Surprize Pregnancy Blog

Yep, we were shocked. Please check out my pregnancy blog at http://redgrapefruitsegments.blogspot.com/

Monday, December 22, 2008

On 12/15/08

I gave birth to Hendrix. We are both better now but it was scary and sad and horrible.

A few weeks ago they began to notice a small rise in my blood pressure during my visits, nothing big but they were keeping an eye on it. That last Friday that I posted, they took my pressure at 3 different times during the day and diagnosed me with pregnancy induced hypertension and put me on bed rest. They made an appt. for Monday the 15th to check the pressure again.

When I went in on Monday, my pressure was up, but still a small amount. They decided to do an amnio to check his lungs and then they would decide if they would deliver or not. They said to drive straight to the hospital and to check in at labor and delivery. I asked if I should call my mom, my sister and my brother. They said that if I didn't want to be alone during the test, to call them on the way. Amazingly they all answered their phones and met me there. Chris was working of course as we had no idea that this would be happening. I called him and told him that it might be a possibility, so hopefully they would let him make arrangements.

My doc came in to do the amnio which was where all of the trouble started. At the exact moment she was inserting the needle, I had a contraction and Hendrix moved. Instead of trying again for more fluid to test, she said that she was making the decision to deliver when they could get an OR because my placenta looked "old with lakes through it" and she just didn't like the looks of things.

She left to schedule to OR and as soon as she walked out the door, Hendrix's heart started to freak out. I was so detached by then I kept telling my mom and my sis that it was fine. My mom ran out of the room and grabbed a nurse, who then ran to get my doc. She took a look at Hendrix's rates, lowered my bed and started running down the hall yelling for help, for anesthesia, for the NICU and for IV therapy.

While I was on the table, there were 3 people looking for veins on my right arm, 2 on my left arm, the anesthetiologist at my head, a nurse with the betadine(?) poised over my waist, dr. s at my knee watching the moniter and saying, "we need him out now. find a vein."

Along the left side of the room was the NICU team and the neonatologist, while IV therapy was all along the right side. And I felt nothing. Just like I was on a television show or something. I kept hearing, "this one is blown. this one might work. Nope, this one is shot." They finally started a line along my shoulder. When they put the mask on me, I said, "This stuff stinks." Then I said, "Oh, I like this." and that was it. My mom was all scrubbed in, waiting to be let in, but couldn't come in. Both her and Chris waited and cried in the hall while they waited for any news. My poor mom. I'm going to have to pay for her therapy.

When I woke up in recovery, Chris was beside me, in his work uniform. I remember saying 3 things to him. "my throat hurts" "is the baby dead" "it was so scary" He told me that they were working on the baby, but everything was going to be ok. I just went back to sleep.

When I woke up in my room, everyone was telling me how cute Hendrix was and that he was in the NICU, but stable. then my mom and sister were telling me their versions of what happened and how it was the most scary thing ever. The latest version of what happened was that when my uterus contracted during the amnio, it caused either the umbilical cord to have a seizure which caused the placenta to start to separate from the uterus. Or vice versa, they aren't sure which happened first.

So, right after the amnio I started to bleed into the uterus, Hendrix also started to bleed through the cord and placenta, but also began to swallow all of my blood. So he lost a lot of blood, then swallowed a lot of blood at the same time. His apgar was a 1. Just horrible.

I didn't see him for a while. Everyone else was going to visit and see him, so that relieved my guilt there, but I didn't want to see him and make it real. Until one morning around 6, I woke up, asked to have my catheter taken out and had Chris wheel me to NICU. Seeing Hendrix was amazing. He was the bruiser of the NICU. All of the rest of the babies were so tiny and so sick that most of them were in the little isolettes without any lights on. Hendrix was all in the open air, all big and beautiful. It was so hard to leave him. He was able to come up and stay in my room the next night, which was so great. My blood levels stayed pretty low until I had a blood transfusion which helped me to feel a lot better.

My blood pressure is still high and it could be that way for a while, but shouldn't get worse. Also, the drug that they used to knock me out with caused my uterus to not contract after delivery. Until the drug wore off, there were 4 people holding my uterus together to help with the bleeding. I'm sore, tired and happy for all of it.

Here's a little taste to get you through until the big photo post.

Merry Christmas. I love you guys.

9 comments:

writex3 said...

Oh my god. How terrifying. Another miracle baby for you! Wow. I'm so glad you both are ok. He's beautiful.

Anonymous said...

I love ya and Iam soooo happy your safe and that the little one is wonderful!!!! But I have to say NO MORE PG'S!!!!! Adopt Adpot!!!! I know that we all want you here for years to come! Can't wait to see you and the baby.
-AKR

Anonymous said...

Oh Kariann..What a miracle and bleesing.
So, when can Hendrix meet his future girlfriend, Katelyn? :-)
(She's super cute and a blonde!)

Let's catch up and share mom stories sometime!

Sara Ettl

5KidMom said...

SO sorry things went so bad, but your boy is GORGEOUS!!!!! Good job, Mom!

Catherine said...

OH MY WORD. A miracle baby is RIGHT!!! Oh honey!! I'm so thankful. So thankful!! He is beautiful and so are you!!! Love you!!!!!
Cath

Anonymous said...

I'm just getting caught up -- I'm so sorry the birth was so scary! I am just grateful beyond belief that you're both all right. He is absolutely beautiful!!

I had a terrifying c-section with my first (prolapsed cord because the doctor was impatient and ruptured membranes before her head was engaged, then came the fetal distress and chaos), and I had a hard time just with the emotional fall out from that, not to mention the physical. I hope you're well and resting and recovering. Congratulations on your gorgeous boy, above all!

Anonymous said...

I am so sorry that I did not see this until now -- I've been disconnected from the internet for several days and am just now catching up. I checked in on your pregnancy blog about a week ago, and noticed no posts, and meant to e-mail you. I'm sorry I didn't.

Anyway, Karianne! What an experience! Terrifying! I am so, so sorry you had to go through all of that!

That baby, my gosh, is he gorgeous! I can't wait to see more photos of him!

Btw,My blood pressure took about between a month and two to come back down after my pre-e.

Melissa said...

He is just beautiful!! And you look amazing for having been through such an ordeal....freaked me out reading this.

Love to you all....enjoy that snuggli little boy...

Unknown said...

Karianne, I am so happy to hear that Hendrix is OK. He is so beautiful! And I am glad that you are OK too!

I hope they gave you my O-neg blood for the transfusion. It's special, help-people-who-just-gave-birth blood.

Love to you and the family, dear Karianne