Two Became Three

The birth story of our little Bug.

I went to the doctor for a normal “let’s see how the baby is growing” check up. The doc came in like she always does, but this time she said there was something that we would need to keep an eye on… my blood pressure. I could have preeclampsia. She told us not to worry though, it was only a possibility at this point, but if it was it could just mean some bed rest and watching my blood pressure (BP) a little bit closer. Lee and I tried to not think about it too much, it was only a slight possibility.

One week later, I worked my normal morning at work and we headed to my doctor’s appointment. Should be an easy one. Go in, check my BP, his heartbeat and out the door to get our chick-fil-a for lunch. This was not the case. Three nurses checked my BP. It wasn’t getting better, it was getting worse. In comes doc and she says, “you won’t be leaving today, and probably will have the baby today.” Wait, what?! Today? We were only 34 weeks. There was still six weeks to go. I had severe preeclampsia, read about it on the Mayo Clinic website here.

My blood pressure was getting worse. I think at one point it was something like 208/90 or so. It just kept getting higher. It was a serious concern for my doctor and nurses. They checked little nuggets position and he was breech. Which, of course, he was… He still had six weeks to get into position! So it was decided, I would have a c-section that day. They started me on my BP medicines (which made me so sick, it felt like a crazy head cold and I couldn’t cool down), monitored his heartbeat and we waited. Luckily (not so luckily) I hadn’t eaten since breakfast that morning at about 9 am, so we could start the show whenever the doctors had everything scheduled. He needed to get out for his safety and mine.

The c-section experience was as expected? I’m not sure exactly what I expected. I didn’t have this plan, but then again we kept saying we aren’t making a plan because life changes all the time (case and point, preeclampsia). I got the crazy chills with all the meds during the procedure and they continued a few hours after. But the c-section itself went well and was super fast. I was so lucky to not only have my doctor but a second doctor from the practice. The dream team, really.

After Buggy entered the world, they measured and weighed him and I asked Lee to follow him to the NICU. Since he was a preemie, he would need some extra care. We didn’t know where he would be going or what to expect. It was all a little scary, but having Lee there and knowing he could follow and learn more about what we needed to do for our little nugget was a blessing.

Our little nugget/bug measured 17.5 inches long and was 4 pounds, 12 ounces. And he is perfect.

My stay at the hospital was five nights. It was exhausting. Lots of blood pressure checks. Some were every 5 minutes, 15 minutes, hour… etc. At one point I asked them to switch arms because every time it squeezed, I was in pain and couldn’t relax. But they finally got my meds right and things started to get better. I didn’t realize the stress and worry this was to my family, but I am glad that we finally got it all figured out.

Lee made many trips to the NICU solo, which I know must have been scary but he kept an eye on our little guy. He even video chatted me since I wasn’t able to go see him until I got my BP under control and let me c-section heal a bit.

Baby Bug spent 11 days in the NICU. There were many ups and downs to his stay there. It was so confusing to figure out what he was doing, how long he would stay and understanding why they needed to do certain things. It was a busy place. The nurses were watching over a few babies at a time and we were brand new parents that were just trying to get a hand on what was happening. We had many milestones while he was there. His one-week celebration, the first time we were able to hold him outside of the incubator box, his first outfit, first bottle feed, kangaroo care (skin on skin holding), moving to the open crib, removing the c-pap bubbles and oxygen and so many more. 

We had many milestones while he was there. We were new parents and getting to experience life with our new baby! His one-week celebration, the first time we were able to hold him outside of the incubator box, his first outfit, first bottle feed, kangaroo care (skin on skin holding), moving to the open crib, removing the c-pap bubbles and oxygen and so many more. We attended a support group for NICU parents, put on a wonderful group, Hand to Hold and tried to take in as much information as we could.

There is so much detail to all of the medical stuff that we learned and dealt with, but I don’t feel like filling my blog with that stuff. I wanted to share with all of you a bit more about our story and our crazy 11 days before getting to bring our little guy home.

We are still learning and working on this new parent thing, but one thing is for sure… we are happy to all be at home, healthy and well as a family of three.