Amelia's Birth

One of my friends wives has a fantastic blog - I follow it (thesemountainsaremine.blogspot.com) if you want to check it out. She recently had her first baby and shared her birth story. It inspired me to share mine! If you've already read the blog post entitled, "My Journey This Year" you can skip all these birth stories....I just elaborated on them here :)

As I already shared, the doctors told me it would take many rounds of fertility drugs to get pregnant because I have a condition called PCOS (sorry if this is TMI, but instead of ovulating, the egg forms a cyst). So, in order to ovulate, my OBGYN prescribed me the drug Clomid. My husband and I were both shocked and thrilled to find out I was pregnant after just the first month! I remember sharing with my husbands family at Christmas that we were going to start fertility treatments, and I was so sad. Less than a month later, I was pregnant!

Anyhow, it seemed to be a pretty uneventful pregnancy. I felt pretty good, not really throwing up at all. Around month 5, my blood pressure started slowly creeping up. By month 8 my blood pressure was getting pretty high. I went in for a Non-stress test and some blood work, and was called by my OB later that day with the results. I still remember getting the phone call. I was relaxing on the couch after babysitting and I was feeling pretty run down. My Dr. explained my diagnosis, Pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure, protein in the urine and extreme swelling), and that I needed to be on strict bedrest. He then transferred me over to the nurse who scheduled weekly ultrasounds and non-stress tests for the next 4 weeks. My first one would be the next day. I called my husband in tears, a little scared, but mostly confused. This was my first baby - I didn't really understand what was going on. This was Wednesday. I was 36 weeks pregnant.( I should mention now that on Monday of that week, my husband and I each had the SAME dream - that I went to my check-up and I was 6cm dialated and that I had the baby on Friday! Later that day when my Mom called to check up on me, she jokingly asked when the baby was coming and I told her Friday!)

That night, my husband had youth group. I stayed home to "rest." Except, I didn't really rest. I was craving cake, so I went to the local store, got the ingredients and baked a cake. I was exhausted by the time I was finished, so I left the mess and laid on the couch. My husband was less than thrilled that I had not rested all evening, but I'm not the type to be slowed down. The next day, I picked my husband up from Church, and we drove to my non-stress test and ultrasound at the hospital. The non-stress test did not go well, and they sent me down to ultrasound until they heard back from my OB about what they wanted to do. The ultrasound predicted that Amelia would weigh over 9lbs. And I was sent back up to Labor and Delivery to await my OB's phone call. My OB didn't call back - she came straight over to the hospital. I can't remember the exact question I asked her, but she responded, "You're not leaving this hospital without a baby." I guess there was even the question of transferring me to Albany Medical (a larger hospital with more advanced technology), but it was decided I could stay in Saratoga. They they prepped me for something I would not wish on my worst enemy. If you're weirded out by medical stuff, you should stop reading now. lol :) My OB then inserted a balloon catheter into my cervix to help induce labor. (They really needed to deliver the baby as that is the only cure for preeclampsia). It HURT. SOOOOO BAD. This was at 5pm. They told me to get rest, and in the morning they would start pitocin.

Victor stepped out to call my family and they all got in their cars and started the trip to Saratoga. This was Thursday night. All night, I had a nurse sit by my bedside. This being my first pregnancy, I thought that was normal. I later learned, it was NOT. My blood pressure cuff went off every 15 minutes, and it was her job to mark down my BP. Every time she saw the numbers, she did this breath thing that let me know it was NOT good. Poor Victor tried to get some sleep, but I had nurses in and out all night, and the little chair they gave him was so not comfortable. Neither one of us slept a wink. By 8am the next morning, I was begging for an epidoural. I was only 3cm dialated. They made me wait until afternoon when I was 5cm. However, the epidoural had a "window" and only worked on the right side of my body. I never had full relief :( My 7pm or so, my other OB (intrestingly enough my OB's were a huband/wife team) arrived to asses my condition. He literally did not leave my side for hours. Finally at 11:00pm he checked me again and determined that I was 6cm. I had been 6cm for hours with no progression. My BP was getting dangerously high - 190/160. It was determined then that I needed a c-section. I thought I'd be scared, but I was relieved. 30 minutes later, Amelia Rose was welcomed into the world! She had a heart shaped head from where she was stuck in my pubic bone, and she weighed in at 7lbs, 6oz. Not too shabby for being a month early!

That night and day, my condition worsened (that is normal for preeclampsia) and many of the details are very blury. I remember my family coming in with presents, and I was so weak, I couldn't even lift them to open them. The nursing staff kicked everyone out, including my husband, and I was ordered to drink as much as possible and SLEEP. I wasn't even allowed to keep Amelia in my room, as I lacked the strength to pick her up and they were afraid I'd drop her.

When I was finally discharged 5 days later, my Mom was a saint and stayed with me. She ended up staying almost a week to help me. God bless her, because I was not well enough to be on my own and my husband had to get back to work (he was teaching at our church preschool that year). I had to stay on blood pressure medication for an additional month after, but eventually my blood pressure returned to normal, and thanks to God, it's never been high since. Sorry that was a bit long! Hopefully I'll be able to blog about Grace's birth son :)