I'll start by saying that nothing went as planned, it was scary, it was emotional and not at all ideal but baby Abby is here and she is our everything!
Let's start where, although we didn't know it, the whole whirlwind of events began. I woke up in the middle of the night Saturday to what I believed was major heartburn. After a half dozen Tums and attempting to sleep sitting up there was still no relief. I made a call to the OB office which pretty much just told me to wait and see. They believed it was either heartburn or just a muscle pain. "Take a warm Epsom salt bath, use a heating pad, take anti-gas meds, get rest and hopefully it'll go away." Well, I seemed to get some relief over the next few days but it was still slightly there and worse when I tried to sleep. Monday I stayed home from work because I was still uncomfortable and advised to rest. The pain got better throughout the day and Jon and I were able to do many baby things around the house. We organized things, started getting together a diaper bag and hospital bag, installed the car seat, mailed in product registrations, and mailed in our pre-registration for the hospital. We got so many baby things done (good thing). I started feeling better so I was led to believe that it was indeed heartburn or a muscle ache. Tuesday I returned to work. That night while trying to sleep the extreme mid-chest pain returned. This time I couldn't ignore it and made an appointment online to see my OB the following day. I thought for sure I'd be given prescription heartburn meds and be sent on my merry way. Well, I was extremely wrong. I did the normal office visit thing...peed in a cup, stepped on the scale and had my blood pressure taken. Well, my blood pressure was a little elevated but not too alarming. I then explained the pain I'd been having and was pretty quickly told I needed to have blood work done. The reasoning was to rule out preeclampsia. The OB was fairly confident that I didn't have it given that the epigastric pain and slightly elevated blood pressure were my only symptoms. But, they wanted to make sure and wanted me to go to the hospital to have labs done. So, I headed to the hospital thinking that I'd walk in to a lab-esque place to get pricked a couple times and head on my way to work. That was not the case. I was immediately admitted to labor and delivery to have blood work done. This is where all the fun starts. My blood pressure was being monitored very closely. I was told to pee in a container for 24 hours. I had an IV started, was having blood drawn every few hours for various tests, my belly was hooked up to multiple monitors to make sure Abby was safe, I had an ultrasound of my organs and and ultrasound of baby too. At one point I was told I'd be on bedrest at home, bedrest in the hospital, be induced at 37 weeks and possibly have my gallbladder removed. But, over the course of the next 48 hours I would actually be diagnosed with preeclampsia. On Wednesday the only symptom I had was the "chest" pain and slightly elevated blood pressure and by Friday morning my liver enzymes were high, my red blood cell count was off, there was protein in my urine and my blood pressure had reached something like 190 over 110. Basically, I was on the verge of having a stroke while simultaneously suffering kidney and liver failure. The only cure to preeclampsia is delivery so on Friday morning I was visited by the OB who quickly told me that I would be having a baby. Scary but exciting at the same time. I was incredibly sick at this point. I was dehydrated. I felt weak and was extremely ill. The only option for birth, given how I felt, was to move forward with a c-section. They proceeded with an epidural and rolled me into the operating room at 11:30am. At 11:51am on Friday, December 7th, 2012 baby Abigail Scarlett was born! She weighed 4 pounds 6.5 ounces (exactly 13 ounces less than they had estimated via ultrasound the day before) and was 18.5 inches long. She came out crying which was a very sweet sound given that she was only 34 weeks and 6 days. She was immediately taken to NICU for observation due to her gestational age at birth. Baby girl started out on oxygen for the first 36 hours but was a strong little one. By Sunday she was breathing on her own, regulating her own temperature and by all accounts was healthy. She would spend the next 15 days learning how to eat and remembering to breathe. As the doctors said, "she was just being a preemie." As I like to say, "she just had to learn how to be a baby."
Let's start where, although we didn't know it, the whole whirlwind of events began. I woke up in the middle of the night Saturday to what I believed was major heartburn. After a half dozen Tums and attempting to sleep sitting up there was still no relief. I made a call to the OB office which pretty much just told me to wait and see. They believed it was either heartburn or just a muscle pain. "Take a warm Epsom salt bath, use a heating pad, take anti-gas meds, get rest and hopefully it'll go away." Well, I seemed to get some relief over the next few days but it was still slightly there and worse when I tried to sleep. Monday I stayed home from work because I was still uncomfortable and advised to rest. The pain got better throughout the day and Jon and I were able to do many baby things around the house. We organized things, started getting together a diaper bag and hospital bag, installed the car seat, mailed in product registrations, and mailed in our pre-registration for the hospital. We got so many baby things done (good thing). I started feeling better so I was led to believe that it was indeed heartburn or a muscle ache. Tuesday I returned to work. That night while trying to sleep the extreme mid-chest pain returned. This time I couldn't ignore it and made an appointment online to see my OB the following day. I thought for sure I'd be given prescription heartburn meds and be sent on my merry way. Well, I was extremely wrong. I did the normal office visit thing...peed in a cup, stepped on the scale and had my blood pressure taken. Well, my blood pressure was a little elevated but not too alarming. I then explained the pain I'd been having and was pretty quickly told I needed to have blood work done. The reasoning was to rule out preeclampsia. The OB was fairly confident that I didn't have it given that the epigastric pain and slightly elevated blood pressure were my only symptoms. But, they wanted to make sure and wanted me to go to the hospital to have labs done. So, I headed to the hospital thinking that I'd walk in to a lab-esque place to get pricked a couple times and head on my way to work. That was not the case. I was immediately admitted to labor and delivery to have blood work done. This is where all the fun starts. My blood pressure was being monitored very closely. I was told to pee in a container for 24 hours. I had an IV started, was having blood drawn every few hours for various tests, my belly was hooked up to multiple monitors to make sure Abby was safe, I had an ultrasound of my organs and and ultrasound of baby too. At one point I was told I'd be on bedrest at home, bedrest in the hospital, be induced at 37 weeks and possibly have my gallbladder removed. But, over the course of the next 48 hours I would actually be diagnosed with preeclampsia. On Wednesday the only symptom I had was the "chest" pain and slightly elevated blood pressure and by Friday morning my liver enzymes were high, my red blood cell count was off, there was protein in my urine and my blood pressure had reached something like 190 over 110. Basically, I was on the verge of having a stroke while simultaneously suffering kidney and liver failure. The only cure to preeclampsia is delivery so on Friday morning I was visited by the OB who quickly told me that I would be having a baby. Scary but exciting at the same time. I was incredibly sick at this point. I was dehydrated. I felt weak and was extremely ill. The only option for birth, given how I felt, was to move forward with a c-section. They proceeded with an epidural and rolled me into the operating room at 11:30am. At 11:51am on Friday, December 7th, 2012 baby Abigail Scarlett was born! She weighed 4 pounds 6.5 ounces (exactly 13 ounces less than they had estimated via ultrasound the day before) and was 18.5 inches long. She came out crying which was a very sweet sound given that she was only 34 weeks and 6 days. She was immediately taken to NICU for observation due to her gestational age at birth. Baby girl started out on oxygen for the first 36 hours but was a strong little one. By Sunday she was breathing on her own, regulating her own temperature and by all accounts was healthy. She would spend the next 15 days learning how to eat and remembering to breathe. As the doctors said, "she was just being a preemie." As I like to say, "she just had to learn how to be a baby."
