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I was one of the lucky ones. Reading all the stories here and having |
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I was one of the lucky ones. Reading all the stories here and having some friends' experiences much worse than mine have confirmed that for me. My first pregnancy, I was 28 years old, working full time, and we lived a 35 mile commute from work and a 12 mile commute form my OB/GYN andrural hospital where I planned to deliver. I had done BBT charting while we were TTC, and we got pregnant on the first month, although my ovulation date was off by over a week from the "average day 14" - the Dr. looked at my charting and then did an ultrasound and agreed that the due date should be adjusted based on BBT/ovulation not LMP. My due date was Dec. 22, 2006. I had no morning sickness, and no other symptoms, it was an easy pregnancy, until week 28. I went in for a regular prenatal checkup, and they were not happy with my BP, it was not really high, but not good either, they tested for protien in my urine, and there was only trace amounts, my ankles were a little swollen, they did an NST on the baby and everything was fine with her. I was told to come back the next day for another check on the BP and urine, it was still unfavorable, the Dr. gave me a diagnosis of PIH (Pregnancy Induced Hypertension)....September 28th I was put on bedrest at home for the forseeable remainder of the pregnancy. He was very serious and warned me that this can be a precursor to real preeclampsia, and that I was to lay in bed on my left side except for going to the bathroom, he allowed me ONE trip down the stairs and one trip up, per day...I would go down in the morning, get all my food for the day and put it in a cooler and take it up to put by my bed for the day. My husband was still working full time - our insurance was through him....I had no family nearby, so I was on my own. Luckily the people form our church were GREAT, they made us dinners 3 nights a week and would ocme to visit me. I had to go to the Dr. once to twice a week, to get BP, edema, and urine checked, and do an NST on the baby; and in those last 3 months of pregnancy, I went to a Perinatologist (45 miles away) to check on the baby once each month, as well. Everything was going well, although my edema and BP were slowly increasing little by little. I was very strict with myself on the bedrest, luckily we had cable TV, wireless internet and a laptop that kept me sane in bed! 10 weeks of bedrest down, at 38 weeks gestation, I went in for one of my checkups, and my BP was higher than it had been so far, 145/90 I think, and it didn't go down after lying there for over an hour, the NST for the baby was not going as well as they always had, either, and I did finally have over 1 protien in my urine as well. By this time, I had gained 45 pounds total for the pregnancy. The Dr. did an Ultrasound, and said the baby was ok, but her cord was wrapped around her neck, and she was not as active and her heartbeat was not increasing and staying up as long as it should when she moved. The Dr. said we had to deliver the baby before I got worse, and that at 38 weeks, she still had some respiratory risks, but they were minimal compared to if I went into true preeclampsia. He gave me the choice, induction ( with NO natural progress by my body to get started) or C-Section, THAT afternoon. After thinking about it for about 10 minutes and talking to my husband (who was luckily there with me), we decided to just go for the c-section - mainly because of the cord arond the baby's neck. It is a good thing we did. We started the C-section at 3:30 pm, and at 3:53 our beautiful baby girl was born, the Dr. had a VERY hard time getting her out of the incision - turns out she had the cord wrapped around her neck 3 TIMES!!! I hate to think about what would've happened had we tried an induction/vaginal birth. She was 6 pounds, 11 oz., 19.5 inches long, and got great APGAR scores. I was in recovery for an hour and then got to hold her and nurse and everything in my recovery room. She did have a case of jaundice and had to be under the bili lights for a few days, and she had an IV, but all in all she did great. We both stayed in the local/rural hospital from that Day ( Friday) through Monday evening, and got to go home together as a family. I healed quickly and was walking the morning after surgery, and seemed to have no ill-effects. My daughter, CJ, has been healthy as a horse, started talking at 9 months and walking at 10 months, and now is a very smart 2-year old. I got pregnant again when she was only 9 months, and that ended in a miscarriage at 12 w. The Dr. never figured out a cause for the Miscarriage. Unfortunately, the wonderful and proactive Dr. who had managed my care the first time, moved away to start his own independant practice and he is too far for us to go to, the new OB at the clinic didn't handle the miscarriage well at all, I was hospitalized overnight, and BLED ALOT. Then discharged, only to complete/deliver the Miscarriage at home. Now I am pregnant again, at 30.5 weeks now, I check my BP every day, and it has been great all along. We are on to our 3rd Dr. and he seems ok (not as good as the first one, but not as bad as the second one) - we have a C-section scheduled for Feb. 19th (due date is Feb. 26). Unfortunately, out where we live, there is not so much selection in Dr.s/hospitals....there is one Dr. who is a General Practicioner who does C-sections too (other than the one we don't like) and one Hospital within a 30 mile radius. If I end up with any major complications, they will have to send me by ambulance or fly me by helicopter to the major hospital about 50 miles away that has an ICU and an NICU. But we are hoping and praying that we weill have no problems this time. One friend from high School and College was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia and had to have her first child by c-section at only 28 weeks, the baby had other birth defects,and died in the NICU after about a week, luckily the mother has gone on to have two more successful pregnancies. Another friend from Church was diagnosed with the same thing as me at about the same time in her pregnancy, and was told bedrest. Well, she blames herself - though that may not be the real cause, because she was not strict with her bedrest, and her son was born 6+ weeks early. Luckily, both baby and mom came out of it ok, and he is now developing normally, they still had to deal with the difficulties of a preemie. Another woman I knew from online had been put on bedrest at the very end of her pregnancy, 37 weeks with the beginnings of preeclamptic symptoms, and then we never heard back from her about the birth, the online community was getting worried. A month and a half later, we just found out that the baby was delivered healthy November 7th, and the mom got to see and hold her breifly, but that then the Mom developed HELLP Syndrome and was flown to another hospital, where her liver and kidneys failed, she was on dialisys and life support, and then she died December 6th. What a horrible loss for that little baby girl, her daddy and all the family. I thank God every day for my healthy little girl, and this life we both have, and I pray that this pregnancy ends the same way. I do have some fear about further pregnancies, since I have had complications and the miscarriage, and I think this will probably be our last child, because of that. |
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