Well, a lot has occurred since my last posting and my life has changed dramatically! Abby Jade Tilley is now here and I couldn't be any happier. She was 5 weeks early, but still a very healthy weight. Here's how things went down...
On August 24, I took my blood pressure at home using my grandfather's blood pressure cuff. It came back pretty high (150/100) and I got a little concerned. However, I took it later on and it was back down to my normal range (which since I started back working had progressively gotten a little higher, but not unsafe). On August 25, I took my blood pressure again that evening and it was back up in that dangerous range. It never came back down to a safe place, but Jake and I chalked it up to (hopefully) a problem with the blood pressure cuff. On August 26, my grandfather replaced the batteries and I retook my blood pressure. Still dangerously high. I left out for work with the intentions of having the school nurse take it and hopefully tell me it was high but not as high as I thought. Not the case. She took it and gave me the verdict...160/98. I immediately placed a call to the doctor to let him know what was going on with me. I had to wait for a little while to get a call back, but when I did, he sent me for a non-stress test at the hospital. I left work with all intentions of going back, maybe with a bed rest order, but still, going back to get my stuff.
I went for my test. By the time I got to the hospital, my blood pressure was up to 168/111. I laid in a bed on my left side for about an hour hooked up to monitors (blood pressure and fetal monitor). I also had a little button to push every time Abby moved. After laying there and watching my blood pressure go up and not down too terribly much, the doctor came in with an ultrasound machine. He reported to me that they had found protein in my urine sample and that given all of the information (mine and what they had collected), I had pre-eclampsia. He said it could be mild or severe and mine was severe. Since my heart rate and the baby's heart rate were fine, he said he wanted to make sure both of us stayed healthy. He immediately admitted me and told me he would induce labor at about 1:30 that afternoon.
Now, you need to understand where Jake was during all of this. Thursday was his day off and he NEVER does anything on his day off (except my honey-do list). On this day, he had made plans to go to Georgia to ride dirt bikes with a friend and had left at about 7:00 am. I had been in contact with him - he knew about the blood pressure, phone call to the doctor and the non-stress test. Everything happened so fast that I only had a few minutes to text him and tell him that they were inducing me and for him to get on the road home. However, the doctor and nurses came right in and started telling me all sorts of instructions and wheeling me to a room. He was calling me like crazy (he thought I was kidding), but I couldn't answer!
Well, Jake made it back to the hospital before they induced and I couldn't have been happier. We were both scared to death and not ready for all of this to happen. We didn't have the car seat installed or the hospital bag packed (we still thought we had at least another month). What we did know is that we were going to meet Abby soon! They put me on magnesium (just in case my blood pressure caused a seizure) and sodium chloride. After 5 pills to try to induce labor, the doctor decided that I wasn't ever going to be ready to go into full blown labor. On August 27, the doctors came in and told me that at this point, the only option that made sense was to do a C-section. This was not in the plan!! I wanted to do an all-natural birth and a C-section was the farthest thing from this! We discussed the options and decided that a C-section, although unwanted, was necessary to make my blood pressure come down to a safe place and to make sure that Abby didn't go into distress.
I was scheduled for late morning, but was bumped due to an emergency. I ended up going in around noon and at 12:24 pm on August 27, my little Abby Jade made her entrance into this world. It wasn't at all the way I planned, but I was so happy to have her here. She was absolutely beautiful.
We ended up staying in the hospital for 6 days (moving from labor/delivery to mom/baby to a transition room). I was discharged a day before Abby was. She had a few complications due to being early (jaundice and weight loss), but those were corrected and we were finally allowed to go home on Wednesday, September 1.
Having my beautiful baby girl by induction and then C-section was not the way I planned, but she made it here safely, and I did too, so it was all worth it. Now I can't imagine my life without her.
