Prayers and Scares

So as many may know we were joined in this world Friday by an angel at 2:27 am.

It all started on Wednesday afternoon when I noticed that the baby wasn't moving as much as she normally does, so I called the Doctor and they had me come in for a Non-Stress Test. As I was there, they noticed that the early stages of pre-eclampsia that they had been watching and waiting for had been changed to full out pre-eclampsia. So I let Kyle know that I was going to the Dr, and he was up in Hartford on a rotation (in the middle of a delivery) when he felt like he should come on home. When he got there the doctors decided that I should be admitted to the hospital and induced the next day so the pre-eclampsia doesn't turn into eclampsia. We got there and just relaxed, and the hard contractions started soon after they started to 'prep' me for induction. At this time they started filling me with fluid, and lots of it. The fluid kept coming into my IV until my baby was born. So I was up all night with the contractions and doing my best to relax through them. We had decided months before that HypnoBirthing was going to be the way our baby came into this world. So I was relaxing all night and by the next morning they decided to give me the Pitocin so I can really get things going. However 5 hours later I was still slightly dialated and not really going anywhere. They decided if we wanted to move things along that they would need to break my water. So after putting that off as long as I could and still not progressing after 8 hours of pitocin, I let them break my water, and I thought the contractions were strong before, they were too much for me to relax through. So I know many of you will be disappointed in me, but I made it through the first 24 hours of labor with HypnoBirthing, but after that I met my best friend in the whole world - the anesthesiologist. So after I got the epidural, I was in heaven and wondered why it took me so long to get it. But they kept pumping me with more and more fluid after I got it so I would stay hydrated. My blood pressure dropped dramatically and that affected our little Bailey, so they kept giving me more fluid to stabilize my blood pressure. And this is where the story gets a little fuzzy. I decided that I'm going to write what I remember and what I heard happen. Kyle will come back later and edit a few things I'm sure. I dozed off for a little while later towards 11:00pm. After waking up I noticed that something felt wrong with my head. I felt fuzzy and in a moment like I wasn't really comprehending what people were doing and what they were saying to me. Honestly I didn't know what was going on, and after expressing a little bit of that to the doctor, it took all of a minute to get 10 more doctors in there and to get magnesium in me to prevent a seizure. After x-rays, a EKG, and tons of other tests, it wasn't getting any better so they decided to do an emergency c-section. After all was said and done, we had a beautiful baby girl, 7 lbs 11 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. As they wheeled me into recovery they noticed that I couldn't keep my oxygen levels in my blood up and as I was falling asleep, it would keep getting worse. They took me down to get a CT scan and get more tests done. I was pretty out of it and don't really remember anything until Saturday afternoon. After the surgery, they put me on oxygen for the next few days, and one of my lungs had a minor collapse. The theory after all the tests were said and done was that during labor when they were filling me with fluid, that my whole body and all my organs were being filled with fluid as well. Luckily I'm still deflating and I still have a ways to go but I have lost so much fluid and I'm starting to look like a normal person.

Now we are just getting ready to leave the hospital after only 4 days of that mess and everything is back to normal. I just want to thank those of you who have had their prayers with us. It was a huge help and blessing.