Hi everyone!
First of all, thank you all so much for your prayers and sweet words. Kurtis, baby, and I are currently all doing fine. Baby is still in my tummy by the way!
As most of you know, I was diagnosed with preeclampsia on Monday. I went into the doctor’s office for my normal 35 week checkup and my blood pressure was a little high so after my check up they had me stay for 20 minutes of monitoring and some other tests. The baby looked great on the monitor, steady heartbeat and squirming all around, but they found a lot of protein in my urine test, combined with some questionable lab results, and my high blood pressure was enough to diagnose me.
If you don’t know what preeclampsia is, it is basically just high blood pressure during pregnancy that, if left untreated, can have some pretty bad or even fatal consequences for mom or baby or both. Everyone’s case is different, and in my case, baby brown is completely fine in there, thumping away, it’s me that’s not okay. The only cure for preeclampsia is to deliver the baby.
She told me they were going to keep a close eye on me and that everything should be fine but the baby would have to be born at 37 weeks (still 2 weeks away) at the very latest. She then told me that if I got a headache tylenol didn’t take care of, or I got oddly nauseous or had blurry vision that I would need to go in right away.
My heart sank as I told her I had had a headache since early that morning and taken tylenol a few hours beforehand and it hadn’t gone away. I saw her face grow concerned and she told me she would call the hospital and tell them I was on my way. Kurtis was outside on a conference call this whole time and had no idea what was happening. I went out and told him and we were on our way.
The next 3 days are a huge whirlwind. At the hospital, they hooked me up to machines to monitor me to decide if I needed to be admitted or if I could go home. Almost every time she took my blood pressure, it set off alarms it was so high. They decided to admit me, and moved me to my own room. Kurtis ran home to get stuff (we were kicking ourselves for not having hospital bags) and take Bennett to his parents, and my mom came down to be with me.
After they moved me a bunch of nurses came in and hooked me up to all kinds of things, took lots of blood and urine, etc. I also got an ultrasound to make sure baby was developed thoroughly in case he needed to come out that night. He was! Strong lungs, and he already weights about 6.3 lbs! A little while after that, the doctor came in. She told me that they were going to put me on medication for the night and see how I did, they wanted to try and keep him in for a few more days to give him some more time, but ultimately, he needed to come out in order for me to be okay.
This is the frustrating part, but I guess it just comes with the unpredictabilities of pregnancy and the human body. I looked right at her and asked “So, I’m not leaving here without a baby?”
“Oh no, you won’t be going home until after you deliver.”
Kurtis and I went to sleep that night thinking we would have a baby in the morning!
That night was awful. We wrestled with the emotions of me being danger, the baby being a preemie, being completely unprepared, the baby being breeched, my dad being out of the country, and nothing going the way we had thought it would. On top of all the emotional turmoil, I felt awful. My head was pounding, I had heartburn and really bad nausea, I was hooked up to a ton of machines making it impossible to get comfortable, and my blood pressure cuff took a reading every 15 minutes making it impossible to sleep.
I kept thinking about how badly I wanted to be home in my own bed with Kurtis and Bennett.
However, morning came and I had greatly improved. My blood pressure was still much to high for normal people, but lower than it had been the day before, and my headache was gone. They took more blood and all my labs had improved as well. A different doctor came in and told me they wanted to hold off on delivery as long as I was stable. He said they would keep me in the hospital another day or two to monitor me. As long as I stayed stable, baby stayed in. As soon as I was unstable (my BP spiked, I got another headache, I started having contractions, I swell up again, etc.) baby needed to come out immediately. The ultimate goal is to keep me stable as long as possible and hopefully get me to the 37 week mark. We don’t know if I’ll make it that far, but the more time baby has to cook, the better, even if it’s only 3 more days.
So, after 2 days on monitoring, I was able to stay stable for a full 24 hours. My blood pressure is still very high for a normal person, but on the lower side for preeclampsia. The swelling in my feet has even gone down for the first time in 3 weeks thanks to some pressure treatments! I am at home, I still have preeclampsia, I am still pregnant, and I am on bed rest. We have a blood pressure cuff here at home with us to check me every couple of hours, and I will go in to see my regular doctor for tests every few days. If my BP spikes or I get a headache or any other symptoms I have to go in right away to take baby out. They gave me the option to stay in the hospital until I was full term but we would much rather be home. I will not be allowed to go past the 37 week mark, so baby brown will be here on July 6th at the latest! And that’s only if my condition stays stable until then.
So again, thank you all so much for your prayers! I truly believe that it is the reason why I am now out of the danger zone, and have improved and been able to stay stable this long. I am also thankful we went to the doctor when we did. We actually weren’t supposed to go until the following week, but we can only go on Mondays and they didn’t have any openings so we went a week early. I don’t even want to think about what could’ve happened if my blood pressure had continued to climb the way it was headed without getting proper medical attention. Kurtis wasn’t even supposed to have work off that day but pulled a few strings and was able to come to the appointment with me. Also, as many of you know my Dad is currently overseas and we were all devastated that he was going to miss the birth. But now, as long as everything keeps going well he should be back in time! We are so blessed in so many ways and so so thankful that The Lord was clearly watching over us on Monday. And although we are a tad disappointed we didn’t get to bring home a baby like we were originally told, we know it’s best for him to stay in a little while longer, and are thankful he gets the chance to.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers that I will stay stable and Thumper will cook until 37 weeks! Also, that I won’t die of boredom while on bed rest.
xoxo.