This is Boris Solis interviewing Shannon Campbell on May 27, 2016 at 3:30
for the Creative Push project. OK, so you have two children also. I have
11, I mean, you can say two if you want to count my husband, but just one
that I've given birth to. Sorry, something to laugh during that. OK.
OK, so take us back to the conception. Maybe you build, you know, if you
want to talk a little bit. So, so my husband and I have been together
since 17 and 18. So right after we graduated from high school, we decided
we liked each other, so we started dating. Um, we got married and
we graduated from high school in 2004, we got married in 2010.
Um, went to college, did everything in the so, so great way of doing
things, I guess. It didn't really matter after the fact. Um, we started
talking about having a baby from the time we were teenagers. Um, we didn't
want him right away. We had both raised our nieces and nephews, and we
were perfectly happy being the awesome aunt and uncle. Like we took our
kids, the kids everywhere, and then we got to give them back. It was great.
Um, then he started pushing me and there was other external circumstances.
One of my um. Friends, all my friends were older moms, and they were
having issues with their pregnancies, getting pregnant, having issues with
birth defects, um, stuff like that. So I was like, I need to get pregnant
. I probably should. I don't want it to be my fault if something's wrong
with my child. My husband and I started talking about it, and then I
realized I really liked my life, and we were having some serious
conversations about getting pregnant and why I didn't want to. And I think
it just became, I needed him to reassure me he was ready to, when we're
going to do this together, because otherwise I was completely happy and
was making money. We were having fun, we were going to Vegas, we were
having trips. It was a great life. So, let's start to get pregnant. Sounds
so easy. I had been on birth control for more than 8 years.
So go off birth control. Yay, it's gonna be great. We're fine. A year
later, nothing's happening, and I'm starting to get worried and I'm
totally blaming myself and my body and We make an appointment to go down
to Phoenix because up here in Flagstaff, we have no specialists that deal
with these issues. Then I realize.
And then I got to change jobs. After I changed jobs, I realized how much
stress I was under. I was being, I hate this word. I was being bullied. I
hate I hate using it. It's so the word of the day right now, but I really
, somebody was getting in my face and I didn't realize how stressed I was
. I was looking at my schedule, seeing if I was going to work with this
person, and I found out I was going to get a new job and I was happy and I
, I mean, throughout this time I was doing. The ovulation test and I had
so many, I had taken so many um tests to see if I was pregnant that I
finally ordered some from China because they were cheaper off of eBay.
They're probably about 2 cents a piece. I got ordered like 100. Taking
many birth control birth.
conception test, see if I was pregnant, positive not, so we had to go
cheaper because I was spending way too much money on all of this stuff.
And I switched jobs and I was finally relaxed. And I was, no, and my job
is I'm a nurse. Uh, I was a nurse, met search floor and running around,
running around, running around. And when I, when I switched jobs, I just
was like, what I've later found out was my first pregnancy symptom. I
didn't know I was pregnant yet. I was peeing a lot and I just assumed it
was because I had time to pee. I was super excited. I was like, Oh, you
guys get to pee. That's awesome. I don't have to give somebody drugs right
now.
Um,
But it was fun. It, it took a while to find out I was cause I still didn't
think because after a while taking so many tests, you just don't think
it's gonna happen. I mean. I, while I was peeing, we, I was ready to go
down to Phoenix probably. In about a week we had the appointment scheduled
for the next week when I found out I was pregnant. Uh, I had a scheduled
with a specialist, um, to a fertility specialist. Um, we were going to go
down. And Troy was gonna get his sperm count tested, and I was going to go
see what was going on with my eggs, and if it was me. Uh, they recommended
that we wait at least a year of trying, uh, and a. How do you say it, um,
without intervention and about a year, especially at our age we were.
Mid-20s when we were frying mid-20s. So they were like, you're healthy,
you should be fine. So wait a year until you come down and by this point,
I'm like beating myself up and saying I'm a horrible person and what's
wrong with my body and This is supposed to work. I did everything in the
right steps. We dated, we got married. We waited a while, we made money.
This was the next step, but didn't happen.
