The month of May is Pre-eclampsia Awareness month! Something that I had heard of but never thought I would experience firsthand. I wouldn’t say I had the world’s perfect pregnancy, but I felt so good while carrying! I worked full-time, drove 500 miles a week to commute to work as a teacher, never had high BP and probably never felt more energized! However, one night I came home from work and realized my ankles were more swollen than probably normal. I went straight to the hospital and was diagnosed with preeclampsia. 2 weeks later I delivered at 37 weeks. My body had zero signs of being ready for labor and was induced. What we didn’t know and was always a little suspicious about was Quinn was much younger than she was, so delivering at 37 weeks really meant she was most likely around 35 weeks or so. All of the doctors took care of me prior to delivery did the best that they could with information that was given to determine her due date. After giving birth, I got discharged after two days and came home, took my blood pressure, and it was sky high! I then was readmitted for three nights at the hospital and was given the magnesium sulfate infusion for post preeclampsia complications, which was truly the worst experience ever! I was without my newborn, not being able to breastfeed, hold or cuddle.

Fast forward to a week later and we noticed some atypical things with Quinn that brought up some red flags. Our pedtrician immediately told us to go to the hospital. We headed there and they performed chest x rays, bloodwork and spinal tap. Her body temp and oxygen were low and was placed on nasal cannula for our duration of the stay. 7 days old. For the 4 nights we were in the PICU I was still technically on bed rest and still was feeling the after affects of the drip. This is when they all determined that Quinn was much younger than she appeared to be and should have been kept at our hospital we delivered at.

Now we have a healthy (almost) 16 month old and couldn’t be more thankful 

Listen to your body, advocate for yourself, speak with your medical providers & watch for all of the signs!