24-Hour Monitoring + Preeclampsia

Many of you have asked how we got to where we are now. It started the week before Joel was born.

I started experiencing several things physically—and they all came on fairly rapidly:
swelling
contractions
blurred vision
high blood pressure
excess fluid (polyhydramnios)
an overall sense of not being well
constant headache (that OTC meds wouldn't cure)

Sunday, February 12

This day was the worst. We went to church and lunch out at a restaurant after that, but I had to leave the restaurant to go sit in the car early. I'd been having contractions all morning, and I knew something wasn't right.

We got home that afternoon and I think Nathan realized how serious things were getting. So we decided to pay Dr. Columbus a visit the next day.

Monday, February 13

3:00 PM

At Dr. Columbus' office, we explained my symptoms—except they ran an additional test and added "protein in urine" to the long line-up. Apparently, this is a key marker in determining whether a pregnant woman has developed preeclampsia.

Dr. Columbus called to talk with Dr. Jackson #1 (who, if you'll remember, is on maternity leave) and they both decided it was best to send me to Jackson immediately for 24 hours of monitoring. That's all. Just monitoring. Nothing else—or so we thought.

5:00 PM

We dropped Madelyn off with our awesome neighbors. (They've been a God-send to us throughout this.) They readily took her into their home and we took off with just an overnight bag. Because remember? Just 24 hours of monitoring. We'd be home the next day.

My parents were already planning on coming to Mississippi that week to help me with Madelyn. I was getting way too big to pick her up or walk long distances (see: excess fluid build-up). So we called and explained to them the monitoring that would take place overnight. They agreed to leave Texas the next morning and even stop by Jackson to check on us before they went on to Columbus to get Madelyn.

8:30 PM

We got to Jackson and I was admitted to the Women's and Children's Urgent Care Center—basically an ER for women and kids. Immediately, they began to check vitals and draw blood. Needless to say, the whole experience didn't even start off well.

The first nurse who tried to take my blood gouged around my veins so many times that I passed out and woke up not knowing where I was or who I was. I opened my eyes to Nathan hovering over me along with a team of nurses trying to raise my blood pressure back to normal and asked, "Where are we? Is Madelyn OK? Am I OK?"

11:00 PM

We were moved to a room on the Labor and Delivery floor to begin monitoring. They started me on Magnesium Sulfate to bring my blood pressure down, plus a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. (P.S. "Mag," as they call it, is ridiculous. I felt like I'd contracted the flu. Now, along with everything else I'd been experiencing, I also had body aches and shivering. Ummm—thanks a bunch, medical community.)

They started a 12-hour series of tests to monitor the levels of protein in my urine. If you've ever had a baby, or been with someone who had a baby, you know as soon as you step foot in the hospital, all modesty and propriety goes straight into the toilet (excuse the reference, but since we're on the topic). I was poked, prodded, and awakened every hour on the hour all night long.

Tuesday, February 14

9:00 AM

Maternal Fetal Medicine called and they wanted us downstairs in their offices to check on me and Joel. This was the same place we'd visited so many times over the last 10 weeks. As we entered the room, guess who walked through the door? Dr. Jackson #2.

Not. Kidding.

What were the chances? It wasn't even supposed to be his day in office. Where was Dr. Jackson #3? Wasn't she supposed to be here today?

I could see the blood in Nathan's face rising. He was moving and shifting in his seat, ready to protect his wife and baby if anything untoward was said or done.

I grabbed his arm and said, "Not today, Babe. Let's just do this and get out of here."

So we sat silent and let them do their job. They did a routine ultrasound and found that Joel was still stable with a great heartbeat and no worsening of fluid.

But Mama? Not so much. I think I freaked them out. They were very concerned about my condition and said urine tests were no longer needed to determine that I did indeed have preeclampsia.

Dr. Jackson #2 and his colleagues highly recommended that we move toward delivering Joel as soon as possible for the safety of us both. At that point, additional steroid shots to boost Joel's lungs wouldn't help him. In fact, we were told that I was hours, if not a few days, away from a deadly seizure, so time was of the essence.

We had a lot to think about.