So when you finally got that test. I thought it was lying because it was a
cheap 2 cent test. It was the two lines, but it was a little itty bitty
stick. So I mean, I, I had the expensive one waiting, so I got the
expensive one out that was the digital readout and said pregnant. And I'm
like, Oh, awesome. It's a nighttime person still at this time, so it's
probably like 3 in the morning.
My husband and I had just gotten stopped having a conversation about like
what we're going to do, how we're going to do it. And I was like so
excited. I was like I went on Amazon and bought something. My husband's a
cowboy fan. I don't hold that against him, but I Went and got little
cowboy baby booties and I was gonna like make this big presentation when
it came in 2 days because he'd been waiting right along with me. He's not
even counting anymore. He's trying to hold it up and be supportive for me
because he knows I'm beating myself up.
And 15 minutes later, I go into the bedroom and go, look. Oh well, I just
spent $20 on stuff that you're not going to get. And he's like, What is it
? He's trying to wake up. We're pregnant. He's like, and he starts crying
and I'm like, Why are you the girl? And I'm like, Gender stereotype, Stop
it.
His field is very politically corrected, but it's always been our
relationship. He's always the emotional one. I'm always like, Look, this
is so exciting. He's like, Why aren't you happier? And I'm like, I am. Ah
, what are we going to do now? I don't know. Um, and then we get to
totally
not tell anybody. I was like, we're going to protect this. This is new.
Something, something has to happen. I mean, it's taken this long,
nothing's going right with the pregnancy. So let's, let's Take it back. Um
, went to the doctor's office, took urine samples. She told me to go to my
OB. They took the blood test and all of that. They're like, Oh, you're
really pregnant, because it took less than 2 seconds for the two strips to
come up for everybody. I'm like, that's a good, good sign, right? OK. Uh,
and then I got to wait for the ultrasound and actually hear the heartbeat
and they're like, everything looks great. Like, yay. That's when I
actually realized and I calmed down a bit and I was like, let's enjoy this
a little bit.
So how was pregnancy? Was it like? Pregnancy, I hate telling everybody
because pregnancy was fine.
The biggest thing was I was always hungry and I still haven't lost the
weight two years later, but that's fine. I literally would yell at my
husband if he didn't have food in his hand on the way in the door. We had
some big fights over food.
You're you're not presenting me with something, a big buffet to eat. I,
that's the biggest thing after the the urine spectacular, peeing every
hour went away from the first trimester. First trimester was fabulous,
though, like no nausea, no vomiting, nothing. I'm like, if I didn't know
better, I wouldn't if I would have still had a period or spotting, I
probably would have been one of those women on, didn't know I was pregnant
because there's nothing. But 2nd trimester hit and I just wanted every
single type of food there was. We had to keep food out of our apartment
because I was just a trash compactor. Anything that could go in my mouth
did. Third trimester came. Heartburn hit like nothing else. I thought I
had had heartburn before. Uh, I eventually ended up having to sit in and
sleep in my recliner. I had to be propped up and hold on, let's wait until
the garbage is taken off. Yeah, I was wondering what that was. No, you're
fine.
that stops. He's like.
So Sitting in my recliner, sleeping. And the reason we had to do that was
I actually was starting to aspirate acid from my stomach. I would wake up
and I, it was an alarm, almost. I couldn't breathe. I was burning. Nothing
would make the burning go away, coughing, just excess amount of like mucus
coming out of my nose, my eyes, my ears. And the only thing that made it
feel better was I would have to like eat like 10 times to just get the
burning out of my throat because my lungs wouldn't stop burning because I
had aspirated it. I inhaled stomach acid. I'm sorry. No,
there's no way to edit out. No, you're fine. Yeah, maybe I should just
glance outside the door and see you.
No, you're fine. Just let me know where I need to start again. There's no
one here.
Yeah, I know that the door rings. When you enter the other one because
they had an issue where somebody was trying to hurt our boss and there's
no way to let you know if somebody's coming in, and she had she had a
threatening letter. So they had to they had to put a doorbell in because
there's no receptionist at the front of that office. So that's why that
doorbell goes off. It's a good reason. OK.
