September 29, 2010

Wednesday (September 29, 2010) – I did not sleep well that night either due to me getting contractions in my lower back and my cold was just horrible. Brandon convinced me I should stay home and so he called in for me saying I was just not well enough to go to work. It was a good thing too, because not ten minutes later my vision went away and I started to see ‘flashing lights’…I was getting a migraine. It wasn’t the first time I had gotten a migraine, but it was the first time for the pregnancy, and yet again another sign of preeclampsia. So I called my doctors office to see what they thought I should do. Well they set up an appt for me about an hour later and told me I’d have to see a different doctor because mine was out of town for the rest of the week. So I took a nap, and then went down to their office, I had to wait over an hour just to meet with this doctor, and when I did see him, he didn’t even check anything out. Just asked me a few questions and then told me he wanted to give me a shot to knock me out – so if I had someone with me to take me home that’d be great… Well I didn’t, I had gone to the office by myself, so instead he prescribed me Oxycodone and Tylenol which together equals Percocet. Now I personally had a horrible feeling about drugging myself up at 38 weeks pregnant, just so I could feel comfortable. I was also extremely upset because he should have sent me to the hospital, but instead just gave me a prescription and sent me on my way. I drove to a gas station nearby parked and called Brandon to tell him what the doctor had said…I also cried for a good 10 minutes because I just could not understand why they wouldn’t keep me at the hospital. I kept having all these signs for preeclampsia, but apparently it wasn’t that big of a deal… To attempt to cheer me up, Brandon and I went out to lunch and then I went home and rested for a few hours. I woke up and went downstairs waiting for Brandon to get home; he ended up working late but did come home around 6:30 -7ish. When he did come home he was just as upset as I was with the doctor, so he decided to call Labor and Delivery at the hospital and tell them our situation. Once he told them our story they told him that we were more than welcome to come down and they would do a medical evaluation on me. (Finally some semi good news!) Before we went to the hospital we stopped at Walmart and got a few munchies for Brandon and some cough drops for me (my cold had just been getting worse and worse, blah!). We also checked my blood pressure there and sure enough, it was high again. Brandon took a picture of what my blood pressure was to prove that we weren’t just making things up and we drove to the hospital. When we got to labor and delivery (8 pm) it was quite dead. I was the first woman to come in that night so they put me in a small room to check how my body was medically… They put lovely wires all over me, took more blood and started to check blood pressure. Sure enough, my blood pressure was still high and it wasn’t going down. When the on-call doctor came in and started checking things he gave me two option s. 1) Do a 24 hour urine test or 2) he could induce me tonight and get the baby out! Once again I thought it was pointless to ask a 38 week pregnant woman if she wants to be induced or wait, especially an impatient one like myself, but again I asked what his opinion was. Surprisingly enough he said that we should go ahead and admit me to the hospital and get my water broken and induced! (Hurray! – also it was close to 10 pm) A few minutes later they moved me to an actual labor and delivery room (which by the way was HUGE!), and started to prep me for everything to come. At around 10:30 PM the doctor broke my water – and right afterwards Brandon and Dr. Allen gave me a blessing. (Quick side note – I am so grateful for the priesthood and that there are so many worthy priesthood holders around) A few minutes after the blessing my contractions had gotten unbearable! Thank heavens they had called the anesthesiologist and so I only had to deal with the heavy painful contractions for 10 minutes. I cannot describe how wonderful the epidural was! The pain was gone within a few minutes, yet I could still feel the pressure of things going on. Anyway – after the epidural they started me on pitocin – to say the least I was ready to push by 1:30 AM.