The Birth Story... (PART 1)

On Friday March 30th I went in for my regularly scheduled non-stress test ( I was having these test done twice a week because of my gestational diabetes ) While I was there they monitored the baby like normal and he was doing great, However, my blood pressure was really high. So they contacted my OB and they decided to draw some labs and start me on a 24 hr urine test. I went home laughing about the thought of peeing in a jug and having to take it back to the hospital the next day. At 2 o'clock on Friday I also had an appt with my OB. When they tested my urine ( which they do at the beginning of every appt ) the RN said "Nikkole why is there protein in your urine?" finding this very funny again ( cause, how the hell would I know? ). Then she took my BP and it was even higher than when I was at the hospital just a few hrs earlier. She then asked me if I had preclampsia with my previous pregnancy ( no ). Quincy was born early due to problems with the diabetes. So now the RN's going to crack the jokes... She say's " what are you doing just going to try everything out" She was trying to tell me I have now developed preclampsia which has absolutely nothing to do with the diabetes. FABULOUS! At this point I have no idea what preclampsia is or how serious it is. Dr Watabe ( who is usually very upbeat and positive) comes in and instead of shaking my hand like normal he just looks at me and shakes his head. He sits at the computer and starts reading over all my records. I tell him all about my hospital visit and the high BP's. He looks up my lab work they took at the hospital and just stares at the computer when he finally looks at me he just shook his head and said " this isn't good" with a very serious tone. I then decide this is not funny anymore and I ask is there anything I can do? He says go home and your on bed rest the rest of the day. Do the urine test and have it back to the hospital at 8am... Plan to have a baby in the morning. OMG! What? I now know this is very serious, but what the heck is preclampsia and how did I get it and why? a thousand questions but I just left the office and called Shawn. He googled it and quickly became an expert on it. Saturday morning still finding it a little funny to carry my pee around we drop it by the lab at AF hospital and go upstairs. They hook me up to the monitors to do another non-stress test while we wait for the results. Baby still looks good. half an hr later the OB on call came into my room and says what we already knew. "You have severe preclampsia and it's to early to deliver you here so we are transporting you to Provo". Yes.. Transporting ( an ambulance ) Now I'm embarrassed and again for some reason start to think of how much or bills are going to be find it very funny. They start an IV and begin to give me Magnesium sulfate which is like a muscle relaxer. It slows everything down and doesn't let anything contract. They tell me it's going to make me feel aw full and it did. I felt like my skin was on fire, it made my muscle relax but my nerves go crazy. I felt like I was trying so hard to bust out of my own body. It really felt like bad drugs. The also gave me a steroid shot for the baby. The goal with the steroid shot is to keep the baby in for at least 24hrs and then they give you another one and they try to keep it in for 24 more hrs. so at this point I'm now set up in Provo and the goal is to keep me on the MAG and try to wait till Monday morning to deliver. Sunday Dr. Donna Bennet came on duty and is now over my care. You can tell she's a no bull-shit kinda lady and I like her instantly. She looks at me and say's you really don't look good she started quizzing me about my pain and come to the conclusion I'm in rough shape and the MAG might be to much for me to wait till Monday. I had had a headache since Friday which nothing they gave me took it away I was not eating by this point because I just couldn't and now I was getting pains in my upper right part of my abs. She came back a very short time later and informed us we are having the baby now. I felt so bad, I thought " I'm the wimpiest pregnant lady ever. I'm sure I can stick it out till morning for this baby" but Dr. Bennet was having none of it and at 5:14pm our baby boy was born via c-section. ( to-be continued)