Monday, April 19, 2010: We had our regular weekly OB appointment. Everything had been going pretty good up until that point. I did have a good bit of swelling but at every appointment they weren't too concerned with it because my blood pressure looked good and baby's heartbeat was fine. So I just tried to drink plenty of water and rest as much as possible. But when I went in on Monday my blood pressure was up and I was spilling a lot of protein in my urine. Those 2 things combined with all the swelling I was having, led the doctors to think preeclampsia. So Dr. Skinner, the doctor I saw that day, wanted me to go over to the hospital to get monitored and make sure the baby was doing ok. So off I went to the MAC (Maternity Assessment Center) and got hooked up and was there for about an hour or so. Dr. Estes, the doctor on call at the hospital, came in and talked to us for a little bit about what was going on. He explained that with my slightly elevated blood pressure and all the protein I was excreting, it could be very harmful to my body- could turn into eclampsia and cause seizures or permanent kidney damage. So, I was put on complete bed rest and instructed to return for another appointment the following Wednesday.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010: So, after 2 days of bed rest (which was harder than I thought) I went back to my OB at 2:30 pm hoping that things had improved. They did an ultrasound first and baby checked out really well- I guess he was doing better than mommy at this point. So we waited to see the doctor. They checked me and I was only 1 and a half cm dilated. My blood pressure was still up and I was still spilling protein in my urine so at this point I didn't really know what to expect. I had given a 24 hour urine sample from Monday and Dr. Estes walked out to find the results from that. Jason and I were sitting in the room waiting for the doctor to come back in and we could hear him talking outside of the room. I heard him talking to the other doctor on call at the hospital and I overheard him say induction. That's when I started to freak out. Dr. Estes finally came in and said we really need to get the baby out while both of us are still healthy and doing ok. I was thinking maybe in the next day or so, nope he was thinking RIGHT NOW. At this point, I didn't know what to think or do- I wasn't ready mentally to have this baby. Jason was extremely happy but I was so nervous to know that I was going to be in labor shortly. We didn't even have a bag packed yet!! We had nothing with us, but we were escorted over to labor and delivery next door at the hospital and they came and got some blood and hooked me up to magnesium sulfate for precaution. The family was called. At this point they hadn't started the induction yet. Our family finally arrived and stayed the whole night. I tried to get them to leave thinking it was going to be a long time before Bennett arrived. But, it turned out to be a good thing they stayed. Jason left around 5:00 pm to go home and pack our bags- thankfully I had already made a list of what we needed. Then, at 5:30 pm, they started the pitocin- Jason was still gone. At this point, labor was fairly easy- nothing to it. Unfortunately I couldn't get up or sit up due to my blood pressure. They wanted me lying down which helped lower it. So we wait and around 8:00 pm my water broke naturally. I think we shocked the nurse with that one. That's when labor really started to pick up. I really wanted to sit up in the bed during the contractions- it just seemed like I could deal with them better sitting up. The nurse asked me if I wanted to get my epidural yet and at that point I wanted to wait a little bit longer- I told her to just get me some IV pain meds. I think 2 contractions later I decided I wanted to go ahead and get the epidural. So I waited for what seemed like a long time but it was really worth it- it was wonderful, I didn't feel a thing. I think I actually got to sleep some too. So we waited and at this point I still thought it was going to be a while before he made his appearance. Well, sometime after midnight I felt some pressure. The nurse came in and checked me and said I was fully dilated and ready to push. I was shocked!! I pushed for maybe 30 minutes and Bennett was born at 1:57 am! He weighed 6 pounds 1 ounce and was 20 inches long. Bennett was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!
