Never will I ever underestimate when people say “every pregnancy is different”. I had my daughter seven years ago, at 41 weeks, no epidural, no stitches and no problems at all throughout my pregnancy. 7 years later, my fiancé and I decided to try for a baby and I ended up getting my positive pregnancy test March 2019. I figured with me only being 26 years old, this pregnancy would be just as perfect as my first but I was totally wrong. We found out June 2nd that we were having a boy and I was happy to know that I would be getting my pair. Three days later, I got a call from my doctor that my quad screening came back positive for Down syndrome. This caught me by surprise because my partner and I are both young and neither one of us has any genetic disorders on either side of our family. They had me come back in to do the panorama testing and I had to wait a week for those results to come back. I had never been so anxious in my life especially while I’m carrying my son and not knowing if there may be something wrong with him. Well I got the call that everything came back negative and they had gotten my gestational weeks wrong for the first test and that’s why the results had came back positive. Well after that, everything was good until I had my appt at the end of June and was told I had a low lying placenta. They told me to be careful with intercourse as it could cause bleeding and worry me. Well since I wasn’t told not to have sex, we didn’t stop and on July 27th which is also my daughters birthday, I was admitted to the hospital because I started bleeding and that’s when I was diagnosed with placenta previa. I was in the hospital for 2 days and was told that I could not have intercourse at all. I had frequent ultrasounds done after that and finally on September 4th I was told that my placenta previa had resolved BUT they diagnosed me with IUGR. My baby was measuring in the 2nd percentile and they didn’t know what could be causing it but the doctor believed it was my placenta that was preventing him from getting all the nutrients through the umbilical cord. By this time my pregnancy was considered high risk and they wanted me to be seen twice a week for BPP ultrasounds and non stress test. My blood pressure had also been elevated at my last visit and I had protein in my urine so they wanted to keep a close eye on me even though all of my blood work had come back normal. Well three days later, I had this feeling of indigestion that prevented me from sleeping. I figured the baby had his feet in my ribs since he was head down on my last ultrasound. That weekend, I started noticing swelling in my legs and feet which I NEVER thought I’d have because I’m so small and I never got it with my first pregnancy. Then on the September 8th, I had another night with this “indigestion” feeling, as well as neck and back pain to the point where I was crying. I had taken a Tylenol which helped some but I also checked my blood pressure because I just didn’t feel right and it was 170/100. I called my doctor first thing Monday morning on the 9th to let them know what I was experiencing. I had an appt on the 10th but I didn’t want to wait and they told me to head to the hospital due to my bp being so elevated. When I got to the hospital, I was checked in pretty quickly. My bp was still elevated but had come down some. They checked my Uribe and did bloodwork and in a matter of 6 days, my platelets had decreased and my liver enzymes had gone up. They started an IV on me due to my bp being too high and gave me blood pressure medication that wasn’t doing anything. My bp got up to 186/111 and they started me on magnesium to prevent seizures. They finally got my bp down but I was diagnosed with preeclampsia and theytold me that I would be in the hospital until I had the baby. I didn’t know how to process this since I knew I was only 31 weeks pregnant, I had prepared my maternity leave at work, and i had nothing ready for this baby. My baby shower was less than 3 weeks ahead and I hadn’t even taken my maternity pictures. I started crying because my due date was November 11th and I couldn’t imagine being in the hospital for two months especially since I had my 7 year old that I had to take care of as well. Well I had an ultrasound done the same day and my son was still head down but the cord flow had slowed down even more. He was now in the 14th percentile, measuring at 30 weeks but his blood supply was worsening. They also told me that I was in the HELLP stage of preeclampsia and that they recommended going ahead and delivering the baby. They scheduled me to be induced on September 11th because they had given me steroid shots to help mature the baby’s lungs and wanted to wait 24 hours after the shot was given. I told them I wanted to try for a vaginal delivery since I had done so with my first and my baby was head down. The day of induction, they were going to start the pitocin and see how the baby reacted to it. When they did another ultrasound he had turned and was now breech. Since he was so little, he had plenty of space to turn. The doctor said she could try to turn him but there would be a chance that he would turn back and I would have to have a c section regardless. They didn’t recommend a vaginal delivery so I had to do what was best and have this c section. Again I cried, because nothing was going how I planned, I had never had surgery before and everything was being thrown at me all at once. My son was born on 9/11 at 7:35pm via c section. He weighed 2lbs, 12oz and measured 15 3/4 inches long. He came out breathing on his own but since he was so little, he was taken directly to NICU so I wasn’t able to see him until the day after he was born. I was in the hospital for 6 more days because my bp would not come down but I didn’t mind it because I was able to see my son whenever I wanted. I finally got out today 9/17 but had to leave my son at the hospital which has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. These past days have been so bittersweet because although our family has increased by one, I haven’t been able to be around my fiancé like I want to, I couldn’t see my daughter on a regular basis like I usually do and I have given birth to a baby that I can’t even hold and love on like I want to. This journey has been tough but I know GOD does everything for a reason and I can’t wait until my son is big and healthy enough to bring him home 💙

Update: My son is 16 days old today and growing every day! He’s now weighing 3lbs, 6oz ❤️