Our pregnancy scare

Wow, I don't even know where to begin. The past few days have been pretty intense for us. I’m certainly not a writer and often times find it hard to express in words what I'm feeling, but here goes…

Everything started on December 18th. I was showing signs of high blood pressure at an appointment with my midwife. She was concerned and sent me to the Lansdowne Birthing Inn for a non-stress test where they could monitor the baby's heartbeat and continually check my blood pressure. My blood pressure was good when I was lying down but when I sat up, it was very high. They drew blood for a CBC (complete blood count) and sent me home to rest and to do a 24 hour urine collection.

This is a test they do to see if you are spilling protein in your urine. Combined with high blood pressure, protein in your urine is an indicator of preeclampsia - a disorder that you can develop during pregnancy that can harm both mother and baby and even cause death. My midwife told us that it can be very serious and that the only way to treat preeclampsia, in a worse case scenario, is to deliver the baby. When we left the Birthing Inn we weren’t too concerned. I’m healthy, felt fine and have always had good blood pressure. I’ve felt great my entire pregnancy, so why now...why me?

Well, my urine test came back and it showed high levels of protein. I can’t recall the day, but I ended up going back for more blood tests and I was instructed to do another 24 hr urine test. Once again the blood work was fine but I had to wait for the urine results. They put me on bedrest, which was really hard. I wasn’t a good patient and hate lying on the sofa all day. On Christmas Eve I ended up going to my office holiday gift exchange and to have lunch with my coworkers. I wasn’t supposed to but I figured I wouldn’t be gone long, so what’s the harm. Well, when I was there I got the call from my midwife that my protein levels had gone up even higher in just a weeks time. I was told to see a specialist on the 26th and they would perform an ultrasound to check the babies growth. I laid on the sofa all day long on Christmas and our families came over to visit. I was resting but it was probably too much stimulus for me. I started getting a headache but thought it was due to the stress of everything going on and it was also a busy day.

I went to bed but couldn’t shake the headache. The next morning, the 26th, I began vomiting and my head was throbbing. We paged our midwife and jumped in the car to head to the Birthing Inn. My midwife was very concerned since those are all bad signs that accompany preeclampsia. They sent me over to my appointment with the maternal fetal specialist (high risk doc) who determined, after 2 very different amniotic fluid readings (one from the tech and one from the doc), that she was very concerned. The amniotic fluid reading the doctor got was a 2 and the tech got a 6.3. Apparently the range should be between 5-25 with 5 being on the low end. So clearly the specialist was alarmed by the 2. The fluid is important to cushion the baby and with a low fluid reading the umbilical cord could become crimped resulting in poor blood low and oxygen to the baby, or worse, death. The minute the doctor left the room, Todd looked right at me and said, “I don’t like that doctor.” She was so quick with using the ultrasound machine and we just didn’t understand how she could get such a different reading from the technician. She wrote up her report and sent us back to the Birthing Inn. From there we went through a whirlwind of emotions.

At that point things were out of my midwives hands and transferred to the Obgyn on duty. He looked at the results of my ultrasound and told me that it would be a waiting game as to whether I would be induced in 2 days or 14 days. Induced?!!! We were shocked. I was just 31 weeks pregnant and still have 2 months to go. It was horrible. He continued to say that 14 days would be a "pie in the sky number." Things continued to got worse. He got a page from the high risk doc and she told him that I should be induced right away. At that point I was in the room by myself because Todd had gone outside to call our parents. It was awful and I can’t even begin to express my emotions at that moment. My head was throbbing and I hadn't eaten anything or really had anything to drink at that point either so that only made things worse. Todd came back in the room and was told the news. We cried and were so scared about the thought of having a premature baby. On top of that we were confused about hearing 2 very different plans in just 5 minutes. We were just told that it could be 2 days to 2 weeks to be induced but then all of the sudden they wanted to induce labor asap. The high risk doctor came over to talk to us after about an hour and she kept telling me that I was sick and that I could have seizures or the baby could be in danger, but we knew the Birthing Inn doctor (even though he couldn't say) was inclined to wait.

At that time I was so confused and thinking of being induced because of how adamant the high risk doctor was, but Todd felt differently. I had good readings from the baby and my blood pressure was great, so he was inclined to wait through the night. Thank goodness for Todd always questioning and speculating. The specialist obviously wanted the baby out of my body because then it was no longer her issue. We didn't know what to do and Todd wanted me do what I felt was right, but I just didn’t know. It was such a huge decision to make. I was whisked away to a labor and delivery room and hooked up to an IV. The doctors kept coming in and staring at us waiting for our decision. It became very political with the doctor hierarchy which only complicated things. My midwife came in for support and I asked her point blank what she would do, thinking she would not be able to say. She very cautiously said that she would wait (for further tests), but that those words were not to leave the room. I knew Todd felt the same way, so we made the decision to wait overnight and disregard the specialist who was on the top of the food chain. Let's hope we never see her again because that would be very uncomfortable.

We waited through the night and I was finally able to eat, seeing as I wasn’t going to be induced. My blood pressure was good...my blood work came back great and the baby was looking good on the monitor. So it was really up to the ultrasound to double check the amniotic fluids. My midwife had said the day before that she would feel better with an 8 or higher so I kept that number in the back of my head. I finally got in for the ultrasound around 3 in the afternoon. I couldn’t see the screen but Todd wiggled my toe and gave a thumbs up when he saw the tech type 9.3 on the screen. We felt so much better and even more relieved that our baby wasn’t in severe danger. Hearing that number just reassured us that we made the right decision to wait. We have since learned that the readings are highly subjective due to the babies movement and whether or not they have peed. The day before I was so depleted after vomiting and not eating, so you'd think that would have something to do with it.

Sorry this is so long winded, but I promise that I’m getting to the end. I stayed one more night and did another 24 hr urine test to check my protein levels. We got the results yesterday afternoon from the new doc on duty at the birthing inn. The number went down..another big sigh of relief. The doctor couldn't find a reason to keep me there so I was sent home. I know, it’s crazy, 3 days ago we had a doctor tell us to be induced and now I’m home lying in my bed typing away on my laptop with our little girl still in my belly. I’m not totally in the clear yet but we're optimistic that with bed rest and close monitoring that I'll be able to make it to 34 weeks or who knows, maybe full term to 37 weeks. I go back in tomorrow for another ultrasound to check the fluid levels and more monitoring. This will be a weekly occurrence. We are just taking it day by day and hopefully week by week.

It's comforting to know that we have such awesome support from friends and family. We feel so lucky. So thank you, thank you for all your prayers and support. I guess what we’ve learned from this experience the most is to trust your gut and sometimes you are your own best doctor. As cliché as that sounds, it really is true.

I’ll check back in soon...hopefully with more good news.