It was a normal Tuesday and I had a regular check-up and last ultrasound with my OB. I took Molly and Ellie so they could see their baby sister on the ultrasound. Everything checked out great and the girls thought it was so fun to see Riley moving and squirming and sucking on her hands in my belly. After the ultrasound my OB told me that there was some protein showing up in my urine so she wanted me to do a 24 hr urine collection. She said it was nothing to be too concerned about because everything else was great so I didn't think much of it. I hauled my bag of urine collection containers, made my next appointment for the following week and headed out.
The following day in the early afternoon I got a call from my OB's office, when I picked up it was my doctor herself which is not normal. I was instantly afraid something was wrong. She notified me that my blood tests showed that my liver enzymes were high and between that and the protein in my urine this was pointing to early pre-eclampsia. It was an instant game changer in my pregnancy and I was immediately overwhelmed. Since my blood pressure had been fine at the appointment we were now in monitoring mode. She let me know that at this point our goal was to get to 36 or 37 weeks and that I most likely would not be able to let labor happen on its own. I was so upset. She gave me orders to start taking my blood pressure at home a few times a day to keep an eye on it and that I would now be needing to go into her office 2x a week to more closely monitor myself and the baby. I was shocked and just caught off guard...my other two pregnancies had zero issues so this was a total surprise. For her too!
That evening Chase brought home a blood pressure cuff so we could take my blood pressure readings at home. Around 9:30pm I decided to take my blood pressure. I felt fine other than my massively swollen feet but thought I should follow doctors orders. I took my blood pressure twice. Both times it was reading my bp at 190s over 100s (my OB told me she didn't want it higher than 140/80). Not so good. Chase immediately said we needed to go to the hospital. I, being not medically knowledgeable about blood pressure numbers, was not convinced. I told him I would call my OB office emergency line. Almost immediately the on call doctor returned my call and agreed that we needed to go into labor and delivery triage to at least get monitored for a bit. I made a few phone calls to friends to help watch the girls while we went to the hospital. I was pretty confident that we would be back home in an hour or two. That would not turn out to be the case.
We arrived at the hospital and were checked in to the triage area. A nurse got me set up on the automated blood pressure machine (it would auto start to take my bp every 10 min). She left only to return pretty quickly when the bp registered at 240s over 120s. She looked at me almost in shock and asked me if I felt okay. I honestly felt completely fine. She thought it might have misread so she let it run a few more times, all of the readings were in the same general area. After calling the OB on call she came to let us know that we would be getting admitted to the hospital in the labor and delivery unit. I slipped on a super cool hospital gown and we made our way to a new room. At this point I still didn't realize how serious things were. I still felt normal and thought we would get monitored for longer and then get to go home. Ha!
After they got me situated in the labor and delivery room the on call OB came by. It was actually my former OB who had delivered Molly. I felt like that was totally and completely a God thing because I trusted her and felt comfortable with her. She walked in, came up to me, put her hand on my shoulder and calmly let me know that we would not be leaving the hospital without a baby. My blood pressure was very dangerously high and they needed to start administering magnesium right away to prevent me from having a stroke. From that point on things started to happen very quickly with lots of doctors and nurses in and out of the room. It finally hit me...this was very serious.
The goal at this point was to start meds to get my blood pressure under control and try to keep me pregnant as long as possible. I was 32.5 weeks along. The next priority was getting several steroid injections administered over the next 24-48 hours so that Riley's lungs could rapidly develop making her healthier when delivered. I was in total disbelief and was instantly very scared, 32.5 weeks was way too early!!
It was now almost midnight and things were about to get even crazier!
Part two coming...
