July 13, 2013
I had my first braxton hicks contractions, thanks to watching a comedian, Brian Regan, for a few minutes. I'm pretty sure they were real ones too because I couldn't breathe through them sometimes. At my next appointment I was dilated to a 1.5 and 70% effaced, so something was happening!
July 29, 2013 4:30pm
David and I walked into my Week 39 appointment; I did my usual weigh in and then blood pressure. But, my blood pressure was way high! I'd been at like 104/65 or similar the whole pregnancy, but getting it measured this time - it was like 140/102, which apparently isn't good. And a huge sign of preeclampsia. Instead of continuing my appointment, they had me lie down and get it taken a couple more times and then said we had to go down to Labor & Delivery right then to continue to be monitored because it didn't go down. Well, we weren't sure what that meant, but soon were to find out and become very familiar with monitoring!! We hadn't eaten, but continued to spend the next 2 hours at the triage area of the labor and delivery area. I had to call my bosses even because I had set up to train some China HR employees that evening and told them I just may not make it. The midwife at our appointment and the nurses at triage kept telling us that I most likely would be induced if my blood pressure didn't go down. Well, after even just laying down for 10-20 minutes, my blood pressures were going down. I still had my blood drawn and urine test, so we had to wait an hour for that to process, and then was all ready to be checked in if it looked like preeclampsia. We had the sweetest nurse, and it was definitely an experience for us as it was our first time in there - lots of questions and then also not knowing if we were staying, but mixed feelings. I'm not sure we were ready yet, but it would be great to know our little boy would be here before dental school, and for me, that he wouldn't be too big (which I continually worried about near the end). Well, after 7 our nurse said the midwife wouldn't keep us, but sending us home. We were pretty bummed at this point as we had gotten used to and were excited to start the delivery.
Side note: There is a rule in all Utah hospitals that the first pregnancy cannot be induced until 8 days after the due date, because there have been too many preemie babies... unless needed be for harm to mom or baby, then they could induce. I guess that is partially why we couldn't be induced, my blood pressure went down and the blood work said I was borderline, and the midwife made the call that I was okay. Midwife Mary Kaye Reynolds didn't let us stay, she was the one on call. But if it had been another midwife, at least the one at the appointment earlier, we probably would have stayed.
August 3, 2013
All of this weekend we have been doing a lot of walking, bouncing, and really anything to help get our little boy out. Looking back, not a smart idea with the blood pressure thing, but nothing happened, not even any contractions or more dilation so we eventually gave up on trying to get him out on our own.
August 5, 2013 4:30pm
So it was the next Monday, another appointment, this time Week 40. Again, my blood pressure was high, and so they laid me down. Melissa Boll was there as our midwife at the appointment and she said that it didn't matter if I were to lay down or not but that my blood pressure that high (it was like 150/100) even when sitting wasn't good and that I needed to go back down to Labor & Delivery to be monitored. We told her what happened last time and she said, just humor me, you'll be induced. Before we left I wanted to ask her, when can we book an induction after the 8 days of waiting? She thought I was silly to ask that question but dang it, we just knew we weren't going to get to stay. Well, we got downstairs again and made a few mistakes again 1) we hadn't had dinner, 2) we still hadn't packed our bags, didn't we learn the first time!?, and 3) Mary Kaye was the midwife on call again. We got downstairs, dressed or undressed and then the nurse decided she wanted to do an IV because really I was going to be staying with rates where mine was. Well, the IV was very painful, very, and I was in tears and just mad at her because she wasn't nice. After a few minutes of laying down and monitoring, my blood pressure was low again. I was even trying to get it up higher, thinking of something to stress me out or make me mad ;) but it didn't work. My blood again was borderline and my urine had protein so they just sent me home with a 24 urine test to do. Good thing I started working from home as of this day... Looking back, the urine wasn't bad at all, but at the time, a bit inconvenient. We turned that in the next day and still, no one was inducing me :( But I now had Steph's blood pressure machine and was testing it several times a day as well now.
August 8, 2013 12:00pm
Well all of Wednesday August 7th I was nauseous. I woke up on Thursday and threw up 2-3 times in the kitchen sink (which by the way, was suggested to me by another friend as the best place to do that and yep, I totally agree! 1) easy to clean and used to getting sterilized and 2) you don't have to kneel into a toilet or bucket). So I was still working from home all this week and I just still wasn't feeling good so I laid on the couch and eventually decided to call the midwife on call and leave a message about not keeping anything down. We had read somewhere that nausea was a sign of going into labor so I was hoping that, but just also felt like we needed to call. Lisa called back and suggested that I come in and at least get an IV to get my fluids up as well as do blood work again based on the whole blood pressure thing. Well, we weren't excited about that. David and I said we wouldn't go in to get monitored again, but I wasn't feeling good so maybe it would help?! Quickly after the call I started feeling better! Course... So we decided to run an errand on our way to the hospital and if I didn't feel sick again, we'd just maybe go home instead of checking ourselves in. Well, we went and David tried on and bought scrubs for anatomy class, which after going back and forth from dressing room to get him more to try on, eventually I wasn't feeling good again. Well, that was good, at least I'd look somewhat sick when we went to the hospital right? We figured we'd pop in, get some fluids, and then head home so I could get a couple more hours of work in. Didn't bring our half-packed bags as usual.
We checked in, and the Lisa the midwife came in shortly after I was dressed and gave a urine sample. I was very dehydrated so they were going to put in an IV and also draw blood, which had to be done not in the IV. Well the IV went into my hand (again) but this nurse was nice and used numbing first and also put it in a different area by my thumb. The blood draw was in my right arm, oh goodie, being poked all over (at least I thought at the time...oh just wait Andrea). After a bag or two of fluid, we just were waiting for the blood work to come back and our midwife came in at about 4pm and told us that from the blood work, I showed low platelets and with all of my other symptoms I no longer am looking at preeclampsia but something else called H.E.L.L.P syndrome, somewhat related to preeclampsia. What this meant is that my blood may not clot and this syndrome has been known to cause seizures and organ failure. Basically, I wouldn't be going home but I would need to be induced pretty quickly especially if I wanted to have an epidural. What?!?!? We didn't expect that one! Here I was feeling much better - actually having lots of contractions on my own and feeling them, but heck that didn't matter at all, I was going to be staying. Finally someone let us get started! We were going to barely make it in time for David to start school on Monday. We didn't know when exactly he would be born but we assumed sometime Thursday night 8/8 or Friday 8/9. I was nervous and excited. Nervous because of the hellp thing, but excited to soon meet our little boy. David didn't believe that we were really going to stay, but after he was excited and also remembered we needed our bags and didn't take all the pictures we had planned as if we were "going to the hospital"... This labor just wasn't going to be like what we had imagined, but in the end, we still got our baby boy.
More to come in the next post... All about the actual birth :) Room 17 is where Tyson was born, the start of it all.
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