I was aspirating. Oh, OK, yeah. So, sleeping in my reclining chair,
because I had started to aspirate. I probably before I probably aspirated
twice before I decided, yeah, sorry, Troy, I can't sleep in the bed. I
have to go sleep out there. I am sleeping in the recliner. Can you tell us
what aspirate means? Yeah, aspirating is inhaling stomach. I was inhaling
stomach acid into my lungs. My lungs, and I could feel it go down my I can
almost feel as it I inhaled it, go down the big tube out to the little
tubes where your oxygen is absorbed. Like it literally burnt my entire
chest. And the only relief I had was time. The only thing I could do
anything about it was take a Tums to get the acid out of my throat, at
least so I could stop. But it would probably, it led to about 15 to 20
minutes of coughing. It scared the living lights out of my husband the
first time it happened, and because you can't do anything, you just have
to work through it. It's not fun. Um, the reason it happened was my
daughter was in a Buddha position sitting straight forward. Her head.
Would nuzzle my stomach. I remember being in the in the bathtub and see
and I could feel her head right under my rib cage and it, there was just
no room for anything other than nothing in my in my stomach. She
completely compressed it. So if I was anything other than upright, acid
was coming up.
I couldn't take enough Tums. I hate the taste of the regular taste of Tums
to this point. They're chuck. Don't let me near them. Thank goodness for
fruit flavored tubs. I at some point knew at work, I knew where everybody
had some Tums.
However, if I was awake, I wasn't going to inhale. I mean, gravity was the
best thing for me. I had to just stay upright. I think through the course
of my pregnancy, I probably inhaled the acid every time I lay down, and I
kept trying. I wanted to lay on my bellows so bad, probably 6 times. I did
that. Are there any like permanent damage? Um, I don't think there's
permanent damage. However, I know with people that have this as a chronic
condition. It definitely one of the side effects is cancer if you keep
doing it because it changes the molecular structure of your cells. Once
they're destroyed, they grow back scar tissue wise, and it's just not a
good thing. So I'll keep an eye on it, but I don't think because it was
such a limited amount of time, I think I'm OK, but we'll never know. You
never know. Um, how was the
like the weight gain and the weight gain was fine. I love to eat, but I
mean.
All the bread and cheese and everything. Every time I ate, the acid went
away. Uh, the worst thing for the acid was water. Water made that acid
horrible.
I I loved water. I drank and I was started to get addicted to Dr. Pepper.
I hadn't had caffeine since junior high, and this baby wanted Dr. Pepper.
I, it took me up until a year ago to kick the habit of Dr. Pepper too. I
became addicted to the caffeine and the sugar, and it probably led to the
weight gain more than the food did. Uh, I didn't really eat that much food
because of the acid. However, the food helped the acid, the acid was
caused by the food, so there you go. I got really good at what caused it.
It was water, which is really weird. Uh, I couldn't eat for But I had to
plan when I was going to sleep, which is really hard because I work nights.
So my schedule was all over the place and I was walking around the
hospital and teaching the new grads and was trying to eat whenever I could
, but I would get home and if I chose to eat before I slept, I would have
to stay up for at least 3 more hours, and it kind of stunk.
I mean, I still had my recliner, but I would just have to sit there and
make sure if I didn't, I couldn't go to sleep yet. I had to make sure I
kept myself awake for a certain amount of time, or else I would get myself
into trouble, which was scary. Not being able to breathe is absolutely the
scariest thing I've ever done in my life. Like that feeling, I wouldn't
wish on anybody. Did you have a support network? My family, the closest
family I have here besides my husband, is in Parker, which is about 3
hours away. My mother lives 7 hours away, my mother-in-law is about 14+.
She lives 2 hours north of San Francisco. So, no, no family. However, I
gained a support network as I went. We went to all of those lovely
birthing classes. We went to every single one. Troy went to the daddy only
one, and We have a whole bunch of friends from this experience that were
pregnant at the same time. I remember I was going around doing my
education job and I was like, Forgive me, I'm burping, I'm pregnant, sorry.
