On April 22nd, Tuesday, I left work early to go to my 37 week appointment. I was only 36 weeks 3 days, but I always had my appointments a bit early. The week before, my blood pressure had been elevated so they'd sent me to triage for 3 hours to have myself and the baby monitored. They had told me to keep an eye out for headaches, dizziness etc. The Thursday after I'd experienced a lot of those, but the nurse had told me not to worry. The symptoms were getting increasingly worse, so I mentioned it all at my appointment on the 22nd. They took my blood pressure, which was slightly elevated for me (but not elevated by regular standards) and took a urine sample.
My appointment that day was with my favorite doctor, so we discussed my symptoms, and how big the baby was measuring, and she decided to have me admitted to the hospital for 24 hour observation (where they check my urine and blood pressure every 4 hours) to see if I was developing pre eclampsia. Z and I went over to the hospital, got admitted and settled in. I laid around and watched tv, and got to listen to the baby's heartbeat. The next afternoon my dr told me that my blood pressure had been fine, so she wanted me to rest a lot but would be sending me home once the urine results were back, and we'd schedule my c section for 39 weeks since he was measuring so big.
A few hours later, the urine results came back elevated. Due to his size and the fact that I was almost full term (37 weeks is the minimum for full term, but 39 is the earliest they'll electively induce or do a c section since the longer the better) they decided to keep me in the hospital on bed rest with twice daily non stress tests where they monitored my contractions and his heartbeat and do a c section the following Monday when I was 37 weeks 2 days. The hospital doesn't schedule c sections for weekends, which is why I couldn't have one on Saturday when I was officially 37 weeks.
I laid around the hospital that week, his heartrate and my blood pressure remained fine. As long as I didn't do too much everything stayed happy so I watched tv and wedding planned from my hospital room. Z kept working through the week so he could start his paternity leave the day the baby was born, and then on Saturday he and his mom cleaned our entire house and he finished the yard work. My friends Brie and Kristen came to visit, and my mother in law brought me wings and a milkshake :)
Sunday morning (39 weeks 1 day on April 27) I ate breakfast per usual, and Z was at home with the dogs, letting them run and play before he came to hang out at the hospital with me. He apparently considered taking them to the dog beach but decided against it. A little later than normal, the nurse came in to take my blood pressure and hook me up for my NST, around 10am. She got the contraction monitor hooked up, but when she hooked up the heart rate monitor, it wouldn't track. You could hear the baby's heartbeat over the monitor, but it wasn't recording it or monitoring it correctly. The monitor would go from 55 beats per minute, to 220, to 110 and back again. After trying to get it to track him for a bit since the nurse thought it was because of too much fluid around him (which we knew I had), she decided it was the monitor and went to find another conductor. After hooking that up, she tried for another 10 minutes and it still wouldn't track so she decided to find a portable monitor. As she was trying to find that, Z showed back up. I remember saying "damn, I meant to text you to bring me another pillow" as we explained what was going on. Everything was calm at this point, no one had given any indication there might be a problem other than the monitor being faulty.
The other nurse came back to say the portable monitor was in use, so they were going to move me to another room. After loading up all our stuff and moving over there, they hooked me up again. This monitor also wouldn't work. We could still hear his heartbeat, so Z listened and counted himself. The nurse kept reassuring us that the count was wrong and his heartbeat was not 220, but when Z counted 220 is what he got. They paged the dr since there was no way to monitor the baby, and she ordered an ultrasound to see what was actually happening.
They wheeled me down to ultrasound, where I was suddenly dizzy and had a massive headache. The ultrasound tech was snippy and rude, and after making us wait a bit, finally came in to do the ultrasound. She didn't say much but after 5 ultrasounds due to his size, I knew how to read the numbers and could see his heartrate actually WAS 220 beats per minute. She left the room and I told Z what I'd seen and started to cry. I was super scared all of a sudden and worried for him. I just kept repeating "I want him out. It's not safe. He has to come out".
My doctor knocked on the door and said since it was so high, they were going to move my c section up to that day. She was very calm and joking about attending his birthday party. They wheeled me back upstairs to a pre op room, while Z went to get our stuff from my other room and move it upstairs. They started pumping me full of fluids to prep for surgery, while still listening to his heart, and Z called our families and best friends. My mom had the stomach flu so she wasn't allowed to come, but my best friend headed up immediately and Z's parents weren't far behind.
Z got into his scrubs as they were fluiding me and getting me ready. I kept asking if I could have the spinal and stay awake and they kept telling me to wait for the anesthesiologist. He finally came in, and said no, there was no time and I was getting general anestheia and going completely under. Z asked when he could come in, the dr said "you can't" and started wheeling me out. I started to cry, and Z looked so crestfallen.. He asked if he could kiss me, they stopped and he gave me a kiss and promised it would be ok, then they wheeled me out. I was crying the entire way down the halls as they rushed me to the OR, since this was the first time it actually seemed urgent and I was REALLY scared. They moved me to the OR gurney and started doing a lot of painful things. My dr walked in and held my hand. She asked me if I trusted her and told me she would take care of me and to squeeze her hand when things hurt, which I did as they prepped me. The neonatologist came over to introduce himself and promise to take care of my baby, then I was asleep.
Apparently after 20 minutes they took E to Z and he got to hold him and take a picture before they took him to the NICU to monitor his heartrate and blood sugar. 1 and a half hours later, they wheeled me back to the room. The dr told Z there was a lot of bleeding, so she'd used staples instead of glue so they could make sure I wasn't bleeding internally.
I slowly started to wake up, Brie and Z were in the room with me, but with the pain med pump (my button) I had to hit to not hurt, I kept falling back asleep. Z was between me and the NICU upstairs, so it was nice to have Brie in the room so I wasn't waking up alone. Every inch of me hurt. My jaw and face hurt so bad I wanted to cry, and my legs had permanent charlie horses. I noticed both of those things before my incision, until the nurse came in to do my "fundal massage" which was no joke the most pain I've ever been in in my life. Z and Brie both said it was awful to listen to, since I couldn't help but scream when she did it. They did it every 4 hours while I was in the hospital for 3 days, but none hurt as bad as the first one.
Z brought me pictures of the baby, who weighed in at 9lbs 15oz and 20.25 inches long. The doctor said he would have been 10lbs even but he peed on the way out! Later that night, they let me go down and see him but I was still so out of it I touched him and fell asleep. The next day I was more awake and got to see him again, but they had him on a feeding tube for his blood sugar so I couldn't hold him until Tuesday when I got to hold and feed him.
They monitored his heart with EKGs until he was discharged on Thursday, and his blood sugar leveled out. He also developed a bit of jaundice, so he had to spend a night under the lights and have formula supplementation, but so far so good on breastfeeding.
They discharged him on Thursday May 1, which was a gorgeous sunny day in Florida, and it was a whirlwind getting him home but now we're slowly settling in. Having Z home for 2 weeks was incredible and we are so blessed to have the time off we both have, as well as the healthy baby we have after the scare.
I'm so glad she was late on the NST since if it had been earlier we may not have caught his heartrate like we did, and that Z didn't go to the dog beach. My doctor was amazing even if I was less than thrilled with her practice, and each of my and the baby's nurses were incredible.
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