On Wednesday, March 16, Attila and I headed to our 34 week check up. It was right after I got out of work and on the way there, I put my feet up in the car and noticed how incredibly swollen they were; the worse I had ever seen. I was also feeling weak and dizzy. When we got to the office, my blood pressure was pretty high and they decided to check my protein urine count. It was also up. Literally in the time span of half an hour, they admitted me into the hospital fearing it could be pre eclampsia. I was very emotional at that point, of course. We drove over to the hospital (stopping by 40 Days for Life and asking them to pray for us) and I got wheeled up to a room. Right away I was hooked up to blood pressure monitor and had labs taken. They checked my BP every 15 minutes and it was all over the place, reaching into the 180s. By 9 pm, it was decided that I would do a 24 hour urine sample test which would tell us if it really was pre eclampsia. So we geared up to spend the night in the hospital.
The next day, Thursday, was just about waiting and going pee. Our midwife, Sharon, would come in and out and give us results of the blood tests, which were OK but showing early signs of pre eclampsia. At one point we talked about maybe looking at bedrest but at another point, the reality of an emergency c section was laid before us. If my labs continued to get worse, showing my kidneys and liver getting worse, then it would be a c section. The 24 hours were up Thursdsay night, but we waited until Friday morning to hear and discuss the news.
Friday morning came, and I had high levels of protein in my urine. But my lab results were still Ok. And my blood pressure was still high. At that point, it was clear that we would try inducing labor. So now there was a series of tests to determine if baby was strong enough for labor. They had given me steroid shots to help the baby's lungs mature, too. We did an ultrasound and found out that the baby weighed about 5 pounds, which really put our hearts at ease a bit. It was so crazy to think that we could soon be meeting our little man. That night, they also started me on Magnesium Sulfate to protect my body from seizure and stroke during labor. It was intense. First, to realize seizures and stroke were a possibility and second the drug had very strong side effects. I was woozy and dizzy most of the time and it gave me hot flashes. At dinner time, they started a round of prostoglandin on my cervix to soften it and dialate it in preparation for pitocin in the morning.
We woke Saturday and found out I was dialated 1 cm and 50 % effaced. The pitocin was started. Most of the day not much happened in terms of contractions. I was very exhausted and so out of it from the medication I was on. The magnesium is known to relax the uterus, so that was working against what the pitocin should've done. Our families came to visit that day and I think it was very hard for them to see me in the state I was. By dinner Saturday, I had not made any progress in terms of dialation. We waited a little longer, and later that night the doctor let me have a break from the pitocin and cut the magnesium dose in half, so I would start to feel better. And I got to eat a full meal, which I hadn't had since Friday night. They also put me back on the prostoglandin to work on dialating me some more. I got some sleep and I would be checked Sunday morning.
On Sunday morning, I was dialated 2 cm and 80 % effaced. Not too much progress. By Sunday around noon (I think, i've lost track of all the times), we decided to break my waters, hoping that would speed up labor. After my waters were broke, they started me on pitocin again. We were pretty hopeful this time. As exhausted as I was, I still wanted to have a vaginal birth, and the hospital staff was not quick to solve things with a c-section, which I appreciated. The contractions were much stronger this time and I even found myself praying for painful contractions - it would mean labor was progressing! Since my water had been broken, they didn't want to check me that often for risk of infection, so they checked me once late at night and I was 3 cm dialated and. After the whole day of labor
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