I thought it was finally time to update this thing and let everyone know how we are doing and what happened this weekend. We had our regular doctor's appointment on Friday morning. I had had some weird pains going on earlier in the week and when they checked my blood pressure, it was very high (especially because my BP is usually pretty low). I also had protein in my urine.
Because of all of this, my doctor decided to have me go take a non-stress test at the hospital. They got me hooked up to that machine that measures the baby's heart rate and my contractions, and within 30 minutes, his heart rate had dropped down to 60bpm and shot back up quickly three times. The regular doctor that usually read those readouts was gone for the day, so a specialist in Provo was reading them. He decided that I needed to be monitored longer and sent me over to the Labor and Delivery Unit.
Once I got there, they hooked me up again and James and I sat there for 2 and 1/2 hours while my doctor and the specialist decided what to do. His heart rate was doing great this time around, so I think they were debating about sending me home, but after finding out about all the other stuff going on, the specialist recommended that I be induced to get the baby out while we were both still healthy and able to handle labor. My Doctor agreed and they got me admitted into the Labor and Delivery Unit.
At this point, I was not even dilated to a 1, so I was going to be given a pill that thins out the cervix, one dose every 4 hours, and then get put on pitocin in the morning. I also had to be put on Magnesium because they told me I had Pregnancy Hypertension and there was a chance that I would have a seizure or go into a coma. So I got hooked up to the Mag, started getting very groggy and a pill was admitted. I started having small contractions, and everything was going great!
However, after two doses, Joseph's heart rate started dropping when I had the contractions. It was late at this point and my AMAZING night nurse was keeping me informed when she came in to do my Magnesium checks on me every two hours. She contacted my doctor and they decided not to administer any more of the pills and just put me on the pitocin in the morning because they could regulate how much I would be getting and could turn it off if needed. I was still having very, very small contractions every 10 minutes and his heart rate was still dropping every time, and wasn't bouncing back as quickly. So, at 5:00am, my nurse came in and hooked me up to oxygen and told me that my doctor would be in soon to look over the read-outs and discuss options with me. James had slept through all the nightly check-ups from the nurse and didn't know what was going on yet. The first thing he saw when he woke up was me on oxygen and the doctor talking about the stress the baby was going through. I still feel bad for James having to go through that like that.
The Doctor said that the baby was getting overly stressed by the contractions and couldn't handle me getting induced. On top of that, he needed to come out now. We had to have a C-Section and it had to be immediate. The C-Section doctor on duty that night came in and briefed us and within 30 minutes from the whole thing starting that morning, we had our baby.
Joseph Daniel Frey was born at 6:06am Saturday Feb 20, 2010. He was 4lbs 12oz and 19 inches. James went with him from the delivery room to the NICU because he wasn't quite breathing on his own. I was taken back to my room and pretty much passed out. James stayed with Joseph for several hours while he was weaned off the breathing tubes. I didn't get to see him until 4:00ish in the afternoon. When they did bring him to me, it was to try and get him to eat because his blood sugar levels were scaring them. I was told that if he didn't eat then they would officially admit him into the NICU...not exactly the stress-free environment one would hope for when learning how to breastfeed.
Luckily, we were able to get him enough that he was able to stay with us and we were moved to the Mother and Infant unit. I had to stay on the Magnesium for 24 hours after the birth and was still being monitored and checked every 2 hours (there were some fun reflex tests that they had to do). Everything went perfectly that night. The next morning all of the doctors stopped in to make sure everything was going well and we were told that I had had severe preclampsia, not Pregnancy hyper-tension, and based upon the size of the placenta, I had it from the beginning of the pregnancy. I didn't have any symptoms of it until the Monday before we went in to the hospital. The placenta was also very small, and wasn't allowing Joseph to grow any bigger.
We were very lucky that the doctors caught the signs and made the right decisions to get him out.
Joseph is doing very well, he is gaining weight and eating a LOT!! I'll get pictures up soon. James was amazing through this whole process, we were both scared and not sure what was going on the whole time and he was very supportive and took very good care of me and Joseph. I love my little family!
