Evelyn's Birth Story

My Dad likes to sum up my life so far by saying that I "don't do anything the easy way, but things always work out okay in the end".

I started my life sometime in April, 2004. I gave my Mom a lot of nausea and 'a super-human sense of smell', but I only made her throw-up a few times. About 12 weeks later, I decided to shake up my parents a bit by giving Mom some spotting and cramping. Really, I just wanted to give them a sneak peak of me. After 8 hours in the emergency department, Mom and Dad got their first picture of me and they breathed a big sigh of relief. They even got to see me again in a follow-up ultrasound. All went well after that until my 18 week ultrasound. They found a Choroid Plexus Cyst (CPC) in one of the ventricles of my brain. It is like a sac of water that should not be there. It really was no big deal though, and it went away by the follow-up ultrasound that was done when I was about 23 weeks. Again, things moved along nicely, Mom got bigger and loved being pregnant. I decided to shake them up a bit again when I was about 33 weeks and for about 5 days, I decided to try to stay very still. I just wanted Mom and Dad to get another peak at me, so, after my 5th ultrasound was booked, while Mom and Dad were on a date to see R.E.M, I woke up and moved like crazy. The next day, Mom and Dad got their peak but by then they were not worried any more. I figured I had caused enough mischief, so I settled in and let Mom enjoy the rest of her pregnancy.

On January 11, 2005, at 04:30 am, my world started to squeeze in on me. Mom woke up to what felt like 'wicked menstrual cramps'. They were much worse when she layed down, so, that was the end of her sleep. That day, I went to the Devonain Gardens with Mom, Auntie Karissa and Daniel, then I went to Moms weekly doctor appointment. Dr. Stanich checked her and found that the door to my world - Mom's cervix - was already starting to open and was 3-4cm dilated and 80% effaced (thinned out). By chance, Auntie Pennie and her husband Bill were also at the doctors' office and they drove us home (Mom really appreciated that because those cramps were getting closer and stronger). We met Dad outside the house on his way to work and gave him an update. After that, all I know is that my world kept squeezing me more often until Mom finally decided that those 'wicked menstrual cramps' may actually be contractions. She called Dad at work and he came home. Auntie Pennie came back to pick up Daniel, and then she drove Auntie Karissa and Mom and Dad to the hospital.

When they got there, the nurse discovered that the door to my world had opened to 4-5 cm and I was getting squeezed every 4 minutes or so. That was at about 11pm. Things pretty much stayed like that until about 3am the next day (my birthday). That is when they checked Mom again and decided to break her water for her. Things really got going after that and by 5:40am, my door was wide open. Mom started pushing at 5:50am and kept pushing, and pushing, and pushing... Around 8:30am Dr. Ellis came on duty (she was very nice) and checked my progress through my door. She confirmed what Mom's nurse (Michelle) suspected all along - I was not facing the right way. You see, a baby ideally faces their Mom's spine when they are born. I decided it would be more fun to look at my Moms right hip and thigh. This causes a couple things to happen. It gives Mom 'back labour', and it basically causes my head to get stuck. After 3 hours of pushing, Mom had barely moved me. So, Dr. Ellis called in an obstetrician - Dr. Wood and his resident, Dr. Dwinell. After both of them checked to see what I was up to, they all decided that I needed to be helped out with forceps. The problem was that they needed to deliver another baby by cesarian first and the anestestist was already busy with that woman. They said they would come back after they were done. So Mom kept on pushing until about 9:40am when the anestestist came back and gave her an epidural. She had been pretty quiet up until then and mostly kept her eyes closed. After the drugs kicked in, she got really talkative and asked a tonne of questions and actually even smiled. Dr. Ellis stayed around the whole time and actually looked like she was praying for me at one point. Dr's Wood and Dwinell came back a bit after 10am and things really started to move. At 10:20am, I felt something hard and cold wrap around my head and start tugging... and tugging. They gave my Mom two contractions to push me out with the help of the forceps. At the end of the second contraction, Mom remembers looking at the doctor and seeing him shake his head as if the forceps were not going to work. He told her to keep pushing - even though the contraction was over. At the last moment, just as they were about to give up and decide to do a cesarian, Mom felt a pop and I started to come out. When Dad saw my face, he thought 'It's a boy'. When he saw the rest of me, he said "It's a girl!" (Dad later clarified that I didn't look like a boy per se, but all that goop on my face sure made me look like one for a moment.) My birthweight was 3808 grams, I was 52 cm long, and my head measured 35 cm in circumference (8lb 6oz, 20.5 inches long, 13 3/4 inches circumference).

Now, usually the story kind of ends there, but I still had one more trick up my sleeve to give Mom and Dad a little scare. Every time a baby is delivered by forceps, they call a 'Code Pink' that means a Respiratory Therapist (RT) will be present for the birth. My Apgar's were 8 and 9 after I was born (which is pretty good), but the RT was not happy with my breathing. I was kind of grunting with each breath. They decided to take me to the Special Care Nursery (SCN) for a few hours to keep and eye on me. Before they took my away, the RT handed me to Mom so she could see me for a few minutes. That is when our first family portrait was taken. Mom and Dad remember that I was blowing little bubbles with my mouth and I was wide eyed and alert. Dad came with me to the SCN while Mom was sewn back up (I caused some tearing on the way out). Dr. Yusuf was the one who took care of me in the SCN. He decided to take a chest x-ray of me. It showed air in my chest that was on the outside of my right lung. They say that can happen sometimes and nothing in particular causes it. It is called a spontanious pneumothorax. That explained my grunty breathing. They pulled 45cc of air off my lung with a needle (a needle aspiration) and I started to do much better. Mom came to see me for a few minutes after all that happened. I was under an oxygen tent then. That afternoon, my right lung actually collapsed and I started to have trouble breathing again. This time, they put a chest tube in and moved me to the Neonatal ICU (NICU). I did really well after the chest tube went in and did not even need oxygen. Mom and Dad were not allowed to hold me with the chest tube in and they would not let me eat anything either. The nurses kept dipping my soother in sugar water to keep me happy. They did not want me to cry because the pressure changes crying would cause in my lung might make the air collect again. They put Morphine in my IV to help keep me quiet. That pretty much sums up my first day outside of Mom.

I finally got a name the next day. Everyone just called me 'Baby Cracknell' for the first day. You see, Mom and Dad had wanted to hold me and see my reaction to some of the names they had chosen before they decided. Since they were not able to hold me for a while, they just asked me which name I liked. Their top 3 choices were Evelyn, Hannah, and Megan. They said each name several times and I consistently reacted in a similar way to each one. I always made a scrunched up face to Hannah, my face looked blank to Megan and I always looked bright-as if to say "Yes, Hello" to Evelyn. So, Evelyn Grace became my name. Dad wrote it on the card for my bed so the nurses would know what to call me.

They took the chest tube out the next evening. Dad got to hold me for the first time, and I got to try to eat for the first time. It took a full day of practicing before I figured out that the soother was not at satisfying to suck on as Mom's breast. On Friday evening, they moved me back to the SCN. Now that I had figured out that Mom could give me food, I was not content unless I was eating. That was a long night for Mom. My nurse would call her room whenever I got hungry and she would have to come and nurse me. The next day, Saturday, Mom and Dad gave me my first bath, and that evening, Uncle Steve came to pick us up, and I got to go home. I got my chest tube suture out a week later, and I only have a little scar under my right armpit left to remind me. I'm quite healthy now and Mom and Dad are pretty glad my last little trick is behind us.