a great sucker. We were in  the hospital 3 days since I got an
infection - which turned out to be really bad and I ended up back in the
hospital 5 weeks later and later had to have surgery and I still have
some problems from that infection.  It turned out I had a piece of
placenta left inside the uterus.  Anyway, Rebekah is 10 months old now
and absolutely fine, although she is small, but then I am petite too!  I
have nursed her every day of her life and will go on as long as she
wants me to.

claire