Birth Story (Definitely not easy and very scary) long

I was 35 weeks pregnant. I woke up on a Tuesday morning (Jan 24th, 2012) I got out of bed to start getting ready for work. As soon as I stood up I felt something run down my leg. It wasn't watery enough to be my water breaking or thick enough to be a mucous plug, so I thought it was just normal pregnancy discharge and continued to get ready for the day. All day long at work I was peeing constantly, even more than usual, because it felt like I was leaking what I thought was urine.  I got off work at 5 and decided to go to the OB triage at the hospital just to make sure everything was alright. The nurse did a pelvic exam and checked my cervix, I was only 1cm dialted. She said just by looking down there that she didn't think I was leaking amniotic fluid but they took a swab anyway and tested it under the microscope. I expected her to come back and tell me to go home and I was just peeing my pants all day! LOL Well, we were both wrong. It was definitely amniotic fluid. So that's when she told me they were going to admit me and have to induce labor. Even though I was only 35 weeks, it wasn't safe for the baby to stay in because he could get an infection. I was so excited, not nervous at all. I really did not enjoy pregnancy like alot of women do and I was getting to that miserable stage where all I wanted to do was lay in bed all day. So I immediately called my husband, who left work early to be by my side, then my mom, who I think was more excited than I was! Then my best friend, who lives in another state!

They hooked me up to the fetal monitor and inserted Cervadil inside my cervix which thins it out and is supposed to start contractions. Well I had that in for 12 hours with no sign of progress. I was only 2cm dialted 12 hours later. So next was the Pitocin, an IV drug which induces labor also. Well 10 hours later I was only 2.5 cm dialated and not having any signifigant contractions. I wasn't feeling a thing.  Finally about 4:00 Wednesday my OB came in and did another exam. She said she still felt a water bag, so she broke my water manually. Well that did it! I immediately starting having contractions and things finally started progressing! They let me get an epidural right away. They said I had been through enough already! LOL The best thing about the epidural (besides going numb) was getting the catheter that went along with it! Thank god for being able to sleep and not getting up to pee every 30 minutes with an IV pole attached to me! The epidural was working great, I was completely numb on one side but the right side of my body wasn't as numb. So the anestesiologist came in when I was about 9 cm and gave me an extra dose.

At about 3am I was ready to start pushing! They got me in a semi sitting position and my legs up. This is when my blood pressure dropped and I started feeling faint, nauseous and began vomitting. They gave me some IV drugs to get my BP back up and that seemed to help. I pushed for a long 2.5 hours! Finally on Thursday, January 26th at 5:35am Lucas Michael Pool was born weighing 7 lbs 3oz, and 18 3/4 in long! Big boy for being a month early! Can you imagine if I went full term? He started crying right away and it was an amazing sound. I only got to hold him for a minute when the nurses took him away because they said he wasn't breathing right   They had warned us before I delivered that there could be some health issues, especially with his lungs since he was premature. After they took him a nurse came back and told us he was doing ok but they had to put him on oxygen to help him breathe and he would probably be in the NICU for a few days. I was sad that we couldn't hold our baby because he was hooked up to a bunch of tubes and everything. Once my epidural wore off and I could get in a wheelchair we went to the NICU to see him. I immediatelt started crying when I saw him. He looked so helpless with all the tubes around him and he was so swollen and puffy fron all the excess fluid inside him. To add to it the Dr told us it looked like he would have to stay there for 2 WEEKS! 2 weeks is a long time when you were only told a few days to begin with! I wasn't happy about that but of course I knew it's what they had to do to make sure he was ok.

