Abigail Grace 7-3-09!

So let me first start out by saying that im so greatful to have made it to this part of the story! I had an extremely complicated pregnancy and noone ever thought i would make it to 37 weeks and assumed i would deliver any where around 34 weeks! i have to give all the credit to my amazing amzaing doctors at comprehensive OB/GYN who have become like family to me and DH and of course our little girl!

so heres the story i will be completely honest about every part of this because well.. i dont like surprises and if it can help someone down the road thats the goal! im a first time mommy and was petrified of it all!


At 25 weeks i was admitted to the hospital with preterm labor, spent 6 days there on magnesium sulfate and ended up being released home with a T-Pump and on modified bedrest making weekly visits to the doctors office for all kinds of sonos and monitoring including home uterine monitoring through Matria! althought it was a huge pain in the tush it really helped keep my little girl safe and well inside for as long as possible! just around 35 weeks my insurance company called and said that as of the next business day i would no longer have coverage for my t-pump and would have to stop treatment. i called my ob and explained what was going on. they told me that it would be ok since i was approaching the "safe" zone at 36 weeks and that they would place me on Turb pills for another 2 weeks to try and hold out as long as possible the longer she stays in the better her chances are to NOT have to stay in the NICU which was our goal! i did have the steroid shot for her lungs at 25 weeks while i was admitted at the hospital!

At 32 weeks i had a growth scan and my baby was measuring 4 weeks a head of schedule and again at 34 weeks! so they were not too concerned with her size but like everyone says the growth scans can be a little off Mine happened to be DEAD ON! Now as well as having a large baby at this point (32 weeks) the doctors hadbeen noticing that my blood pressure had be slowly climbing higher and higher so i was doing constant blood work for pre eclampsia and 24 hour urines to make sure all was ok and EVERYTHING would always come back PERFECT i was making weekly trips to L&D to be monitored it was turing into a disaster. at 35 weeks my pressure was so high that they orderd me to have a doppler of the baby done to make sure blood flow to her was normal and there were no problems. At this time they did the test and called me the next day with news that everything was fine BUT the cord was around the babys neck 2 times and that it may be safed to discuss having a csection to avoid any issues. So from here on out i would have NST 2xs a week and a sono weekly to make sure all was ok. i did this for a week and then at 36weeks6 days (7/2) i went in to a test and my blood pressure was 180/110 and the doctor said.. ok well we made it this far im sending you over to L&D and expect to have your baby by the 4th! DH and i nearly died! althought we had been ready for weeks we couldnt believe it was TIME!

so we headed over to L&D expecting to not come home at this point. we met the doc there and he said.. well.. today your considered "preterm" tomorrow at 37 weeks you are "full term" so what i want you to do is go home lay on your left side and come back tomorrow (7/3) at 7pm to start the induction process using cervidil and piticon. he said make sure you eat before you come in because its a long process! he also said if you have any of the following symptoms call ASAP.. blurry vision, extreme headaches, right upper quadrent pain in your abdomen. so we went home i laid on my left side and got ready to have my baby the next day!!! the morning of 7/3 was a disaster, i felt awful, i started with contractions since the docs stopped my turb on 7/2 i had an awful headache and so i took some tylenol and was counting the mins till 7pm came... so at 4pm DH and i had dinner and were just waiting. by the time 530 came around i was so bad i said i cant wait any longer ihave to call the doc. i alled the emergency line and spoke with the doctor and she said "COME IN NOW IM WAITING FOR YOU!" so we packed up and headed out! (i was freaking out couldnt believe i would be FINALLY coming home with my little princess!)

We get to the hospital they put us in a labor room (i had never gotten to that point always stayed in the holding room it was a very scary place but i was glad to be there) they hooked me up to monitors and did lab work to check once again for pre eclampsia. my b/p at this point was 178/110 no good AT ALL... even laying on my left side which had been working all along wasnt bringing it down. The doc came in and said i want to monitor you for a half an hour and we will take it from there on what we should do next. so ay 730pm she walked in and said i really DONT like your blood pressures, i was starting to have really bad right upper quad pain and was becoming symptomatic of preeclampsia even thought my lab work wasnt showing it. At this time she said you have a decision to make... you can continue with the plan of the induction OR you could opt for a section. So DH and i saidwell... lets give the induction a shot. the doc was ok with it at this point!... 10 min later the blood pressure cuff went off again and it had gone up even higher.. doc came back in and said.. I no longer feel comfortable with letting you do the induction i dont feel its safe for either you or the baby. the stress of labor is not safe. so we decided at this point to go with the section. BUT the catch was.. i had just eaten dinner at 4pm and the anasetsiologist( cant spell sorry ) said he NEEDS to wait 8 hours since i last ate to do the surgery bringing us to midnight! (7/4) so we were ok with this as well as the doc. we called all the family and told them we would have a 4th baby! ... another 5 or 10 min passed by at this time and well.. my pressure once again went HIGHER the doc came in and said..well its now and EMERGENCY ill see you in the Operating room in 5 min!.. DH looked at me i started to cry and well before i knew it was being wheeled down for the section!!

