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I was 27 weeks pregnant, I went in for a growth ultrasound and the baby |
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I was 27 weeks pregnant, I went in for a growth ultrasound and the baby was only measuring 24 weeks gestation. The doctor had me set an appointment for a special ultrasound. The appointment was for the next monday. The same night that I had my ultrasound, I started feeling pain right under my right breast and I felt like I couldn't breath. Being a nurse I thought I was having a blood clot in my lung and went to the emergency room. The ER told me it was my gallbladder and sent me home. The next two days I was so sick, I couldn't keep anything down, after I would eat. I finally couldn't take the pain anymore and went back in the Emergency room on saturday June 24th 2006. Three days after my ultrasound. I was admitted for my pain and the doctor thought I should have the special ultrasound while in the hospital. Ten minutes into the ultrasound, the radiologist called the doctor into the room, they talked quietly, and then turned to me and said,"You are going to have this baby in the next 24 hours". The umbilical cord had back flow into it making it really hard for my baby to get good bloodflow and grow. I was really sick, with my blood pressure climbing, and my pulse dropping dramatically. I was in so much pain and my baby was really small. I was transferred via ambulance to another hospital that could better handle my situation. Once at the hospital, they did more lab work on me and told me they would have to do a c-section right then to give me and my baby any chance of survival. When we went into the operating room the anesthesiologist tried to give me a spinal so that I could be awake, but it didn't take a hold. Just then my heart rate dropped to 38 and my baby's heartrate dropped to 68. The doctor started yelling at everyone, told my husband to leave. I was put completely out. The next thing I new I was in a room with my family standing over me and crying. They said, "she's so beautiful". My daughter Addisyn Grace was born June 24th, 2006 at 5:04pm. She weighed one pound and three ounces. She was 11 and a half inches long and she had had no steroids to help her lungs mature. She spent 92 days in the neonatal intensive care unit. She came home on September 23rd 2006. She was intubated three times, she had an IV that went to her heart placed and was fed through her IV for two weeks. She had four blood transfusions, she had a hole in her heart that closed with medication, and had a small grade one brain bleed that resolved itself and with no lasting effects on her.She is developmentally three months behind her date of birth but for her gestational age she is right on target. She weighs 6 and a half pounds and is still wearing preemie clothes. She is absolutely adorable. She takes all of her food by bottle, and needs no extra oxygen to breath. Her health is great. I was told by the doctor if I had waited until Monday the 26th for my appointment, that addisyn would have been dead and I would have been right behind her. I had gone into HELLP syndrome and that was what prompted them to do the c-section so quickly. My daughter and I are truly lucky to be alive and doing well, but I still grieve for the things I missed out on. I missed my whole third trimester of pregnancy, and I wasn't able to hold her until she was three weeks old. I wasn't able to kiss her until she was over a month old. She was a month old when I got to hold her and rock her in the chair. She was two months old the first time I heard her cry, and she was two and half months old until she was able to fit into preemie clothes. She wasn't able to be breast feed, but I still had to pump every two hours. So those of you out there, you are not alone. Hang on because it will get better. I thank god every time I'm startled awake in the middle of the night with my baby's beautiful cry, and I melt every time she smiles. |
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