So my son is 1 year old now but I never shared my experience and I think it would help me.

From 20 weeks on I knew my baby would be born before 38 weeks because I had high bp. At 28+4 weeks I went to my appointment and they recommended I see an MFM because my blood pressure was creeping up slowly (140s/80s). When I went to the MFM he prescribed me 100mg of Labetalol and said just to “keep monitoring” and call my OB If it goes above 140/90.

For a week I checked my bp twice a day and tried to stay off of my feet as much as possible and it had always stayed barely below the limit. On a Monday morning I had planned to go with my mom and 2 aunts (visiting from out of town for my shower) about 2 hours into the mountains but my body had other plans. We ended up in L&D by 11am because I woke up and my face was so swollen that it looked like my eyes were closed!

When admitted my bp was 220/112 and so I was immediately admitted and put on all sorts of medications as well as mag. I was told I’d be in the hospital until I hit 34 weeks unless my bp goes down within an hour. It didn’t.

Over the next 3.5 days I was sooo miserable in the hospital. I couldn’t get out of bed and was on mag almost the whole time.

All of my labs were perfect though and my protein was at 10!

On the night of 30+2 they had taken my 2nd 24 hour urine to test it and left the new one for the night nurse to set up. When the night nurse set everything up she forgot to put it in the computer that she had restarted the test. So come 5am the day nurse showed up and took my sample early. The results came back that my protein was over 6000!!!!!!!

The MFM came in at 1030am (30+3) and said they would be doing an emergency Csection so to be ready and that they’d be back with the forms in 5 mins. Luckily my mom took the day off and was in the cafeteria (I didn’t know that), my dad had JUST left so he turned back around, and my fiancé was with me. I went back for my csection & had my son at 11:51am on 8/11/17. He weighed 3lbs 0oz and was 13.3 inches. I only got to see him for about 20 seconds on a screen while they rushed to clean him up and take him away. I barely remember the OR, only that he sounded like a rubber chicken. I was on too many narcotics, mag, and bp meds.

I spent 30 mins in recovery and then sent to the ICU because my bp wouldn’t go down. He was born on a Friday and I didn’t get to see him until Sunday.

I was supposed to stay in the hospital for a week after I had him or until it’s controlled (btw it still isn’t controlled) due to my bp but on Monday 8/14 at 10pm he had a severe pneumothorax and was flight for lifed to Children’s Hospital about 20 miles away. I begged my doctor to discharge me so I could go with him but they wouldn’t do it until the next morning.

We ended up spending 6 weeks in the NICU but I now have a happy and healthy little man that is in the 45th percentile for weight and 97th percentile for height for his actual age!!!