My Stolen Moment, My Miracle to Share

The administered an IV to keep me hydrated, by then it was 2:10 pm. I asked again about the epidural. They said the anesthesiologist was just outside the door and I could sit up and be ready. I sat up and the nurse asked me to sit up straighter. I said I could not because I was sitting on something. 2:15 pm. She asked me to lie down so she could check me, I started to scream, the pressure was suddenly pain, my water then broke and my baby was born at 2:19 pm. A 4 minute labor…. (yes, sorry ladies, that was my shortest labor)

My husband Dan and Pattie, my loving mother in law, almost missed it. They were waiting for me to get the epidural, which I never got, by the way, when the anesthesiologist came running into the hall and screaming, “you need to come in now!”

So my baby came into the world like this, the nurse became the doctor and the anesthesiologist became the nurse. The front desk personnel became the baby’s nurse. It all worked out.

So here is where I wanted to tell you about “my stolen moment”. I never looked at my baby when she first came out. The fear crept in again. I felt so nervous and I was concerned for her life. Luckily, the neonatologist walked in at 3 minutes after her birth, and he gave us the thumbs up. No physical characteristics were apparent. He gave her an EKG and said it was normal and that we could wait to repeat the Echocardiogram after we left the hospital (we had a fetal Echo at 22 weeks of gestation). I finally held her when she was 10 minutes old. She was 2 ounces shy of seven pounds. She was rosy, and so so beautiful! I was in awe!

We still had no answers. The blood was taken from the baby and sent to the genetic lab. I had 2 more weeks to wait. And that was by far the longest time I have ever waited. Two weeks seemed like an eternity. I took her back for the Echo when she was 5 days old. She was so beautiful, so tiny, so sweet, and she looked like she was my baby. I loved her so very much and I was still so puzzled by what had happened to us. The Echo was fine. I was sent home. And so I just waited.

At the first checkup, my pediatrician asked me, “Any results yet?” I answered, “I asked the lab to FAX the results here today”. She said “let me go check it.” In she walks smiling, and she said” everything came back normal” and she handed me the results. I took one look at it and I dropped it on the floor. Everything got so quiet, and the world seemed to have come to a standstill, and I could hear my heart pounding.  I covered my face and I just could not stop my tears. She hugged me and said “This is wonderful news. I’ll give you some time alone” and I knew then, that was “the bullet that was coming straight to my heart.” My son Thomas, 4 at the time, opened the door to the office, and ran into the waiting area and he yelled “my baby sister is not sick anymore.” The baby’s name, by the way, is GIULIANA SOFIA VIOLA, now 23 months old, the one I mentioned in the beginning of this letter. She is 100% healthy, like all of my children. She is everything science said she might not have been and more. And in my most desperate day, when I begged God to give me a perfect baby, I did not come close to what my Giuliana Sofia is today.