And some awesome lady was like, I'm pregnant too, and she was too, uh,
not not, she wasn't at her 12 weeks, so she didn't want to tell anybody,
but she wanted to tell somebody and because I was pregnant, she felt
comfortable enough to tell me and I just went to her son's 2 year old
birthday two weekends ago. And she's probably one of my best friends in
Flagstaff where we live right now. To this day. So we've been able to tell
our stories and we've had very similar stories. We've had some
difficulties after the pregnancy that I don't think many people got to
have had that experience. But it's been great. So let's, why don't we um
Move closer to the birth part. Do you have a birth plan? So no birth plan.
My daughter, like I was saying, sat like a Buddha straight up and down
and facing out the entire pregnancy since we knew what her position was.
Head at the stomach, feet at my bladder. I experienced the joys of having
to wear a pad because she would river dance every so often on my bladder,
and it would just go. And then the joys of familial resemblance is how my
pediatrician calls it. She has a very large head on top of the fact where
it was. I think at our 36, 35 week ultrasound, she was measuring greater
than 40 weeks. That combined with her position, I was basically told at
that time, I, I don't really want to move her if she was gonna move and
going to flip over, she already would have totally OK with it. I did not
want to have her manually flipped around just to have her flipped back,
cause I've seen the bruises on other women. They do it in the OR. It's
grotesque. I was like, Her head's that big anyways. You're just gonna have
an you're just gonna have a C-section. OK.
Like that's a really big needle that they had to stick in my back, huh?
Yeah. Well, I would have had it either way if I would have gone through
labor. Oh, OK. Uh, it took me about a week to grasp, but my sister-in-law
is a labor and delivery nurse, and she's like, please don't create one, so
I never did. I'm completely comfortable going with the flow. However, I'm
gonna get this baby out the healthiest is what we're gonna do. I have no
problem with it, never did.
Then came the really scary part. I had to choose my daughter's birthday. I
, my husband and I were terrified of that. How I get to choose somebody's
birthday. I had to choose her name. Now I have to choose a birthday.
It's so bad that my doctor's staring at us. She's like, you want to give
us a phone call later? We're like, yeah, and she gave us our schedule of
when we could have a baby. Who gets a schedule of when you can have OK.
So we decided her, she wanted to make it a week before her due date. Her
due date was May 15th. We chose May 5th. Because 5 or. May 9th is what
actually what we chose. May 9th because 5 + 9 was 14, which would have
been 2014. So 1414. And our wedding anniversary is 7310. So we're like, OK
, we got a reason. Yay, there's, I mean, we have a whole story behind your
name. We should have a story behind her birthday if we have to choose it.
Sounded great.
Best laid plants
So we get closer, closer, closer. It's due date. Um, his boss, my
husband's boss is totally on me and going, You have to wait till that day.
My husband's a hall director at NAU. We live on campus. I need, he needed
Troy to work because it's closing of campus. It's the busiest week of the
year.
So now I have this pressure. Now, now we have to wait till that day. How
do you wait for a baby? So morning of May 4th. May the 4th be with you,
which is the funniest thing about it because my husband has no clue about
Star Wars at all. So of course we're gonna have a baby on May the 4th be
with you, Star Wars Day. He doesn't even know who Princess Leia is, which
I find it absolutely hilarious. I wake up, go to the bathroom, just pee,
it's fine. Go pee all the time this time. No room for her bladder. And as
I'm standing up from peeing, all of a sudden there's a gush, and I was
like, I thought I was done peeing.
And then it dawned on me. Oh, your water broke. Oh, that was a really nice
location for your water break. It's gonna break. Toilet? Awesome.
to wake up Troy No. Don't wake up the husband. Don't wake up the husband
yet. Let's call to see if you should go in. I'm a nurse. I was told if
your water breaks just go in, but hey, why not give out labor and delivery
a call. So I did.
