The Birth

Everything changed at 26 1/2 weeks. I started getting really really bad pains in my diaphragm and mid back.  I have always had back pain so it didn't surprise me.  To be honest, I was waiting for it.  It was a lot higher than I was used to, though.  I went to the chiropractor and started to feel better for another day or so.  Then it started all over again but worse.  I wasn't sleeping at all.  The pain was too bad.  I couldn't find any positions that would work. I also started throwing up again.  When I would talk to it with people they would say it was just my body adjusting.  Which is what I thought as well but at the back of my mind I knew something else was happening. I just had no idea.  I thought there was no way ladies would be in this much pain for this long.  I went back to the chiropractor in tears.  Again I would feel better for a day or so and then everything would come back. Now I was also getting wicked headaches.

On Wednesday, I went to the bathroom when I woke up and there was what I thought was blood in my urine.  It continued through that day so I decided to go to my doctors office as a walk-in.  I gave them a sample.  The doctor came in and said it was a UTI but didn't send it in to be tested.  She was just assuming that's what it was.

On Friday night (July 20) Al was out playing games at his cousins.  I was at home trying to sleep.  At this point I hadn't eaten all day.  I had ZERO energy.  I couldn't even go upstairs to my bed.  I finally sent him a text asking him to come home and to bring me some Gatorade.  He came home and tried to massage my back.  I couldn't stop crying from complete exhaustion and pain.  The pain was getting so much worse.  After about an hour I went to bed.  He came down to tell me that his cousin was going to come give me a blessing.  It was now 2 in the morning.  I felt bad that he was going to drive all the way over here but I really needed it.  I got the blessing and slept for a few hours, but the pain was too much so I got up and moved to the beanbag to try to sleep.  No luck.  In the morning I called the chiropractor and asked to get in right away.  I didn't even have the energy to walk there.  I went, got adjusted and literally stayed on the couch the rest of the day.  At one point Al went out for a walk, I started throwing up stomach acid (bc I had nothing in my stomach).  Laying on the floor in the bathroom I called his other cousin who is a med student and asked her what I should do.  I couldn't take it any longer.  She said there wasn't much they could do but bc I hadn't been sleeping bc of the pain they would be able to give me morphine.  That was all I needed to hear.  When he came back from his walk (with pizza) I told him we needed to go to the hospital. 

This is where things start to get crazy.  We arrived at Grey Nuns Hospital at around 6:30pm.  We went straight to the maternity unit where we had a nurse named Carrie (hehe).  I told her what was happening and told her I just want some morphine.  Lucky for us, she was smart and started connecting the dots pretty fast.  She took my blood pressure which was 190 over 120 and then to took some blood.  They wanted to lower my blood pressure but bc I was pregnant they had to do it slowly.  The doctor came in and started asking a ton of questions.  I mentioned I had UTI and she asked how i need that bc there was nothing on my file about it.  I told her about me going to the doctor.  She asked why the urine wasn't tested.  She was livid bc I actually didn't have blood in my urine.  It was protein, which means something totally different.  She then said I was going to be in over night and that they were going to give me steroids in the off-chance the baby was going to come early.  Al had to move the car so he decided to go home to get me an overnight bag.  Shortly after he left things changed fast.  They got my blood work back.  My liver and kidneys were shutting down, my placenta has stopped working and my platelets were at 54 (they should be 150-250).  I had preeclampsia and HELLP Syndrome.  Basically if we didn't go to the hospital when we did both the baby and I wouldn't have made it through the night.  So while Al was gone I had a room full of doctors trying to explain things to me.  I was pretty drugged up so I didn't really know what was happening.  I just kept saying "You're going to have to explain this to my husband when he gets back".  It went from them wanting to keep the baby in for 3 weeks, to 3 days to "we need to deliver her right away".  Because I was going to be 28 weeks I had to be transferred to The Royal Alexandra hospital where there are better equipped for preemies of that age.  At one point I had a tear rolling down my face, one of the male doctors gave me a kleenex and rubbed my arm for encouragement and said "This is a lot and scary but we are going to do our best for you and the baby".  All of this was happening while Al was still gone.  It seemed like forever.  Of course he wasn't answering his phone either.  I finally got ahold of him and told him he needed to get back ASAP bc I was being transferred.   He arrived in the room in time for me to throw up everywhere (lol).  The ambulance drivers came up to get me while they were cleaning me up.  Then we were on our way.  I wanted Al to come with me but he wanted to bring his car.  The drive over was so bumpy. 

