The Babies are Being Born Early!

To my beautiful children,

We have had quite the change of events in the last day! I drove home from work at about 1:15 yesterday afternoon to take your daddy to his follow up appointment after his sinus surgery. We have been quite the pair over the weekend, by the way. Two people that can hardly take of themselves taking care of each other! While at the appointment, I asked the nurse to check my blood pressure because the swelling in my legs has gotten unbelievably bad and I know that rising blood pressure as well as edema can be a sign of preeclampsia. When I went for my non-stress test last Thursday, they said that they start to worry when the top number is at or above 140. The nurse measured my blood pressure and it was 140/100. I called my doctor’s office and my doctor was not in, but the nurse practitioner told me to go home immediately and lay down and rest, stay hydrated, then come in the following morning to see my doctor. 

I went home, drank a full bottle of water, and laid in bed and slept for about 45 minutes. When I woke up, I just wasn’t feeling right. I knew something was off. I walked downstairs and told your dad this, and although he wasn’t feeling well, he made me some leftover dinner from the night before because I was really hungry and even fed me some of it 🙂 Before finishing eating, I set my plate down and just felt nervous. I called my mom to get her advice and she said to call my doctor again. I called his cell phone and he told me to go straight into Labor and Delivery. This whole time I was a bit nervous too because I didn’t feel well enough to drive and your dad is still on pain meds from his surgery so he can’t drive. I knew my mom would come pick us up but she was still at work so that might take a while. While I was on the phone with my doctor, we hear a ring at the door and there’s Popsy (your grandpa!) He randomly decided to come over and see how we were doing. He’s maybe done this 3 times in the 8 years that your dad and I have been married. It was perfect timing and an answer to my worried heart. 

We asked him to drive us to the hospital, so we got in the car and he dropped us off in the front then went to park. I could tell your dad wasn’t feeling well; he should have brought his pain meds but we both forgot and he told me to not worry about him and took good care of me. We checked in and were put into a room to be observed, and then your Gigi and Grandpa (my mom and step dad) showed up about 5 minutes later. It was so nice to have everyone there. They checked my blood pressure every 10 minutes, got a blood sample to test the protein in my urine which is a sign of preeclampsia and then decided to admit me because my blood pressure was going up and there was protein in my urine. If preeclampsia leads to eeclampsia, that means that I could have siezures and it also causes damage to my organs.

My doctor came at about 10 pm and said that I would go into maternal fetal medicine the following morning and he also wanted to monitor my urine for protein for 24 hours so I have a urine catch thing in the toilet and I pee into it, then I have to dump it into a large container that is sitting on ice in bathtub.

Your Gigi, grandpa and dad went to Chik-fil-A to get something to eat and then grandpa took your daddy home. His nose started bleeding and I could tell that he wasn’t feeling well at all. He packed up my things while Facetiming me so he could make sure to get all everything I needed, then took his pain meds and went to bad. Grandpa came and gave me my things. In the meantime, Gigi was with me and brought me a salad and chicken nuggets. They left, the nurse (who was SO nice) gave me an ambien to help me sleep then would come in during the night to check my blood pressure and adjust the monitor on my belly to monitor your heart rates. I didn’t sleep well at all and got to sleep at about 1 am then woke up sporadically with the nurse checking my blood pressure and readjusting the heart rate monitors. I woke up at about 6 am then couldn’t fall back asleep. The nurse came in to check my blood pressure again (a different nurse), then give me my thyroid medicine.

I brushed my teeth and put on some makeup (I mean…you never know what the day will bring lol), then found out I wouldn’t be seeing the maternal fetal specialist for a few hours when they had an opening. I ordered breakfast (a breakfast sandwich, applesauce and blueberry muffin), then laid in bed and a new nurse came in and monitored my blood every hour.  I then took a nap and later in the day,
the maternal fetal specialist came in and said that she was going to
suggest to my doctor that it was time to have the babies that day
because my preeclampsia was progressing. My doctor came in later and
told me that I was a lot more sick than I felt and if the babies stayed
in me, it would be a lot more of an emergency situation. He wanted to be
able to calmly get them delivered. It was time to start inducing me!

To be continued!