Don't get me wrong, I loved being pregnant. Every single minute of it. Including my 10 weeks of bed rest. Yes, you read that correct. 10 weeks. You might call this my birth story.
So, let's start at the beginning shall we? My husband and I got married in November of 2009. Because we were both considered older (He was 29 and I was 28) we thought it would be best to start trying to start our family within the next year. We had been together for many years before getting married so it wasn't as though there were lots of things to get used to. I went off birth control at the end of January and thought it would take some time to get pregnant. Were we ever wrong! By the middle of February we were pregnant. Everything was great. I didn't get much in the way of severe morning sickness, my husband got that! I was just nauseous all the time. Preggie Pops became my best friend.
Well we had our first visit with the OB and they offered to let us have a more in depth ultra sound with the doctors at the Maternal Fetal health clinic. Since I was adopted and we have no family history of my biological family that seemed like a good idea. Everything was going fine so we didn't see much in the need to worry. Sometime in the my second trimester the doctor told me that I had a partial placenta previa. If you're pregnant and reading this DO NOT look up what that is. It's super scary. Or it was for me because a good friend of mine had a full previa and due to hemorrhage at 28 weeks had to have an emergency caesarean. So at this point they put me on light lifting only. Try spending much of any time lifting nothing more than a gallon of milk. Laundry really became a problem because at that time our washer and dryer were in the pump house outside. My previa eventually "fixed" itself so we cleared that hurdle.
A few more weeks pass and we go in for another appointment. My blood pressure is up so the doctors had them test my blood pressure again while I was in the office. It hadn't gone down. So over to the Women's Pavilion I was sent to go to triage and have an NST (non stress test) and some blood work done. I had developed preeclampsia. At that point they put me on bed rest and asked me to do a 24 hour urine collection. In the middle of Summer, in Florida none the less. So we go through a day of that. Long story short, it was bed rest for the duration. They weren't going to let me get out of it. So here I was going to my OB once a week and having NST's done once a week. Soon after I was put on bed rest my parents went on a boat trip through the Greek Isles. It was great for them. I got to chat some and they were always wondering how I was doing and what was the latest. At about 28 weeks the OB decided it might be a good idea for me to go ahead and have steroid injections to help Ethan's lungs develop some because he wasn't sure how long I was going to be able to stay pregnant. Well the day I had my first steroid injection was the day that they thought I was going to have a baby! My blood pressure started to creep and creep and creep to the point that they were pushing me into a labor and delivery room and getting ready for an emergency cesarean. After the nurses put me on magnesium sulfate and I was able to calm down some my blood pressure came down to 140s/90s which was still high, but not at the point that I needed to have the baby. Magnesium sulfate is no fun. It's like being put in a brick oven and baked from the inside out. After this episode I was put on bed rest in the hospital.
Bed rest in the hospital sucks. Majorly. I couldn't go outside and get fresh air. Nothing. My parents came home and my mom came and visited me every day. My blood pressure seemed to have evened out to staying in the 140s/90s, and I was able to talk my way out of the hospital with my doctor. The deal I struck was that I would stay with my parents where my mom could take care of me. So, more bed rest. And lots more doctor appointments. At one of my doctor's appointments when I was 37 weeks pregnant the doctor looked at me and said you're not leaving the hospital without a baby. So back to the Women's Pavilion we go. The rest is how my son came to join our family...
It's a Thursday. October 28th. My dad had left that morning to drive to North Carolina for a football/golf weekend. He got up there okay. But just as he and his friends are getting ready to go to the FSU-NC State game my mom calls him panicking. My blood pressure had reached 172/120 and the nurses told her that they were getting an OR ready for an emergency caesarean (I try hard not to used the term c-section, I wasn't sectioned off, I gave birth). They are pushing me down the hall, I'm texting she's freaking out, and the nurses are talking a mile a minute. Well back on the Mag I go and my pressure comes down. By this time my dad had already rented a car and started driving back to Florida (he was on the road for about 20 hours total) The OB on call comes in and says, we can cancel the caesarean and try and have this baby naturally, with some help. So on to inducing we go. He starts me on Cervidil to see if that will push me into labor. Nothing for 12 hours. So he puts me on another dose of it. Nothing for 12 more hours. Now we're into Friday. So we decide to try something different. It's decided to try Cytotec orally. So we do that for 12 hours. I start having a few contractions, but nothing major. So we trying another dose of Cytotec. I still haven't dilated more than 1 cm and my water hasn't broken. Thursday has come and gone, and so has Friday. Saturday morning and the OB on call comes in and says that we're going to try Pictocin to see if that gets us anywhere and if nothing happens with the first dose than she's going to have me scheduled for a caesarean that evening. Later in the day the doctor comes in to see how I'm doing and asks me how far I'm willing to go to have the baby naturally. Well in all my infinite wisdom, I say as long as you'll let me! So she says okay. She decided to let me go on another dose of Pictocin because I'm having regular contractions but still haven't dialted any. Before she puts me on the second dose I beg for them to let me take a shower. They hadn't been letting me out of the bed for anything really. Keep in mind this whole time I'm still on the mag which means all liquids that goes in has to be recorded and all liquids that goes out has to be recorded. My husband was wonderful with this. He took care of all of it. My parents come to visit me and we tell them that I've decided to try a little longer and they tell me my dad has a major conference in Orlando which is 4 hours away he's leading on Monday and Tuesday and he can't miss it. Well at least he can't miss Monday morning. Sunday morning comes around and the OB that admitted me on Thursday is back on call. He comes in my room and tells me I'm the last person he expected to still be pregnant! He checks me and I'm still 1 cm. So he puts me back on the Cervidil. Another day of it. By that evening I've decided that I'm pretty much done. Done with the whole thing. Monday morning comes, my OB comes in to see how I'm doing and I tell him I was done. He was very nice to make sure that I was sure I was done because he didn't want me to feel like I was giving anything up. I think it took 4 days of inducing to decided that I was done. So he schedules me for my caesarean for that afternoon. He took lots of work, but we had a beautiful healthy 6 pound 4 ounce little boy. Yes, he was 22 days early, but everything was perfect. Here's our first family picture.
Fast forward 4 months. I have this red spot on my thumb and finally get the doctor to look at it. It's getting bigger and will sometimes start to bleed. So, she puts me on an antibiotic since she's not sure what it is. I'm on the antibiotic and nothings getting better, so off to the dermatologist I go. Come to find out it's a pyogenic granuloma. I'm given two ointments to try and use and that's not really helping. I have another appointment soon and we'll see what he does.
So yes, if it occurs in 10% of pregnant women, it's likely to happen to me!
