October 31, 2009, 30 Weeks 1 Day
two weeks before Kennedy would make her arrival
November 7, 2009 - Baby Shower, 31 Weeks 1 Day
One Week before Kennedy would make her arrival
On November 11, 2009 I was feeling horrible, pressure in my chest and head, (and all week honestly I had felt sick, like something was off). When Austin got home from work we went to check my blood pressure, it ended up being pretty high, and when I got a reading of 160s/100s I called my doctor and went into the hospital to be checked, when we got there my blood pressure had rose to 178/108. They did an EKG and all that fun stuff, transferred me to labor and delivery and were able to get my blood pressure down to 130's/80's via medication and so they discharged me.
I didn't work the next day (November 12, 2009), as I was supposed to relax to try and keep my blood pressure down. Austin went to class that night, on my insistance that he not miss class based on me, so my parents came over to keep me company and enjoy dinner. I had not felt extremely normal all day, but nothing seemed worse. We checked my blood pressure before my parents left, it was back up to 160s/100s, so back to the hospital we went (per my doc's instructions should it get back to 150s/90s). Austin met us at the hospital, as he was able to get out of class early.
My doctor wasn't on call, but the other doctor in my practice was (and whom I actually seem to like a lot better too). Once they checked my bp and it was remaining high, they then checked my urine for protein(gross I know but it is a huge thing for pregnant women) and I was passing protein through my urine, so far I had two indicators of pre-eclampsia, at that point the doctor admitted me to the hospital basically telling me that I was not going anywhere until Kennedy was born.
At this point I was given lobetalol (a beta blocker) and a steroid shot to mature Kennedy's lungs and was set up for my transfer from Valley Care Medical to Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley. Alta Bates has the top tier perinatal (high risk pregnancy) and neonatal centers in CA; Valley Care did not have the capabilites to care for myself or Kennedy should she have to be delivered. I was officially admitted at Alta Bates at 1am on Friday, November 13, 2009.
Once I got to Alta Bates they started monitoring me right away, on the way over my blood pressure remained really high (160s/100s), and so I had to receive more lebetalol, and then they started me on a magnesium/sulfate drip (which by the way is horrible, ti makes you hot and dizzy, out of it beyond belief, and really tired). At this point the goal was to monitor me for as long as possible, and to monitor Kennedy to make sure she was not in distress. I had to have blood drawn every 6 hours (making me loko like an IV drug user), they were measuring my iron levels, and liver enzyme levels. I also received my second shot of steroids on Friday night for Kennedys lungs.
The first few tests for my liver enzymes came back within normal, or a little above (normal is under 36, i got to 40 at one point) so they were going to keep monitoring me, and kept telling me it was a wait and see game. My tests for anemia came back with me having mild anemia. Come Saturday morning my liver enzyme levels had gone up drastically, more than double what a normal level is, which put me at a great risk. At this point they couldn't risk it and decided that I had to be induced and that Kennedy had to come out. Of course this is when I lost it and began crying (actually surprised I wasn't crying earlier). I was terrified for what this meant for Kennedy, honestly what it meant for me wasn't a thought in my mind, although it should have been, but at this point I was a mother and she was my numero uno.