And my OB happen to be already doing a C-section at that moment. She's
like, yeah, come in, it'll be great timing. I can do two in a row. So I
wake wake Troy up. We got to go. He's like, Huh? And then he starts
repacking our suitcase. It's already packed. He puts it into a bigger
suitcase. I'm like, What are you doing? And why are you packing 5 pairs of
shorts? You can go home. I can't. Why is there more stuff? He's like, I
don't know what I'm doing. I'm like, Let's just go. Please, let's go. And
then I went, wait, my mom can't be here. She's coming on Friday. It's not
Friday. She can't come. It's just gonna be him and I doing this. I'm not
going to have anybody. And then I was like, I have him. At least I have
him. We'll be OK. It'll be great, actually, because we'll get to spend
some time with this brand new creature alone without having the pressures
of our moms. And I realized what a Gift that was later. I go in, do all
the paperwork was done, thank goodness. Do an ultrasound, make sure she's
still breech, still breach. There's no moving her. I remember the lady
coming in, one of the nurses coming in with a, I forget what it's called.
It's the little plastic thing that they're going to put on her microscope
to make sure my water broke. I'm like, You're funny. I can tell. And they
they lift up the blanket and like, Oh no, that's a gross rupture of
membranes. We don't need this test done like I told you. OK, and then that
nurse left because of course I, I have to be the typical nurse that comes
in and changes shift. So I get introduced to a whole brand new nurse and
she looks at me. We need to start an IV and start having a conversation.
Oh, you're a nurse. We're going to have the special person come in because
I can't hit a vein on a nurse. Like, you can try once. I don't care. It's
really we have really big veins when we're pregnant. Remember that from
nursing school. I'm not an LND nurse. Don't ask me ever to deliver a baby.
But that's the one thing I do remember about having babies from nursing
school. We've got big veins. Tryon, a pregnant lady. OK. So the other ID
specialist comes in and he is super annoyed that he has to come in cause
he sees these big juicy veins on me and he's, he knows I worked there, so
he starts complaining to me. I'm like, not the right time, buddy. Just get
it in. I'm having this happy moment and to have somebody come in that's so
negative, I couldn't believe it. And and I know him and. And that's all I
had to say about that cause he was in and out and it was fine. It was all
better. Then my day nurse comes in and says, hi, we're gonna go right now.
Right now, right now, I I I don't have more time. I don't want to go have
my baby. OK, let's go. And then came. You're going to go walk. You forget
. I had a gross rupture of membranes. You want me to walk down this
hallway dripping on the floor? I told this to my nurse and she's like, Oh
, we're used to it. I'm like, I'm not used to dripping on a floor of my
bodily fluids. She's like, you want to wear a pad? I'm like, yes, please.
And my husband and I are walking, and he had to stay there.
And I wasn't ready to let him go, and I couldn't believe they were making
me do this by myself. I'm walking barefoot into this cold OR, I have to
sit down, and then the anesthesiologist, she introduces herself to me, and
I'm like, she's like, Are you nervous? I'm like, I'm very nervous, and why
isn't my husband in here yet? They don't, he doesn't come in until right
before we're about to cut.
What OK, let's be strong. Let's get our thoughts back together. Let's
focus on it. She's like, Oh, you've got great anatomy. Like, great anatomy
for what? She's like, for the spinal. I'm like, That's great. Cool. She's
like, OK, hold still, and I'm holding on to this lady that I just met 10
minutes ago to put in this huge needle on my back. Very painless. It was a
little bit of a prick. It worked fabulously. Then they start putting me
back and I get so nauseous. And I look over to the left at the
anesthesiologist and I'm like, I'm going to throw up. Probably a little
bit because I just realized how much I was shaking from the adrenaline and
how nervous I was. scary, scary, scary thing for me to get the spinal. It
was the only thing I was really worried about. She gives me, she's like,
Zofran, Zofran. Yes, please. Zofran, pushes it into my fabulous ID that
the grumpy, grumpy man gave me, and it worked like a charm. I lay down,
they put the curtains up, do all those things, just white and this light
above me and cool, I can't move or feel anything. Where's my husband? He's
still not here. My OB comes in, whoever's assisting her comes in. I
remember her introducing me, but I don't know. And they, they start
everything and. Finally I hear my husband come in and she's like, Oh great.