My story is interesting. I stopped my birth control pill August 1 after being on it for 11 years. From reading things on the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glow.android">glow app</a>, i started taking prenatal vitamins already, using preseed for lube and geritol pills. I got a kit of ovulation and pregnancy tests. Started to track my cycle, but it was a little hard bc of ending birth control after so long.

End of October, I woke up in the morning after i couldn’t sleep on my stomach, thought it was weird so i took a pregnancy test, after taking a few throughout the months, and it came up positive!! 

My doctors office was trying to base it off of my last period, but bc of ending birth control after so long my last period was September first, which could have meant i was already 8 weeks. I went to my first apt and they found a sac with a little something in it, but so small they didn’t want to label it anything yet. I went back the next week and they saw again a sac with a little bigger spot, but they wanted us to go for a better, more advanced ultrasound and possibly brace ourselves for the possibility that this is not a viable embryo.

The ultrasound tech was great, talking about random stuff, but then she stopped talking and asked us to wait while she got the dr. Here I’m thinking the worst. The doctor pulls us into her office and she says “i don’t usually get to say this, but the tech found a heart beat”. We were just 5 weeks old instead of older. 

We went back two weeks later and got the confirmation, also the introduction packet to being pregnant.

It wasn’t the easiest pregnancy. I had gotten the stomach virus at 11 weeks, then the morning sickness really kicked in( it was only little until then), i lost weight and was starving in the middle of the night. Then i got the stomach virus over the weekend later on and the flu (yes actually flu) early March and was out for a week of work plus drs watching me very carefully.

I had been working full time- I’m a veterinary nurse, so running around and doing everything i normally do. I even kept up w exercise- walking on the treadmill or swimming in the indoor pool in my building. But from early March to end of March my swelling became out of control. My mother and coworkers and boss were very worried for me. I had my 26 week apt and the nurse was more worried about taking my glucose test blood, and FORGOT to get my blood pressure and weight. This was when everything went wrong!!!

I had swelling and the dr was worried about it but the baby looked fine. My mom and everyone at work was very worried about me. I looked swollen everywhere and my energy level was diminishing again. I made an apt the following week because i felt something was wrong.

When i went for my apt, just one week later, i had protein in my urine, gained 10 pounds in one month- which is the swelling, and my blood pressure was elevated, where it had always been normal. I am rushed to the local medical center (which is a high rated medical center), admitted for preeclampsia. They had me admitted for the weekend but come Monday the doctor doesn’t feel comfortable discharging me because of my blood pressure. It has now escalated from 130 systolic to 140. I got a steroid shot for just in case if the baby needs to be delivered. The worry about preeclampsia is that if my blood pressure elevates over 150/110 i can have a seizure or stroke.

**Huge tip- bring to the hospital eye mask and ear plugs!!! So many noises and the nurses waking you up randomly.

Almost one week of being admitted they found a restriction from the placenta to the baby which can have a growth stunt. I now have daily ultrasounds to measure the restriction. And the baby turns himself to breach position a few days before Sunday which became D day.

Sunday morning my blood pressure kept raising until it was 174/112- the doctors rush me to labor and delivery to start a magnesium drip- to prevent a seizure or stroke. Because of the baby being breached i am now having a c section, it seems they would have induced to try for a vaginal delivery if the baby was not breached.