My Birth Story (for MamatoJackson, and anyone else who wondered)

NastyAnnie

I am a shameless AW and didn't want to comment again on that post in the case that it gets pushed to page 5 before you see it.

Basically, here's what happened:

At 31.5 weeks my blood pressure jumped way way up. Like, 160/100 out of nowhere. I went into the hospital. They did all the tests but nothing ever happened. My doctor decided I had pre-e, but I didn't have any protein in my urine...just a very elevated white cell count.

For the next 6 weeks, I was hospitalized 3 more times, went to the doctor twice a week, and everybody was just scratching their heads. I was in almost constant pain from a blood pressure headache, and they kept telling me "Don't worry, the instant you show some protein in your urine, we'll induce."

Well, I never did.

At my last appointment (I was 36wks6days, it was a Friday) my blood pressure was through the roof. No big deal, it had been for weeks at that point. But my doctor wasn't there, it was a nurse practicioner, so she called the head OB at my practice. He had them hospitalize me immediately (even though I'd just been released the previous Tuesday) and came in to see me. He, too, thought it was pre-e. My blood pressure kept climbing as I did yet another 24 hr urine test (I think I did 7, all told, during those last weeks). It hit over 180/115. They put me on a magnesium drip to make sure I didn't suffer any damage from seizures. It was horrid, and I fully support the use of magnesium as a form of torture.

And then, in the middle of the night, I had this intense pain right under my right breast. It felt like a heart attack might if it was on the other side of your body. I told them and they said, "Oh yeah, definitely pre-e." But, my blood work came back fine.. except for an extremely elevated white cell count.

The next morning a new doc came in, a lady. I told her about the pain and where it was, she ordered an ultrasound, and the next day I had a c-section and...Gallbladder removal surgery. The incision stretches from 2inches under my sternum all the way down to my pubic bone. It's ridiculous. As my surgeon (Dr. Acula, the transylvanian super star) was pulling my gallbladder out, it was falling apart in his hands. They told me later that, had we waited a matter of hours longer, the septic infection would have spilled out into my body, almost definitely would have killed Jack, and probably would have killed me too. Awesome, right? I was under general anesthesia, so I knew nothing of this.

When they pulled him out, Jack's lungs wouldn't inflate. He couldn't inflate them on his own and the hospital I delivered at didn't have an infant CPAP machine, so he had to be careflighted to Austin (45 minutes away). I saw him for about 45 seconds, through his incubator, before they took him away. He was in NICU for 9 days, and still has severe sleep apnea and some problems figuring out when to breathe and when to swallow (eating is a fun time for all, what with him trying to breathe formula and swallow air). I gotta say, the 2 days I had to stay in the hospital after my surgery were the longest days of my life. I just couldn't deal with it. I hadn't even seen his face (they had it covered with an oxygen mask) at this point. But, we visited him every day after I was released, and we made it through.

Now that he's home, he's an excellent baby. He's very independent and contented. And he rocks his Pink Floyd onesie like he was born with it on.

MamatoJackson

Wow.  That sounds incredibly traumatic.  I had to wait an hour between my C-Section (where I got to see him for a few minutes after he was born) and when they brought him to me in my recovery room and the time felt like a freaking eternity.

So dramatic, Annie... really.