This is kinda where my health started to take a turn for the worse. We went back up to Post Partum so we could get some rest. The nurse came in to check my vitals and my heart was very high! Normal range is 60-100 and mine was about 140 laying in bed not doing anything. They seemed to think it wasn't a problem and said its just from the stress of labor. Well later that night it was still very high and showing no signs of dropping. My husband was the first person to actually feel my pulse instead of just using a machine (hes a firefighter). He told the nurses that it wasn't only fast but it was also an irregular heart beat, which is not good! They immediately ordered an EKG to check my heart rythem and that confirmed that I was in Atrial Fibrulation (A-Fib). The cardiologist explained to me that there could possibly be a blood clot somewhere which could travel to my heart or to my brain and I could possibly have a stroke, or worse! I started crying again, of course thinking the worst. That I'm going to die and not be around for my son and my poor husband is going to have to do everything on his own. (Drama Queen, I know! But we were very scared!) A SWAT nurse immediatley came to my room to transfer me to another floor where they could monitor my heart rate 24/7. This was Friday afternoon (Jan 27th)

The worst part about all this was that first day they didn't even want me getting out of bed except to use the bathroom and even just that would make my heart rate go up to the 180's. So I was not allowed to go to the NICU and see my baby which was awful However, by Friday he was doing alot better than the day before so this was good news for us. First, they tried to convert my heart rythem back to normal with meds. After 24 hours we realized this wasn't working either. The Dr ordered an ultrasound of my heart to see if there was a clot somewhere. They couldn't see a clot on the ultrasound but he said my heart was only wokring at 40% At this point he scheduled my for a Cardiac Ablation procedure. They would put a catheter through the artery in my femur and go up to my heart to see which part of it was causing all the trouble and caderize it (burn it) and hopefully this would be the cure and I would never have to deal with this again. Well since it was Friday and I wasn't considered an emergency case since I was so young and not having any symptoms, the procedure would not take place until Monday. Unfortunately the procedure could not be done at the hospital we were at so I needed to be transferred. Being the insensitive people that they are. They were going to transfer me on Friday when it couldnt even be done till Monday. My husband put his foot down here and said I was not leaving the hospital while my baby was in the NICU until the day of the procedure! They finally agreed, and they also said I could go see him as long as I stay in my wheelchair and wear the heart monitor while I was down there. We finally got to hold him and feed him a little that day which was amazing!

Well the weekend came and went. Lucas was doing better everyday, Thank God! While I, on the other hand, was still tachycardic and in A-Fib. No changes at all! Monday finally came and I was ready to get this done and over with so we could go home and start our family. Apparently there was another emergency case that had to go before me and my procedure was pushed back to Tuesday morning. However, they did transfer me by ambulance to the other hospital Monday night. I said goodbye to my baby with tears in my eyes and hoped to God that everything would turn out alright with him and me! Monday night they gave me the same meds they had been giving me all along and I tried to sleep as well as I could. Early Tuesday morning the nurse came in and told me the good news. My heart rate had gone back into normal rythem spontaneously overnight! I was so happy to hear that! However, they still needed to do the procedure so find out what caused it in the first place so it wouldn't happen again. They prepped me for surgery and gave me some stuff to relax me. When it was over the Dr told me they could not find the problem while they were in there and that hopefully my heart rate would stay normal. This was kinda dissapointing, but I was just glad it was over and that we could go home. IN the meantime we were told that our baby could come home with us the next day which was perfect timing! I now have to take heart medication everyday, it's still higher than normal, usually around 100-110, but its normal steady rythem which is good. I go to the cardiologist again in a few months to have another ultrasound and hopefully he will tell me I can stop taking the meds.

Lucas is now almost 4 months old and weighing a healthy 18 lbs! He's so cute and chubby and smiles at everything! I dont even want to imagine what would have happened if my heart condition led to something worse and I could not watch him grow and love him. We are so happy as a family. My husband and I always wanted 2 kids. However, after our little scare I'm not too sure if my heart could handle it for a 2nd time. But for now, we are so happy and in love with our baby boy that we will wait a few years to start talking about that again! I was a completely healthy 25 year old who never had any problems or family history of heart issues. You never know what could happen I guess. I thank God everyday that we are both healthy now and I try not to take anything for granted now! Below is a recent pic of my happy chubby baby!