I can't believe it! He came early. So, here is the full story. I wasn't feeling very well on my birthday, April 10th. I was pretty stressed from work and I was feeling puffy and tired, well exhausted. I decided that it would be a good idea to take me blood pressure that night, and it was high = 153/99. So, later that night I took it again and it was still high. In the morning I took it again and it was still high so I decided to call the doctor, even though I had an appointment with her on Monday.
I called right at 9:00am. The Dr. wasn't in the office that day but her assistant was, so I left a message and she called me back about 11:30am. I was in the middle of setting up for weddings, but it was an important phone call. She she asked me about what was going on and I told her my legs were really swollen and my blood pressure was high. I had a pretty bad headache also, so she called Dr. Sloan and she wanted me to go to Labor & Delivery at St. Marks.
I was pretty scared at that point, and had a lot of events to take care of that day. My team at work rallied and everyone took a little bit of my workload and everything was taken care of almost immediately (THANK YOU FOREVER!!) So I headed out to the hospital, only planning on being there a few hours. I figured they'd take my blood pressure and some blood and then send me home on bed rest. I had no idea what I was in for!!!
I called Jeremy on the way to the hospital and let him know that I was going to be there. I told him I'd call him with some updates once I knew more information. I got there and they had me get into a gown and strapped me to the baby monitor and blood pressure cuff. I got to know those things really well while I was there. They also took a urine sample. My blood pressure was still really high and there was protein in my urine (both signs of preeclampsia). So they kept me there for a couple hours.
Jonas was doing great! He was moving around and active. His heart rate was really strong. They unhooked me from the monitors long enough to send my up to Maternal Fetal Medicine for an ultrasound. They wanted to make sure Jonas wasn't in any distress. He was looking great!
I went back down to Labor & Delivery and they decided to move me out of the triage room and into a Labor & Delivery room. They wanted to monitor me overnight. I called Jeremy and he came straight from work to be with me. My mom and my sister also came to visit. I got a shot of steroids just in case Jonas came early so his lungs would develop faster. I'm really glad they decided to give me the shot, even though it burned.
The next day, my blood pressure was a little better, but still a concern, and they wanted to collect all my urine for 24 hrs so they could tell how much protein was in it. They moved me up to a postpartum room, which is slightly more comfortable. I wasn't on the baby monitor all night, which was nice because I could move around more freely.
After they saved all my pee for 24 hours, I was hoping to get to go home. When the results came back from the test, it didn't turn out so well. They consider it preeclampsia if there is over 250 parts per measure (don't remember how they measure it) and I had 1287. That is really severe. My kidneys were seriously not in good shape. They had me stay another night.
The next day, I was feeling much better. My blood pressures were better and my headache was more under control. The only thing that was bothering me was a knot under my left shoulder blade that was making it impossible to get comfortable. Also, since I was laying down so much, Jonas thought he could take the extra room to spread out, so he was squishing everything up into my rib cage and making them hurt so bad.
The next night, about 4:00am, I woke up with the most excruciating headache I've ever had. I took some Tylenol, and fell asleep for a couple more hours. By 6am, I woke up and couldn't even open my left eye it hurt so bad. It was throbbing and pulsating. The headache was just on the left side of my head. The right seemed fine. The Dr. wrote me and order for some percacet, but that didn't even touch the pain. Next, they tried morphine, but no such luck. If I didn't have such a bad headache, I would have been really happy!
I did, however, finally get a good massage from the LMT that came to the hospital. My knot is virtually gone! Though, they decided at that point they'd take me down back to L&D to get another ultrasound and monitor Jonas some more.
Jonas was still doing great! He was moving around and his heart was strong. Me, on the other hand, was still in serious pain and my blood pressure was really high. They decided to induce me, so they brought me into an L&D room and started me on an IV.
I had to call everyone to let them know. I called Jeremy and just said, "They are inducing me, so will you come to the hospital?" he said, "Now?" and I said "Yes" and he cam running. I called Stephanie, my sister and left a really cryptic message on her voice mail. I don't even remember exactly what I said to her. I also called me mom and let her know I was being induced.
They started me on pitocin right away. I was already dilated to a 1, so they were hoping it was help move me along. I also had to start on a magnesium sulfate drip to help me not have a seizure. That stuff makes you really groggy and out of it. Plus the fact that they had given me more morphine.
Once the contractions started to hurt, they gave me some fentinol. That was great too, if I wasn't in so much pain. My headache was still going strong. After the fentinol stopped working on my contractions, they checked me again and I was still at t 1. They decided to stop the pitocin and give me a different drug to help me progress. It was night time, so they put the drug in overnight and gave me a second dose in the morning.
By the end of the final dose of the second medicine, I was at a 5. That meant that I could get my epidural and they could start me on pitocin again. By this time, I'd been having contractions about 5 minutes apart, all night long. They didn't hurt too bad, but they were getting worse, so I was happy I'd be getting an epidural.
They came into do the epidural. It wasn't as scary as I was expecting. The hardest part was having a contraction while he was sticking me in my back to numb it up. I didn't hear any kind of a "pop" or any other noise like I'd heard I would. I was really quick and easy and worked right away. Jeremy and Stephanie said that they could tell I was feeling much better after I got the epidural.
The monitors were not picking up my contractions anymore. The Dr. decided to put me on an internal monitor. While she was attaching it, I dilated from a 5 to a 10. It was fairly instantanious, but I did feel it even with my epidural. The next thing I knew, the Dr. said that it was ready to start pushing. Jonas's head was right in place and they had me push with the next contraction.
That is all it took! I pushed once and Jonas came out all at once. Everything went so fast the NICU and the doctor barely had time to get into place. But he was here! and the next thing I knew the Dr. was asking Jeremy if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord. So, Jeremy cut him loose and they took him over to get cleaned up. I could hear him crying. He sounded like a baby lamb whimpering. They wrapped him up and brought him to me to hold him for just a few seconds. Then, Jeremy went with him to the NICU to get checked out, weighed and measured.
Jeremy came back and said he weighed 3 lbs and 13 oz. I also got to see some pictures of him. He looked like a little wrinkly old man, very skinny and lots of hangy skin.
Since I'm home, it has been really hard to think that we had to leave him in the hospital. We get to go visit him every day and we get to hold him and try to feed him sometimes. Jonas is working on learning how to eat. He sucks on a pacifier, but once he gets a bottle, he's not quite sure what to do. Sometimes he eats and sometimes he has to be fed through a tube. His tummy isn't quite sure what to do with the food once it gets down there, either. He's having some trouble digesting, but that just means that he'll be on the IV for longer.
Have fun looking at all the pictures of little Jonas!
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