Traumatic birth- Preeclampsia Almost Gone Undiagnosed!

So baby girl is almost 8 weeks old so here it is! The details are fuzzy but I do know for sure that I was in labour for 27 hours at the hospital.

On May 10 I went in to the ER because i was feeling really off (exhausted, flashing spots in my vision, headaches) and felt like i was leaking fluid. They monitored me for a few hours and then tested my fluid to see if my water broke. It had not, but they noticed my blood pressure was high so they kept monitoring it every 15 minutes for a few hours. Ultimately the ER Dr decided to start me on high blood pressure medication and send me home. I was to monitor my BP at home and if it got high again to come back in. (This was at 37 weeks ish)

Fast forward to May 12 2020- around 7pm I start feeling chest heaviness and blurry vision. I take my BP at home and it is 175/101. I call my mom who is an RN and she urges me to go to the hospital. I call the birth triage line at the hospital first and they instruct me to take another dose of my BP medication and re take my pressure in one hour and to call back. After one hour there was no change in my pressure, so they have me come in to the hospital. At this point I'm not sure if they will be inducing me or what so we scramble to pack hospital bags for myself, baby and my boyfriend. We get to the hospital at around 9pm. Due to COVID restrictions my boyfriend had to wait in the parking lot until I was admitted. They monitor me for 4 hours, take my BP every 10 minutes, take blood work and do urine samples. Finally, the Dr comes in around 1 am and decides to admit me and start an emergency induction for preeclampsia. We are having a baby!! I call my boyfriend and tell him to bring everything inside because once were in we can't leave until were discharged. They take me to my room and get me hooked up to the monitors. The OB says he is going to start Cervadil to thin my cervix and begin dilating me, but is going to check my cervix first. Turns out I'm already 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced!! No need for the cervadil. He tells me to try and sleep and he will start the pitocin and break my water at 6 am. Sleep didn't happen due to them checking my BP every 10 minutes though.

At 6 am , they give me an epidural, break my water and start pitocin all at the same time. They also give me fluids and magnesium sulfate because my BP is still high enough to cause seizures. Basically nothing happens for a long time.

My BP is monitored every 15 minutes the entire time I am there. Finally progress to 4 cm and 75% effaced after maxing out pitocin after I think about 20 hours? I'm not totally sure. All I do know is that this next part gets crazy.

About an hour later, I am in 10/10 pain, constantly pressing my epidural button, sobbing and moaning and in the most pain I have ever felt. The nurse kindly asks if I want her to get my boyfriend (who is sleeping across the room). I tell him I cant do this anymore, I feel like I'm dying, and something is WRONG. Before COVID, my plan was to also have my mom with me. He holds my hands and calls my mom so I can talk to her. She asks me "does it feel like you have to poop?" And I cant even laugh. The nurse over hears her on the phone and subtly goes "I'm just going to check and see if you've dilated" while I'm still on the phone with my mom she checks me. I am 9 cm dilated and 100% effaced. She puts the peanut ball between my legs to get me over the last hump and tells me its time to have a baby. I ask her if shes going to get the dr and she told me no because it's my first baby and pushing could still take hours. Yeah right. My body is pushing without me trying before I can even say bye to my mom on the phone. The other nurse in the room leaves my room and calls out the door "I need the dr in here NOW"

I went from 4 cm to 10 cm in 1.5 hours!!

The dr gets in the room and 40 minutes later my beautiful baby is born! No tearing thank god. The dr said he has NEVER seen a first time mom push a baby out so efficiently and so fast.

My catheter had to stay in because they had to monitor my urine output due to the magnesium sulfate, which means I havent showered since the 12th. 😭😭😭

We had to stay until the 15th and then return the next day to take my daughter to have her jaundice checked and a weigh in.

Unfortunately, about 10 days after my daughter was born I began having bright red bleeding and severe abdominal pain so bad I couldnt walk. I returned to the ER and it turns out I had a 6.5 cm chunk of retained placenta. I needed an emergency D&C and 10 days of antibiotics. The OB said if I hadn't have come in I would have become septic and probably died.

My beautiful daughter and I have battled 11% weight loss, preeclampsia, retained placenta, tongue ties, lip ties and thrush but we are doing perfect now. She is amazing and I would do it all over again for her in a heartbeat.

Just born!

7 weeks 5 days!

Melody Grace Phipps

May 14 2020 at 12:49 am

6 lbs 11 oz

50 cm long