Arrival of Emery

This is Emery's Birth story. In depth with pictures. I like to document all my children's births. The good, the bad and the ugly.

I hit 37 weeks on June 7! FULL TERM. Something a loss Mom AND preemie Mom LOVES to hear!

The evening of June 10th I took my blood pressure while watching "The Bachelorette" I got a 143/93. Anything Preeclamptic is considered 140/90 with two consecutive readings. 20 minutes later I took it again and got right around the same reading. My call in numbers are 140/90 and being so close I decided to call my on call doctor, who in return had me go right to Labor and Delivery for monitoring. While there my pressures were pretty normal. I did have two higher readings, and with that they decided to keep me overnight.

The night was uneventful, full of low blood pressures. I did however have 1+ protein in my urine and blood. That CAN be normal. With my history there really is no "normal" Everything has a red flag attached to it especially when your full term high risk!

That next morning the Maternal Fetal Medicine Doctor came in and said they wanted to induce me being that I was 37 weeks 4 days. With my history, and emotionally what I have gone through in the past, no one wanted to chance anything. It was decided! We would meet Emery!

Around 8 am the induction began and by 10 they went ahead and broke my bag of waters, I was only 1cm and 20% effaced. Let me tell you how painful having your bag of water broken when your only 1 cm dilated! OUCH! My contractions by 1pm were intolerable. There was only one problem. Every time I was checked I was STILL only at 1 cm! How could that be possible? No way was I getting a epidural at 1 cm! What if it wore off by 10! I was 5 cm with Carter when I got one! I tried to wait but my contractions were long, hard and VERY painful. I began to cry through each contraction. They offered me a drug called Stadol. Anyone who knows me knows that I have every reaction in the book to most pain medications. Why did I think this drug would be different? The stadol was scary, outer body experience...felt like a elephant was sitting on my chest, that and it felt like I was very drunk. I couldn't move my body felt like lead. It took about an hour to wear off. When it wore off I told the nurse I would never do that again and I needed an epidural. The anesthesiologist was fantastic. Walked me through everything. It was actually the least painful epidural out of all three I have had! So thankful for that, and him!

Then it all went fast from there. Around 645 a L&D nurse (who we shall name T) who happens to be one of my very good clients (as well as a loss Mom of triplets) came in to visit me and we chatted a bit! I kept feeling major pressure. The pressure was intense and I could swear something had to be happening! The nurse came in to check me and immediately looked over to T and said could you check her for me? All I
was thinking was I am going to need a section and I bet I am only dilated to a 1. T looked at me and said with tears your complete! Immediately I started crying!  It was now 7 pm. I told the nurses I wanted to push and of course I had to wait for the doctor. Who arrived at 7:30. A few pushes and E was born at 7:48!

 

I cried through the whole delivery. She was here, she was healthy, she was ALIVE. She was a she! Something I never thought I would get a chance at again. I was scared my shot as a girl was lost after Cara. I am so very blessed. 

After delivery things got a tad scary for me. This is how I know my body is done.  Delivering the placenta it broke apart inside of me. This can be cause for infection or need to be surgically removed. The Doctor was able to manually remove it. That was more painful than delivery. I started to shake, literally it was out of my control. I developed a fever within a half an hour of delivery. The fever lasted till the next day and after two rounds of antibiotics it was gone. The fact the placenta fell apart inside me could have mean it was weakened. The fact that I had a sub chronic hemorrhage when I was 7 weeks pregnant did put me at risk of a placental abruption. The mother and or the baby can die if a placental abrpution occurs. It is considered an emergency situation. I am so lucky. Emery is so lucky. My doctor came in the day after delivery and told me how happy they were I came in and they were able to get me delivered before anything happened. I am so glad my fever went away and everything is fine now. For the most part.

Here comes the next issue. The day after discharge at home I started to get higher blood pressure readings. The fact that I developed HELLP Syndrome 5 days after delivering Cara did not make me feel good about the fact my pressures were starting to rise. I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with Hypertension, and put on medication. I will be seen weekly. As of now I do not have ANY preeclamptic symptoms and I am not in the clear of that for 6 weeks but I am confident that this is just taking my body a while to adjust from the placenta spilling its contents inside of me.

My anxiety is sky high. I suppose being on Zoloft after delivering Carter really did help. HOWEVER I will never subject my body to that. The withdraws were horrible! Emery's delivery was a tad scary for me afterwards, and now knowing I have to watch for post partum PE ON TOP of having high pressures and being on medication now is even more scary!

I know in my heart that in the end I will be ok! I am blessed with a beautiful daughter!!!