So, come Saturday afternoon they started my induction with cervadil, and another round of cervadil 12 hours later, at that point I had become almost fully effaced so they started me on another drug to relax my cervix and get me dilated. At this point I was having contractions but they weren't too bad. It was Sunday (November 15) now, for those that think inductions can go quickly parts can't and then parts can - just wait. But the problem with me was that we were telling my body to do conflicting things, the magnesium sulfate drip relaxes my blood vessels to keep me from having seizures and is what they use to stop women's contractions when they are going into preterm labor, and also my body is hardwired to NOT let her out until she is ready, thus it was going to be a tough to get my body ready to get her out. Sunday evening I had the second dose of the second drug, and over night my contractions got immensley worse (and let me tell you, it would've been nice to have gotten the chance to go to my childbirth class last Saturday, but it wasn't necessary the nurses are great at telling you what you need to know). By about 4am on Monday, November 16, 2009, my contractions were regular but the doc didn't think I was that far along, maybe 3 cm. Around 5am I finally asked for some drugs to kill the pain, they gave me fentynol, which should have lasted an hour, it lasted me all of 20 minutes, at which time the doc said I could have my epidural at anytime even though I was supposedly only at 3cm. I asked for it and received it at 6:30, it was a god send,. My nurse change happened at 7:30, and I got the greatest nurse ever (thankfully), she was amazing. She checked me again at 8ish to get an idea of where I was, as she was checking me she went, who told you you were at 3? I told her the doc sometime this morning, she said hmm well it doesn't seem you're that far along, and then she had this look of "omg" and realized I was actually at about 9cm already, so I progressred rapidly in the last couple of hours, and was basically ready to go at any time.
Things started going in fast mode at that point, my parents were on their way to the hospital, and Austin kept calling my mom to keep her up to date, thinking we had about 2 hours for her to get there or so. My nurse started getting everything ready in the room, and was monitoring Kennedy the entire time. At about 9am Kennedy's heart rate dropped but then picked back up, the nurse went into crazy mode at that point and in about 2 minutes flat my room was filled with people - my doctor, two nurses, and then the neonatal doc, her assistant, and two of her nurses (I think that was it - well besides myself, Austin and my mom). At this point Austin called my mom and told her she had to get there fast!!! (on a side note - my original plan was to have the delivery be just Austin and I, however now I wanted Austin to stay with Kennedy once she was born and I didn't want to be alone, so in my mom came and I am so glad that she was there).
About the time that I was ready to start pushing my mom came running into the room. I pushed for about 20 minutes total, it was extremely fast, and Kennedy was born at 9:32 a.m. on November 16. She was 3lbs, 5 oz and 15.75 inches. She cried which was the greatest sound, and they started working on her right there to make sure she was breathing okay. They took Kennedy up to the NICU, and Austin followed behind. She was doing great, with no breathing problems. They had her on the cpap for about an hour to keep pressure in her lungs, she wasn't receiving any actual oxygen from it, but she didn't need it and was taken off quickly.
Happy Birthday Kennedy!! A little over one hour old.
Another TMI moment maybe? Don't read it if you don't want to: Earlier in my pregnancy I had had what is called a subchorionic hematoma, which is a bleed behind the placenta, it was absorbed/bled out and the docs thought everything was fine. Kennedy had kept growing on time and nothing seemed to be wrong. Well, it turns out something would have been wrong. When they broke my water there was some blood in the amniotic fluid, which is an indicator of a placental abruption. Further, the part that had the bleed behind it had died off, and it was extremely close to where Kennedy's umbilical cord was attached. Basically the doc told me that Kennedy would have outgrown the placenta, therefore probably putting her into distress and requiring an emergency c-section, also that I likely wouldn't have made it to full term anyways (which was 37 weeks on December 18). This thought absolutely terrifies me, as it could have and would have meant much more drastic circumstances for Kennedy and myself. I think maybe what happened here was a blessing in disguise to get her out safely and in a monitored environment.
They kept me in the hospital until Thursday (11/19), my blood pressure was still considered high 140s/80s (sometimes 150s), so I remain on lobetalol. I also was running a low grade fever on Monday night so that required me to be put on IV antibiotics for a couple of days to make sure I didn't have any infections. Unfortunately my blood pressure may never go back down to normal, and since high blood pressure runs in my family, it may have just started early onset of high blood pressure for me, thus requiring me to be on lobetalol for almost forever :-(.
Kennedy spent 22 days in the NICU - her time in the NICU will likely require a different post/page. She came home on December 8, 2009 and has done wonderfully since. She had no major issues in the NICU and really just needed to gain weight and learn how to feed.
Going Home!!!
