My Pregnancy Journey


My pregnancy was pretty much by the book. Except for the fact that I basically knew when I was pregnant at week 3 (my friends can attest to that). Week after week, appointment after appointment, everything was going smoothly. Until June arrived.

June came around and that was the busiest time of the year for us. We were busy getting ready to close on our house and preparing for our baby shower. I will forever remember that weekend. We had our closing in the morning and a baby appointment later in the afternoon. The closing went off fine except looking back I did feel a little weird while in the meeting, but I thought it was just the heat/humidity and being pregnant that was weighing on me. My appointment started off like any other until they took my blood pressure. It was high. However, I have anxiety especially around doctors. My doctor decided to have me wait and then try to take it again. The second time was a little bit higher. She told me that her recommendation would be to go to the hospital. Of course that freaked me out and I didn't want to go. The hubby insisted and by the time I got there it was even higher. They decided to induce me Saturday afternoon and they told me that I would either have the baby Saturday night or Sunday. This was the scariest/most exciting moment in my life. We didn't have the nursery ready and our baby shower for her was supposed to be on Saturday so we didn't have any items for her either. 

Saturday morning came and the doctors discussed their plan of action. By the afternoon they started to induce labor. At 6:11 am on Sunday our beautiful baby girl was born weighing 4 lbs 8 oz. 

She had to stay in the NICU for a while because she was 6 weeks premature, but that is another story. 

After she was born and whisked away to the NICU, came the hard part of trying to control my blood pressure. They had me on a magnesium sulfate IV throughout labor to reduce my risk of having a seizure and that made me a hot mess. After that IV was put in, I couldn't get up and move at all. Plus, it made me feel dizzy and like I was in a fog. After that was taken out, they started to try to control my blood pressure through the use of multiple means of medication. They had determined I was severe preeclamptic and had caught it just in time. After a week spent in the hospital after giving birth, they released me but I still had to continue on multiple medications to continue to control my blood pressure. On top of the medications, I had to check my blood pressure every 2-3 hours to make sure that it was normal.

The first week home:
Thank god for my husband and my mother! The first week home was stressful and challenging to say the least for a few reasons. 1.) I had just gone through giving birth. That is a challenge in itself. 2.) Our precious baby was still in the NICU. 3.)  I was still taking multiple blood pressure medications. I vividly remember one morning in particular. I had gotten up early to see Jeremiah off to work and that was time for my first dose of my medicine. I took my medicine and decided to make myself some hot tea. While waiting for the water to boil, I took my blood pressure. It was really low, like 112/60, and I didn't feel like myself. I decided to try to eat something with protein to try and raise it back up to a more normal rating. I ate and drank my tea. I decided to lay on the couch for a while and watch TV. After a few hours, it was time to take my blood pressure again. I did and it was still low. By this time, my mom had woken up. I told her that I didn't feel right and she told me to contact my OBGYN. I waited for her office to be open and I called her. She told me to come in and I did. When she checked my blood pressure she confirmed it was low and decided to take me off of one of the medications. Over the next several weeks, we continued to monitor my blood pressure and eventually got me off of all the medication. However, there are still days where I do not feel like my blood pressure is back to normal, but it is a work in progress as my OBGYN has said that most patients take a full year to recover from preeclampsia. 

You may wonder why I am choosing to share my pregnancy story. My reason is simple, my pregnancy was wonderful/by the book up until the very end. Then it frightened the daylights out of me. I was so scared, scared that I was going to lose the baby, scared that I was going to die, scared that I would never fully recover. So, that is why I am sharing this. I never knew about preeclampsia until I was diagnosed. I never knew of any of my family or friends who went through the same thing until I shared the news. Then, a couple people came out and said that they had gone through the same thing. Why is it such a secret? I am hoping that through my journey I can shed some light on preeclampsia and help someone else because I know I felt so alone while going through this. If you are/have gone through this, I want you to know that you are not alone and that it will get better. 

Please feel free to comment if you or someone you know have gone through this. <3 
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