Friday, November 29, 2013

Everything is great...Until its Not

In April of this year I found out I was pregnant. I seemed to behaving the easiest pregnancy in the history of the world. I didn't get sick EVER. I felt great. I didn't have any bizarre late night cravings, although I did go through boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch like never before. I didn't have any major crazy breakdowns in public, much to the disappointment of my co-workers. (My husband disputes this fact because of a mini breakdown I had while trying to pick out a couch.)  All in all things were going great. Then all of a sudden things went terribly, horribly wrong.

On November 15, when I was 34 weeks pregnant, I went to my doctor for my regular appointment, feeling fine. My blood pressure that day was very high so the doctor sent me to get blood drawn and do the 24 hour protein test, which I was very excited about, to test for Preeclampsia. It was a Friday so I knew I wouldn't hear anything back until at least Monday. The rest of the night was fairly uneventful. My stomach seemed a bit upset, but it was nothing I was worried about so we went to bed. I woke up at 12:30am and went to the bathroom like had become my routine for the last few weeks. My stomach no longer hurt, which was great so I went back to bed..... That's the last thing I remember until sometime Saturday afternoon when I woke up in a fog in the hospital and they told me my baby was here.

So what happened?

My husband woke up about 2am to me having a seizure in bed beside him. He called 911 and they rushed me to the hospital. I was swollen beyond belief and had crazy high blood pressure. In short, Eclampsia hit me full force. I ended up having 2 more seizures before everything was said and done. They were worried about me having a stroke...or possibly worse... The only way to cure eclampsia is to deliver the baby so in order to save both our lives, and emergency c section was performed and at 6:23am Baby Girl was born. Apparently I was awake and talking to people until they put me under for the surgery, but I don't have any memory of it. I started to have one faint memory of a guy saying my name then telling me they would have to deliver the baby, I think maybe it was in the ambulance. It feels more like a dream than anything else though so I'm not totally sure.

The whole situation was pretty scary, more so for my poor husband than for me simply because I don't remember it. I'm just thankful that both the baby and I are ok and for the most part completely healthy. Since she was early we're having to stay in the NICU for a while until she learns to eat, but other than that she's perfectly healthy which is all I care about. My blood pressure is still somewhat out of control so I'm working on that.

I'm still trying to process the whole thing - the fact that I could've died, that I had a baby without ever feeling a contraction or going through labor, that there is a chance this will happen again if we decide to have another kid. In the meantime I'm thankful that I have such an amazing husband who always has and continues to take care of me and a beautiful, healthy baby girl.