When we got there everyone was waiting for me to arrive.  The room was FULL of doctors and nurses.  I had no idea what was happening but could tell things were bad.   They took more blood work and things had gotten worse.  They had to give me magnesium right away so I wouldn't have any seizures bc my blood pressure was too high.  Dr. Patel came to talk to us.  She said they were hoping to keep her in over night but they decided she had to come out right away.   Al and I had to say our goodbyes bc they didn't know if I was going to make it or not.  I hating leaving him, I was so scared and needed him.  He couldn't come in to the room bc they had to knock me out.  It sucked.  Once in the OR I was knocked out pretty fast.  I remember thinking I was never going to fall asleep but i was out in seconds lol.  When I woke up they told me Katie was born and doing well.  I fell right back to sleep and then woke up a few minutes later and said "Wait did you say the baby was born?" then fell back to sleep again.  I remember coming out of the OR and seeing Al's face with a hug smile on it.  It was the most comforting smile.  I don't remember much more of that "night".  They brought me to my room and I slept for a few hours.  Apparently I kept asking if I could sleep on my side but I wasn't aloud bc of the c-section.  I kept trying, though. 

So, our precious little girl was born 1:23am July 22.  Once she was delivered my body recovered immediately.  Yay!!  Of course bc of the situation I couldn't see her right away.  Al would go down an see her and then show me pictures.  It wasn't until later that evening that I finally got to see her.  As soon as I saw her I cried.  It was such a special moment.  One I will never forget.  I didn't hold her bc I felt too weak. I had to stay on the magnesium for a few days until my blood pressure went down enough that they weren't worried about it any more.  I had to stay in the hospital for a 4 days.  Dr Patel would come see me every day, and every time she was amazed with how well I was doing.  She said that she usually doesn't worry about her patients but she was really worried about me. 

After reading about preeclampsia and HELLP Syndrome I had ALL of the signs but didn't know anything about them.  I am so grateful for how things turned out but I really feel we pregnant ladies need to be more educated on these things and other things that can go wrong during pregnancies.  I feel very let down by the doctor who didn't send my urine in to be tested.  If she did they would have discovered it sooner and been able to keep Katie in longer.  I also feel very blessed that despite being born at 28wks she did so well.  I have no doubt in my mind we are being watched over. 

Just When We Gave Up

I have wanted to be a mom my whole life but as time went on I started to give up on that dream. Then Al came along.  While we were dating we talked about having kids but we knew time was running out.  Once we got married and got on our feet we decided that we would try for a year and if it were to happen great and if not we would move on.  I was a stress case all year.  Every month I would disappointed when i got my period.  December was when the year was up.  Once i again I was disappointment that I still wasn't pregnant.  We had some good talks and came to terms that we weren't going to be parents.  Then January came and something changed.  My period was late.  I woke up one morning and the smell in the kitchen made me want to vomit.  I didn't think much about it.  As the days went on I had more and more symptoms.  I tried telling myself that it was nothing b/c I didn't want to get my hopes up again.  I went into work one day complaining that I thought I had the flu bc I was getting a cold b/c i woke up in the middle night soaked in sweat.  My manager asked a few more questions and then said she thought i was pregnant.  I laughed it off.  Part of me was excited that I might be but an even larger part was freaking out.  I came home and told Al.  His reaction was pretty much the same.  I took a home pregnancy test and it was negative.  Sigh! the symptoms continued but still no period.  After another week I went into a walk-in clinic.  They sent me for some tests and called me the next day to come in.  Sure enough I was pregnant!!  I thought to myself "Holy crap I'm finally going to be a mom".  I finally gave up on it and sure enough it happened.  I remember calling Al to tell him.  I had always pictured telling him differently but instead it was just a phone call.  It was a rainy day so I went into the $ store.  I was talking quietly so no one could hear me but I really wanted to shout it out loud for the whole world to hear. After that I called some other people but I just couldn't keep it in.  My dad was in Europe so I couldn't tell him.  It gave me more time to come up with a good way to tell him.  When he came home we facetimed him to tell him.  Of course he started crying!

When we found out I was 3 weeks along.  For the first few weeks after that I felt great and was thinking maybe I escaped morning sickness.  Nope not so much.  Once the morning sickness started it hit hard.  I hated life.  I would get home from work and spend most evenings in bed or the bathroom.  I went from being excited about being pregnant to hating it.  It was extremely hard to be excited.  I had to start using the downstairs bathroom bc the smell in the main bathroom made me want to vomit.  It was horrible.  My list of foods i could no longer eat was getting longer and longer.  Poor Al would make a nice dinner and by the end of the night I would throw it up.

In December we decided we were going to go to San Fran and Disneyland for Al's 40th birthday in May.  Of course I booked it at the time too.  Now I was less excited about the trip.  Mostly bc i couldn't go on any of the good rides.  Luckily for Al, dad and Roxy decided to join us in Disneyland.  Pretty much right up to the time we left I was still pretty sick.  I was so nervous it was going to be a horrible trip but just before we left I started to finally feel better.  I was good the whole trip. Yay!!

Once we got home I was still feeling pretty good.  With my new found energy I was finally getting stuff done.  For 5 months I had no energy to do anything.  So I was trying to make up for it.  I remember coming home for work and scrubbing the kitchen one day and the next the bathroom.  I was feeling more and more like myself.

And then 26 1/2 weeks hit....