One year ago today...

One year ago today, I went in for one of the three weekly visits I had to put up with in addition to being put on bedrest (not too much bedrest going on if I have to travewl 45 min each way to see the doc's!). This one was my weekly ultrasound where they would measure Pres' growth to make sure my heart medication wasn't slowing anything down. Pete always came with me to these visits because we were forever hearing bad news about his stomach growth, my high heart rate...and so on. These high risk OB's need some serious work on what they share and what they don't share. If any of them are reading...NEVER TELL A HORMONAL PREGNANT WOMAN WHAT YOU THINK COULD GO WRONG!!!!!
















I was scheduled with my favorite ultrasound tech (yes, I knew them all by name as I had one weekly for 4 months!) so I was excited. She was the one who in the middle of one of the my first scary ultrasound burst out with "Who has the funky feet?!" It was so funny because we could see the baby's feet, and that they were Pete's! I remember sitting there laughing and being so thankful that this wonderful woman helped us laugh through this terrible time! She started off her normal upbeat self, but then got VERY quiet. Her facial expressions changed and she had what I learned to call "the look" one her face and quickly recorded something and took it to the doctor. I really didn't think too much at the time because each week felt like I was receiving doomsday news. Pete didn't seem too concerned either as he was used to office doom and gloom himself. In fact, I remember him complaining about how much he didn't want to go back to work that day. Little did he know, he was about to get his wish! She came back in quietly and preceded to finish the ultrasound. I was beginning to get a little concerned, but then again this usually meant that I would have to go into yet another room and have a vaginal ultrasound (not too much fun, nope nothing nice to say about that!). This too was starting to become normal to me, so I just shrugged it off and enjoyed the view of my son on the screen. After the ultrasound, we were ushered into the sitting area where we would get a briefing from the doctor about where we were at with the baby. This one started off the same as most. The doctor asking me how I was feeling and how the medication was effecting me. Nothing suspicious there. He then asked if I was ready to have the baby. I answered yes, I mean who wouldn't in my place. Bedrest; heart problems; stress of something going wrong; high risk OB and regular OB; cardiologist. Pregnancy was a big amusement park for me. NOT! He then chatted with Pete about the Army for a minute or two (Pete had come from his unit and was in his uniform), and then just transitioned from that to, "you need to go to the hospital ASAP, don't worry, we are just concerned about the fact that you've lost most of your amniotic fluid."




That statement through me for a loop. We were prepared for all kinds of horrible things, but that had not even been a concern at all. Pete and I just looked at each other like we needed confirmation of what we had just heard. From what we knew, they wanted me to hold out as long as possible in order to give Pres more time to grow, now they are telling me three weeks early that it's time to go?! Right then and there I sent Chrissy a text. She has a way of making me feel better and once I tell her something, I know it's real. After that, everything seemed to be moving very fast. I wasn't expecting this, so I didn't have any of my things with me. Pete and I decided to both head home (against doc orders!) and get ready. I hate to be rushed, and I wasn't going to go into the hospital without the things I wanted with me. I arrived home and got ready. I made sure I had my release form from the cardiologist and Pete and I headed to the hospital.


We arrived and got a stern talking to from the nurse about not getting there faster. Oh, well, I wanted to change and shower and get myself ready to have my son on my own. I had a wonderful nurse who was used to high risk deliveries. She came right in and took charge. I had to have an epideral right away in order to keep my heart rate down. I wasn't too happy with this, but in this, I had no choice. It was this or a C-section. The epideral was painful and ended up being what is called a drip tap. It was extremely painful and paralyzed me on the whole left side of my body. They gave me something else to help with that pain and then enduced me. Pres wasn't ready to come out and decided to make me stay in the hospital a couple of days. The whole day and night were awful. I was uncomfortable, hooked up all around for my heart and Pres' heart, and had a constant beep in my ear when the machine said my heart rate was dangerous. I finally told the night nurse to turn it off, or I was going to turn it off myself! The next day I had a new nurse who was terrified of me being high risk. It really annoyed Pete, and I think he was glad when we got back the other nurse. My parents came up with me and my sweet dad stayed with me the whole time. I had no concept of time as I was just focusing on breathing steady and keeping my heart rate as low as possible. Something that night, I started to feel very wrong. I couldn't focus and felt sick to my stomach. I tried to tell Pete that I felt sick, but couldn't seem to get my mouth to work. Needless to say, I began to get sick and the next thing I know, there are people running in and out, crash carts being brought in and a lot of chaous. Sometime in the midst of this, my mom was called to the room. She was my second choice if someone had to choose if it would be me or the baby. I guess Pete had told the doctor that he just couldn't choose. I have all of these flashes of teary faces and worried expressions. Strangly, I felt like it was going to be okay. I tried to focus and do what I needed to do. I have no idea how long any of this was, I was in heart failure and really was out of it. I know when Pres came out only because at that same moment, I heard my doctor pause in complete amazement that my heart rate was compltely normal. I went from 234 to 75 in a matter of seconds and had no problems. It was amazing. I know that my heavenly Father was taking care of me in that moment. Thinking about it now brings tears to my eyes. I can still picture the faces of my mom and husband and I never want to see that fear in thier eyes again.

Pres had some circulation issues and they took him right away to be worked on. I didn't get to see him, but made Pete promise not to leave him until they placed him in my arms. I stayed in the birthing room being taken care of for some minor complications, and was soon on my way to a private room. Pete came in to see me for a couple of minutes and brought me some video of Pres from his cell phone (yeah technology!) I was able to clean up and anxiously await the arrival of my son!!!! They brought Pres in and were able to give me the good news that he would have no complications from his ordeal either!!! After months and months of worrying, Pete and I were blessed with a healthy baby boy.