Lilys Birth Story

Written Monday, July 27, 2015 by Cami Evans:

Near the end of my pregnancy with Sydney, my blood pressure went up a
little (in the 140s/90s) and I was put on bedrest for a couple weeks until her
ridiculously long birth at 39 weeks. My blood pressure remained high for a
little while after she was born but then cleared up. Similarly, when I was
pregnant with Kenzie, I developed high blood pressure near the end of the
pregnancy and had to keep an eye on it until she was born at 39 weeks. I
labored with her for 12 hours only for her to get stuck and come via Csection, but the blood pressure cleared up immediately upon her delivery. I
have never had blood pressure issues outside of pregnancy.
So, this time around I figured my blood pressure would become elevated but
would most likely not happen until the last month of pregnancy. I went into
this pregnancy healthier than I have ever been. I had several migraines and
other headaches during this pregnancy as well as some dehydration
headaches after getting sunburned. But I tried hard to exercise when
possible and do things that would keep my blood pressure within normal
range.
In mid-July, I started noticing some tight muscles in my neck. We were
buying a house in Saratoga Springs, Utah and I was feeling stressed about
moving while pregnant. I told my doctor that I was having some muscle
soreness as well as frequently seeing spots of light in my peripheral vision
and wondered if something was wrong with my blood pressure. He took my
bp twice and it was normal (110/78), and he said that although I did have +1
protein in my urine and spots of light in my vision, he really wasnt too
concerned about preeclampsia this early in the pregnancy. We decided to
keep an eye on things over the upcoming appointments and he said that if I
got severe headaches or a blind spot in the middle of my vision, then we
should be concerned.
Over the next few days, my neck became so tight and sore that it hurt to
turn my neck either direction, and I couldnt find anything that really relieved
the pain. I had to put ice packs on it all day and then at some point during
the night I would take a warm bath or shower in order to calm the pain
enough to sleep. I went and had a prenatal massage done, and it felt
fabulous while it was being rubbed out, but my neck was sore and hurting
again before I left the spa, and I came home feeling worse.
On Monday, July 20, I woke up at 6am with the sore neck, a strong headache,
and a distinctive blurry spot in my vision just lower left of center. I had
hardly slept and was feeling really crappy. It worried Martin enough to call

off work so I wouldnt have to drive myself to the doctor. I called the clinic
before it opened and the on-call doctor told me that the symptoms might be
nothing but that I should probably have them checked out at OB Emergency.
So we loaded up the girls and headed to the hospital for a check-up, with
plans to buy a washer and dryer for our new house afterwards.
We walked into the obstetrics emergency room at the University of Utah
Hospital around 9am, and they slowly started checking me in. You are
generally monitored for at least an hour before they decide if you are
actually worthy of being admitted to the hospital. But the second my blood
pressure was taken, the room filled with people and although they did a
great job of not letting on exactly, it became apparent that something was
very wrong. A normal blood pressure reading is about 120/80. In pregnancy,
140/90 is worrisome; 160/95 would probably need medication; and 180/100
causes seizures. My blood pressure was 220/120! Thats I-should-have-hada-stroke-and-died range. The nurse calmly leaned over to Martin and said,
Things are going to go very fast. You may get left behind. You can come if
you can keep up. They found me a bed in labor and delivery, started an IV,
and wheeled my bed in there before I knew what was happening. The look
on the doctors face was one of please dont die before we can evaluate
your condition! Martin quickly called his sister to come pick up the girls and
we were told pretty quickly that we werent going home before this baby was
born. That is terrifying to hear when you are only 27 weeks (6 months)
pregnant!!
Right from the start, I understood the seriousness of this situation and
prayed, prayed, prayed that the baby and I would survive and be okay. This
was definitely not what any of us expected when we walked into the hospital,
but thank heavens we decided to have it checked out or I probably would
have died suddenly at home!
I was started on magnesium to hopefully prevent seizures, and the baby was
monitored closely through my tummy. She kept moving away from the
sensors and they sometimes had to do an ultrasound just to find her
heartbeat again. It was terrifying when it would take them awhile to find the
baby! It was determined that the placenta was in pretty bad shape and most
likely the culprit for all the problems.
The magnesium was just awful. It, along with the blood pressure
medications they gave me, not only made it impossible for me to hold
anything in my hands, focus my eyes, have clear thoughts, or do anything
other than lay down, but I also had ongoing visual and auditory
hallucinations. I had a catheter placed since I wasnt able to get myself out
of bed to use the restroom anymore. So Martin was left to carry the burden
of worry over mom and baby since I was on another planet. He gave me a
priesthood blessing and updated our families and friends on my condition.

