It has been a few months since I have updated my blog. I think now is the perfect time. I graduated from ECU with my Bachelors degree in May. I applied for graduate school and got accepted! I've been taking classes since August and everything has been going well. Anna went home in June. :( We miss her dearly. We decided we would take on another foreign exchange student so we chose Katharina! We picked her up from the airport on August 19th. She has been a lot of fun.
So now on to why I am writing. I believe I mentioned in a previous post that we found out we were expecting our third child who was due in October. My pregnancy had been pretty easy, no weight gain or loss. Nausea had subsided. but in the last couple of weeks I had become increasingly tired. My blood pressure was high at every single appointment I attended....but there was never any protein in my urine so the dr. said I was fine, and he wasn't concerned about anything. In the last few weeks I had kept telling Brian I didn't think I'd make it to 40 weeks. Probably for no other reason other than I was exhausted and ready to have baby. Pretty sure I complained on face book every single day about rolling in bed and being exhausted. So at my last appointment I was 34 weeks, my bp was much higher than it had been at my previous appointments.. and Dr. W said I should come in if I felt like my blood pressure was up. Tuesday came around and it was the day before my 36 week appointment. I felt super tired, and although I had had swelling for a few days it had went down some from earlier in the week. Brian being the man I married, knows my love language. You know the one "do everything you can to annoy your wife".. and I knew my blood pressure had gone up from being annoyed but a little while later I didn't feel like it was going down like it should have once I was calm.
I told Brian I was going to walmart to check my blood pressure, and it was 157/109. I called Dr. W's office while walking down the shampoo aisle and the woman on the phone told me that I should go home and rest for 30 mins or so and recheck my blood pressure. I felt fine except a little shortness of breath so I bought a blood pressure monitor, went home.. laid in bed.. and checked it again where it was 146/103 and.. I called the office back.. the nurse told me to go ahead and come in to be evaluated...
soo I showered, and left Brian home with the kids because I was sure I'd be sent home.. you know me. I'm paranoid about every thing. I called Cathy and asked her to come sit with me because I'd be by myself otherwise. She didn't hesitate to meet me at the hospital... My blood pressure was high still something/105 and then some time went by and my blood was taken.. and my urine.. then a few hours later a nurse comes in and says "Well you have pre-eclampsia, so you are having baby tonight er.. in the morning".. This is the part where they began my induction.. My first round of cytotec was given at midnight.. I can't tell you what happened between midnight and 4 a.m. lol pretty sure I wasn't asleep, Cathy was snoring.. and.. the nurse came back to check me .. I was still at 1-2 cm.. so I was on my 2nd round of cytotec..and at 7 am I started feeling some painful contractions on the lower half of my stomach. So my lovely nurse Kay checked me and said I was 6-7 cm. .. I told her if my water broke baby was coming fast so she went to get things prepared, Cathy had to leave for work and I had to call Brian to tell him to get there fast because baby was coming soon.
I spent the next little bit by myself. clawing at the bed because my contractions were so incredibly painful. The next thing I knew the anesthesiologist was there for my epidural. He told me he had enough time for one stick.. because he was sure I was ready to deliver. I told her him I didn't have time to go over the consent stuff. So he gave me the epidural and I could feel baby's head right where it should have been I was 9 cm and my water still hadn't broken. Dr W. was sitting on a stool/roll-y chair and asking me to slide down in the bed where they'd put my feet in stirrups.
The next part is fuzzy. apparently the combo of an epidural and magnesium can make your blood pressure plummet. I remember the anesthesiologist in my face saying that he was going to give me a shot of epinephrin and then asking me "hey didn't I see you the other day?".. lol he had put Luke to sleep when Luke had his dental work days earlier. My face lost all of the color and my hands were bluish (from what I remember) I was so extremely tired, too tired to cut the umbilical cord and so Dr. W cut it and Brian walked through the door.
The rest is fuzzy. I remember being rolled down to my room, and Brian talking to me, but I was so in and out of it.. I was so sleepy ..I kept nodding off.. but by that night I felt a lot better. Callie Elizabeth Jane was born at 8:45 a.m. weighing 5lbs 3.6 oz. As healthy as could be.
I never even considered that I could have a preemie baby but I did.. and she's so tiny and cute. I love her already. Raegan and Luke are in love with her. She has a full head of dark blonde hair.
I'll think of more to say later.
