For most of the pregnancy I had border line high blood pressure. Enough that there was concern, but not enough that it was considered high. At our normal check up on August 30th, I'd mentioned that she had been a little less active in her movements the past 24 hours or so. They ordered an ultrasound immediately, so I came back at the end of the day for another ultrasound. I feel pretty lucky, we were able to see her quite a bit throughout this pregnancy, I lost count of how many ultrasounds we had! They never got old either, I loved watching her. At this ultrasound they discovered that the amniotic fluid level was low, so she sent me directly to the hospital. That was definitely scary! At this point of the pregnancy we were 36 weeks and 5 days along, so she was 'technically' considered pre-term. They did check her lung development and it looked great, so in the event we had to deliver the doctor was pretty confident she would do great and likely not have to have an extended hospital stay.
They admitted us to the hospital and hooked me up to the IV to start getting fluids into me. The hope was that by giving me IV fluids it would replenish the amniotic fluid and we'd be able to go home the next day. I was hooked up to monitors as well, monitored for one full hour every four hours that night. It was very reassuring for me because I could hear her heartbeat and knew she was still doing okay. If by the next day the fluid levels had not increased, the plan was to induce. Luckily that didn't happen! Everything looked great and the fluid levels improved enough that we were sent home that Friday evening. On bed rest, but that was way better than being in the hospital!
So I settled in at home and started trying to adjust to bed rest. I had a follow up appointment with the Dr. on the following Tuesday, just to check in and make sure all was well. To make things more interesting, at the start of that appointment my BP was high. I talked with the Dr and she said she wanted to check it again before I left, and then go from there. I went ahead with my normal appointment, and then they checked it again, and sure enough, still high. Back in to talk with the Dr, and guess what - back to the hospital for Karyn! This time it was to do a full 24hr test to check for Pre-Eclampsia. It didn't mean that I had to be on IV, but I was monitored closely. At the end of the 24hrs, we found out that I did, in fact, have Pre-Eclampsia. This meant that it was time to have a baby!
They started my IV and said that the plan was to start the induction process during that night. They didn't move me over to L&D until around 5:30 AM on Thursday, Sept. 6th. At this point I'd been in the hospital since Tuesday afternoon. As part of the Pre-e, I was required to have Magnesium given to me through the IV to help prevent seizures. They told me it would give me flu like symptoms - and boy they weren't kidding. It was flu-like symptoms times 10! The dr's were pretty good at preparing me for that, but it was pretty miserable. They started the other medicine around the same time as the Mag. Chris went down to grab some breakfast and take a few things to the car around 9. About a minute or two after he left the Dr came in and said it was time to break my water! So, Chris missed that part, lucky him - haha. Around 10 the Dr. came back to check on me and suggested that if I wanted the epidural, I might as well go ahead and get it early. She said there was no point waiting if I knew I wanted to get it, and with the Mag I was already miserable. So they came in around 10:30 or so to give me the epidural. I felt so much better afterwards, but was extremely drowsy and out of it due to the Mag. It also made me really hot. I believe the room was around 65 degrees and I was still hot! I don't remember much about the day, other than fading in and out of sleep. Chris was wonderful and took complete control of the phones and communications. I was in no shape to talk to anyone! Around 4:45/5 the Dr came in to check my progress and said that I was ready to go! She asked me to do a test push, and so I did, and then she said, well okay it looks like this baby is going to get here fast! Charlotte gave me a break and I pushed for about 20 minutes and then she arrived! I consider myself very lucky for that! It's very vague after that, the mag made me very out of it. It had some weird effect on my vision that made me feel very disoriented.
And so she was here! 6 lbs, 4 oz and 19in long. So tiny and precious. Very healthy, just a perfect little baby girl! We ended up staying in L&D overnight because they didn't have any recovery rooms available that could take me. Apparently if you are on Mag only certain nurses are equipped to monitor you, and I had to stay on it for a full 24 hours. L&D just didn't have enough nurses that night to help us with Charlotte either, so later that night we ended up letting the nursery take care of her. I was in no shape to take care of her, and Chris was exhausted at that point. We were finally transferred to a recovery room on Friday around 9 AM. We had her brought down as soon as we were settled! I felt a thousand times better after they took me off the mag. I am not looking forward to that for any future children! :)
It was quite a week, but we were so blessed that she arrived safe and healthy and perfect - and that my condition didn't get worse.
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| Charlotte, born September 6, 2012 |
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