The doctors and nurses got my blood pressure to come down into the
140/100 range but then Lily started showing more and more signs of
distress. We went down to imaging for more in-depth ultrasounds and they
gave me a steroid shot to help develop her lungs faster. They pulled out
scrubs for Martin to wear in the OR and kept us on edge. I had placenta
previa, where the placenta covers the cervix, so if Lily needed to come out it
was going to be a C-section. (I found that out at our 20-week ultrasound and
I had been planning on a cesarean delivery so at least that part wasnt a
surprise.)
The steroid shot was to have a second dose after 24 hours and then they
would try to wait an additional 24 hours for it to do its job and get her lungs
ready for delivery. But the doctors kept saying that we might not make it
through that 48-hour window without more intervention. It looked like there
was no chance that I could be discharged with some medication and be able
to wait until closer to the due date for delivery. This baby was coming soon.
After a fit-full night of constant prodding and strange hallucinations, the
doctor came in at 7am on Tuesday, July 21 and woke up Martin and me by
saying, Good morning. We have been monitoring you and baby throughout
the night. The baby is still under stress, and we feel it is now necessary to
go ahead with delivery. We would never recommend this at 27 weeks
without carefully considering everything. Lets go to the OR.
And that was that. I knew it was the right decision and I felt peace that
everything would be okay. I was immediately wheeled into the operating
room and given a spinal epidural and Martin met me in there a few minutes
later. Lily Cameron Evans was born at 7:21am (on 7/21) and nonceremoniously handed through a window directly into the NICU. We didnt
hear her cry, couldnt see her being treated, and had no idea if she was even
alive. Because of the magnesium, I wasnt allowed to see her for 4 hours
post-delivery and Martin would have to wait 2 hours because she was born
so early.
The good news is that immediately upon removing the diseased placenta
from my body, everything normalized again. My blood pressure went down,
my neck no longer hurt, my head no longer throbbed, and the blurry spot in
my vision disappeared. I was still on magnesium for 24 more hours though,
so I really wasnt coherent enough to worry about my health or my baby.
Everything had gone so quickly. By 7:45am, we were back in the room
recovering and by 8am, I was in my new postpartum room.
After two hours, the nurse went to check on whether or not Martin could go
see the baby. But the nurse never came back. So we asked someone else

for news on the baby and she seemingly disappeared as well. We pretty
much concluded that Lily had died and they were trying to break the news to
us gently when the nurse came in and led Martin down to the NICU to meet
her. He texted me a minute later that Lily was doing great!!! Hallelujah!
She only weighed 1 pound 10 ounces and was about 12 inches long at birth,
but she did not need any major interventions. In fact, by the end of day one
she was basically breathing room air and just enjoying a nap in her incubator.
Martin posted pictures of her on Facebook and the prayers and love and
support from friends and family came flooding in and became overwhelming.
My mom flew up from Texas to help with the girls, and Martin stayed with me
(and Lily) at the hospital for the rest of the week.
Lily is in a min-stim phase, which means she is stimulated minimally and
only touched a couple times a day so she can focus all her attention on
sleeping and growing. She is too small to hold just yet; it would irritate her
more than it would help her. She is supposed to still be in the womb. After a
week, we might be able to hold her skin-to-skin. Her progress has amazed
the doctors and us from the get-go. She is our miracle baby! We are so
happy that she is with us! She will be in the hospital until her due date of
October 15.
I was discharged on Saturday afternoon. It was great to leave the confines of
that hospital room, shower in my own bathroom, sleep in my own bed, and
be with Sydney and Kenzie again, but it was hard to walk away from the
hospital no longer pregnant and not have a baby with us. My abdomen is
swollen from the surgery but I am healing well. My blood pressure still goes
high sometimes but is being controlled with medication. I will keep
monitoring it over the next few weeks. Thanks to my mom, other helpers,
and the most amazing husband on the planet, I have been able to focus all
my energy on resting and healing and pumping milk for our little baby.
Martin even rubs the edema out of my feet every night. We call the NICU for
status updates and visit her daily. She has been nothing but a blessing.
We still havent ordered that washer and dryer for our new house, but we are
just about packed and ready to move in. There will be a nice nursery waiting
when Lily is ready to come home this fall.
Thank you to everyone that has prayed for our family. We feel it.