It All Started:

When my MFM saw me on Wednesday, Feb. 12. He saw the swelling in my feet and legs and wasn’t super concerned. He also knew I was contracting, but this wasn’t unusual, since I had been in and out of hospital and they had stopped them multiple times. I told him how much pain I was in, but again, even with baby girl showing the elevated Dopplers instead of baby boy showing them, now, he wasn’t very concerned. I was ready to be done (physically and mentally), but was only 34 weeks and 2 days so knew I needed to hang on and that my last appt. with him would be the following week or two, so I went home and continued contracting for the following 24 hours.

Admission Day:

The next day I had an OB appointment (Thursday, Feb. 13th). When I got there I was still very swollen to the point to where my toes were purple and had my mom go with me just in case I couldn’t drive. I always packed my “go bag” in my car, just in case something happened, but never really expected it. We took my SUV and I drove so my mom could rest bc she had been running around a lot and she has medical issues, so I didn’t want her overdoing it. My nurse got me check in and watched me walk towards the room and was like “Oh my goodness your poor feet (she saw the swelling, lol). Are you feeling okay?” I told her I was okay, but in pain from the amount of swelling. She got my vitals and said my blood pressure was high and asked some preeclampsia screening questions. She grabbed the “meet with attending” sign and put it on the room door and then said she would return. She came back pretty quickly with the attending and a resident and they said between my vitals, my history (having preeclampsia with one pregnancy before and gestational hypertension with another pregnancy), and my current symptoms, they wanted to admit me into the hospital next door and have me get the Preeclampsia labs and a few other labs... I got really nervous. They told me to wait in the waiting room and they would give me a room number to go next door to the hospital and then they would possibly deliver me, but it depended on the lab results.

My mom asked my doctor if I had enough time to take her home first so she could get her vehicle instead and that way she didn’t have to drive my SUV since I was being admitted. They said that was fine. We get halfway home and a doctor from the hospital calls and said that they called my MFM and after the call with him, he decided it was time to deliver babies bc of the appt with him the day before with the elevated Dopplers and the fact that baby boy had IUGR and now the potential for Preeclampsia now with the swelling and blood pressure. So, I was eminent in delivering with that decision. We got her car and she brought me back to the hospital to get checked in.

Got checked in at hospital and doctors came in and told me they scheduled me at 1:30pm for c-section on Friday, February 14th. I was so happy they were going to be born on Valentine’s Day and thought it was so cool. I was hooked up to monitors and they kept losing baby girls heart rate all night, so I didn’t get to sleep very well the night before, which was a little disappointing, but expected.

Time went by pretty quickly after I woke up with nurses and doctors and the anesthesiologist coming in to get consent and give me updates or information on everything. We went back around 12:50 pm and they had my husband wait while they did my spinal block and got the OR ready before the doctor came in. The spinal block wasn’t bad, but they had to attempt it 3 times, bc it was too low the first two times and was pushing meds too quickly she said. I was contracting at the same time so that made it more difficult to place it, but it finally got done.

Scheduled C-Section to Emergency C-Section:

As soon as I laid down after the block I started to immediately go numb. The monitors were still on my belly monitoring the babies. This was where it went to an emergency situation. I looked over at the heart rate monitor and baby A was at 123-135 bpm. Baby B was only in the 60’s and 70’s. And it wasn’t coming up and slowly kept declining. I knew what that meant and was terrified. The nurse kept asking where the NICU teams were on her walkie and I heard them responding “they’re on their way... hey is that mom’s heart rate or is that baby’s?” She responded, “that is baby B”, then they said, “okay we will let them know”. Everyone rushed in and they draped me and the doctor was running around getting stuff together and asking if I could feel certain things and I could tell everyone was trying to hurry without upsetting me, but I knew what was going on so I already had tears streaming down my cheeks and was trying to contain my fears and anxiety. My husband came in and looked at me and said, “what’s going on? Is it Archer? (What we were naming our son)”. I could only get out the words, “Faith‘s heart” and I pointed to the monitor. My husband went pale. He is in the medical field and I knew he was trying to stay calm, but I could see he was terrified as much as I was.

Babies are finally here:

Finally, they were both born within 30 seconds of each other. Faithlynn was supposed to be born second (and suppose to be bigger, too), but they wanted her out first, due to her heart rate. They pulled her out at 1:43 pm. And she was 4 lbs exactly and 17.1 inches long. Next, they pulled Archer out at 1:44 pm, just seconds later. He was 4 lbs and 7 oz and 17.7 inches. Archer cried at first and then I heard Faithlynn, and it took her a bit and then she would stop and go again back and forth. That scared us and she started grunting, which we also know is a sign of struggling. They let me see him, but said they were both struggling a bit so they needed to take them back now. Faithlynn was by my face for about 20 seconds for a picture and for me to be able to say happy birthday and happy Valentine’s Day to them both. We are both so in love with them. They started rushing to sew me up, bc I was bleeding a lot. I ended up needing a blood transfusion after I got back to my room, and again the next day, as well. I am currently discharged as of about 3 hours ago (it’s now Monday night, so I was there from Thursday to Monday... so, not too bad considering the circumstances). Very happy to be home with my other two boys and husband, but definitely can’t wait to go back to them again tomorrow. Especially, because it makes pumping easier when I’m there.

Faithlynn’s Current Status:

They took both of them to the level 2 NICU (there are two levels - level 2 is more critical and then they graduate to level 3, when they start to do better and they focus more on feeding and growing). Faithlynn is currently still in level 2 and will probably be there for a while, as they have had issues with her breathing. Her respiration’s have been high and get way too high when she is feeding (with the NG tube) and then her o2 sats get in the 70’s to 80’s and her heart rate drops too low into the 60’s. So, now they have her on a CPAP machine to help with breathing, she has had multiple IV’s, and they finally just put one in her head, because of the fact that the arm/hand ones keep coming out, and she is being constantly monitored. They have been back and forth on her feeds with the breathing issues and have gone from NPO to minimal formula, seeing as how she doesn’t tolerate the colostrum/breast milk, as well (they have been giving it to her brother though, so at least one of them is doing okay right now with it). The latest update today is that they are going to try to go down on her oxygen % with the CPAP and see how she tolerates it, and then they will try to increase her feedings.

Archer’s Current Status:

As for Archer, he is now in Level 3 NICU and is doing so much better than he was with his breathing. He is still in the incubation box with some tubes, but he is definitely getting stronger each day and they even said their is a possibility that he could go home within the next two weeks. We are over the moon about that and hope to get home with both of them sooner rather than later.

The End is Not the End:

This has been quite the journey, and if you got this far, I commend you for reading my long story from beginning to end. I hope all have a healthy and happy pregnancy and I’m glad I made it as far as I did in my pregnancy. We know the end of the pregnancy is here, but now we begin with hoping for the end of the hospital stay soon! Thank you all and cheers to a happy and healthy 40 weeks for all of you mommas to be! ❤️

Here is Faithlynn after being born and dad trimming cord. Her arms are still purple here. 🔽

Here is Archer the night he went into NICU, before he started in the incubator and oxygen and before his NG tube was placed. ↙️

This was today before we left... Archer Lane. ⤵️

And Faithlynn Lee today before leaving them in the NICU. ⬇️