We get down to the OR and they start the spinal one of the weridest feelings in the whole world. the 2 doctors walked me throught the whole process it didnt hurt AT ALL... it felt like a bee sting (the local to numb the area) and then just some pressure and a warm sensation next thing i knew i was NuMB! i also felt like there was an elephant sitting on my chest since you lose control of your chest wall muscles to use to breathe.. which is TOTALY NOMRAL but just a very very strange sensation... at this point i started to have a major anxiety attack and started to pretty much freak out! the whole experiecen was just very scary. the anastesiologist and i had a discussion before DH got in the room and he asked if i wanted ot be under completely or if i wanted to see my baby ... of course i wanted to see my baby so i refused the general anesthesia. BUT had made and agreement with him that IF sh!t were to hit the fan after the baby came out that i would be ok with being completely put out!...

at this point DH finally came into the OR and they began the surgery... IT WAS VERY VERY STRANGE AND SCARY to say the least... you lose all sensation from the ribs down and can feel tugging and pulling and alot of pressure on your belly. the doc walked me through a little bit of what was going on and then i asked her to stop because the anxiety was getting the best of me.. DH was talking to me about god knows what i was just praying that both me and the baby would make it out safe and sounds. we were told the whole process would take less then an hour! we started at about 845pm.... at about 905 i started to really lose it with the anxiety but knew that in just a few min i would see my baby!! at 915.. i heard.. ITS A GIRL (even though we knew) and this is when it started to hit the fan... i saw the baby.. they called DH over to see her and he went... next thing i knew i started to feel like i was going to pass out.. so i let the anasetsiologist know since he was standing right there asking me the whole time how iwas doing... my eyes started to roll back in my head DH started to freak out.. what happened was my blood pressure went from sooooo HIGH to just below normal and couldnt regulate...on top of that.. my uterus would NOT contract so i was losing a TON of blood so the doctors were literally using their hands to massage my uterus back. they politely asked DH to leave with the baby and he said ABSOLUTELY NOT... i couldnt even enjoy seeing my baby... on top of all that the anxiety then went to panic mode and i could see the suction canitser where my blood was coming out and then started vomiting all over the place... at this point DH had no choice but to leave because they told him he HAD TO... the doc at this time HAD to have put me under becase i donot remember anything after this point i do remember slightly waking up in a recovery room but barely remember that as well. im so greatful to have had the convo prior because i think i would have died of a heart attack from the panic if he didnt! for the rest of the night i was totally groggy and loopy and dont even really remember seeing my baby till the next day! i remember some of it but not as much as i wish iwould have... Poor DH said he lost 10 years off his life from worry because the nurses told him when he left that they would let him back in the OR in 10 min... so when he went to come back they told him NO because well.. it had turned into such a disaster and it wasnt for him to be there.

well thankfully at 145am i was released from the recovery room and was brought down to my reg. hospital room! and was able to start recovering.. my blood pressure went back down to normal and i was enjoying every min of my little baby! day 2 of my stay 7/5 they infomred me that my hemoglobin (part of your blood count) was on the low side 7.9 (the normal is between 10 and 14) I have a type of anemia so my Normal is around 9.. so they werent to concered but they woul dbe checking it daily!... day 3 it was down to 6.6 in the morning and that night had dropped to 5 now NORMALlY anyone tht has a hemoglobin of 7.9 would be getting a blood transfusion but because i normaly am low they werent too concerned.. but once i hit 5.. there was no longer anyway i could hold off on the transfusion.. so on day 3 i got the blood transfuison.. (thats a whole other story in itsefl.. NOT FUN and hope i never EVRR have to do it again) after i got the transfusion my blood pressure start to creap up higher and higher and now is back to being 170/110 i just cant win!!

day 4 of our stay the doctors came in and said well.. we cant let you go because of your pressure.. but long story short since this is turing into an encyclopedia they let me go on the account that i would follow up with my primary care doc the next day.. so all in all we came home on day 4!

MY baby is PERFECT i love EVERY single Min of her and cannot believe that shes actually MINE!! was it worth EVERY min of the miseray... YES in a million years it was. im so greatful to all the doctors and nurses that were in the OR that lovely 7/3 that made one of the scariest days of my life not so terrible. and im greatful to have a happy heatlyh perfect litle girl to show for it!!!!

So thats all folks! Welcome to the world.. Abigail Grace 7-3-09 7lbs 10oz 19 1/2 inches long and a noggin of 14 noone can believe that, that big baby came outta my little body!

i think thats it! if you made it this far bless your soul for reading!

Re: Abigail Grace 7-3-09!

wow, what a story...congrats on the baby, she is so cute, I love all her blonde hair

Re: Abigail Grace 7-3-09!

I'm so glad that you and are okay! congratulations

Re: Abigail Grace 7-3-09!

What a harrowing experience! I am so happy that you and your beautiful little baby girl are home and healthy. Take good care of yourself!! Congratulations Mommy!!

Re: Abigail Grace 7-3-09!

You really went through the ringer! Glad you are doing better and congrats on your little girl!

Re: Abigail Grace 7-3-09!

thank you ladies so much! of course it was all worth it but hope next time is a whole heck of a lot better!

Re: Abigail Grace 7-3-09!

OMG Meg I am so sorry your labor was rough, so glad to hear you are doing better. Congrats again on your little girl, enjoy this time it goes so fast the first 6 wks

Re: Abigail Grace 7-3-09!

That is such an incredible story! Congrats on your new little princess!

Re: Abigail Grace 7-3-09!

I am sorry that you had sucha rough delivery! I hope you have a smooth recovery from here on out. Congratulations on your little girl!

Re: Abigail Grace 7-3-09!

What an incredible story! You poor thing - all you had to go through. It sounds like you were extremely brave!

Abigail is just gorgeous - that blonde hair is perfect! Congratualations!!