Well it's been one hectic week!!!

Daegan (3#7oz, 16.5in) made his early entrance via emergancy C-section on Tuesday. I developed rapid severe pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome. I was seen by the doc on the 11th because I thought I was swelling a little too much and because my BP when I checked it at the grocery store was 135/95. I only had 1+ protein in my urine and my BP came down after laying in bed for a little while, so they sent me home with a 24hr urine collection and to recheck with my doc at my next appt...which was 11days later (the 22nd).

On Sunday (20th) I tried to help Russ paint the nursery, but since we had the air off and all the windows open, it was too hot (>100) and I was swelling more...so I laid on the couch. Really Russ kept making me stop helping but you know. Monday I was still pretty swollen and so I decided to "bed rest" myself and spoiled myself on the couch in the AC all day. And collected my pee for the docs appt the next day. I started to get some gas-type pains around my diaphragm. I couldn't tell whether it was belly or chest pain...nothing really helped them except some TUMS and occ walking it off...they would go away a little then come back. They felt like gas honestly, but didn't go away like gas usually does. Monday night the gas pains woke me up at 12am....and kept me up...at 3am I woke Russ up because I was concerned, but then after being awake with him for a while, taking more TUMS and Tylenol, the pains went away enough for me to sleep again...and since I had the appt at 8am and was able to sleep on and off, I figured I'd wait for the appt...nothing else seemed weird. Tuesday I went in for my appt at 8am and was told that my appt had been re-scheduled but they couldn't get a hold of me to tell me...they said I could turn in my pee though and if I really thought I should be seen I could see the walk-in doc...I still wasn't totally convinced I needed to be seen. I actually called Russ and hashed it out with him...I thought I was just being a first-time pregnant weenie and that just last week I was deemed OK...but then since I was there and the pain hadn't completely gone away I decided to see the walk-in doc. So the nurse starts checking me in and sees my cankles and takes my BP (158/112) and starts to look really worried. They did a quick urine dipstick which showed 1+ protein and 4+ glucose (my GTT test said I was not diabetic). After rechecking my BP like 50 times, she has the high risk Maternal Fetal Medicine doc see me. He palpates my belly, checks my cervix and transfered me to the hospital to be admitted. I was admitted at 11 am for bloodwork and monitoring. Baby looked good on fetal monitors and on ultrasound. My cervix was completely closed and normal for 30w6d. My BP remained high. My bloodwork showed low platelets, inc kidney values and inc liver values, but not that bad...so they planned to recheck my blood in 4 hours. They were waiting on my 24hr urine results (thank goodness I had already collected it...otherwise they probably would have started collecting it at admission and maybe the additional 24h would have been bad) and the lab was taking a long time because they said they were getting a high reading...so in preparation I was put on MagSulfate and was given a steroid shot for the baby's lungs....the plan was to hold off induction as long as possible...maybe even a week or more if they could...they finally got a reading at 5pm (before my second set of bloods was back) and my urine protein was 25g (0.3g=pre-eclampsia, 5g=severe pre-eclampsia, the docs hadn't seen one over 20g)...I was given the very weak option of pitocin etc induction for a vaginal birth, but the docs were scared I might not make it (my bloods came back worse the second time)...so at 5:59pm Daegan was born via C-section. His 1,5 min apgars were 7,8...but he ended up needing the ventilator for about 36 hours and surfactant. He is off all breathing assistance now...on his own on room air and doing well. His bili levels went up a little so they had him on the lights/blanket, but they went down and now he's off the lights. We had a scare with some green stuff in his orogastric tube...a couple of xrays and it decreasing/disappearing later, and they deemed him OK and stopped the antibiotics and started feeding him breast milk!! He's still getting parenteral nutrition though, but they pulled his umbilical catheter. After his birth, all my numbers and signs started to go back to normal and I was discharged on Saturday. They said he'll probably be in the NICU until his due date (Oct 25th). I've been pumping like a fiend to get as much milk for him as I can and so far it seems to be working. The hopsital has a nice little stash for him, and my freezer here is almost full.

At the home front, Russ and I were really unprepared for an early baby...luckily work has been good to him with hours so he could be with me, and MIL is here to help clean etc for me while I recover. And friends and family have really chipped in to buy us stuff. Now we're getting all stocked on diapers, preemie clothes, nursery furniture, blankets, bedding, everything. So when the little man can come home we'll be ready!

Good news is though, they were still able to do the low horizontal incision with sutures so I have a shot at a VBAC later and won't have as bad a scar as staples leave. And since he was so early I have hardly an stretch marks because my belly really didn't get that big yet. I have to think of the positives because when I think about what might have been if I didn't see the doc that day....

Anyway, he's here and we love him!!