casa de elliott: September 2012

So, this post is a little wordy and I apologize in advance (feel free to scroll down to the photos) but the past 2 months have been CRAZY around here! For starters, we had our big baby shower back home on July 29 and then I went super OCD trying to get everything ready for Mary Reynolds' arrival. Even though I had 7-8 weeks left (more on that later) I could not relax at home unless I spent several hours each day working in her nursery, organizing things, washing her clothes, etc...

My boss (who is also expecting) and I had a surprise shower at work thrown by our sweet co-workers on Monday, 8/13. That week was the start of the madness.

Let me add that the rest of this post was mainly written by Matthew because his memory is much better than mine. :)

I woke up feeling sick and nauseated on Wednesday morning after a restless night of sleep. I started feeling dizzy so I checked my bp (doesn't every family have a machine?) and it was very high. My bp always runs low so this was alarming. I called the doctor on call and was told to go to the ER for monitoring. My doc came by and was totally calm, she was certain I had a little virus. One set of tests later, doc's attitude changed visibly and I was admitted overnight. She also prepared me for the possibility of delivering the baby early but that I wouldn't have the option of an epidural or spinal block. So I could have her naturally, with Demerol, or a c-section under general anesthesia. Yikes!

My husband and I spent the next 24 hours in the hospital. Most of my symptoms stabilized and my doctor said that all my test numbers were good enough to go home on Thursday. Apparently, I had several "almost" problems but nothing serious enough to stay in the hospital. So home I went, after an amazing lunch at Pizza Hut with the hubs (kinda our Last Supper). After about an hour on the couch, my bp went up again and back to the doctor I went, emergency baby bag in hand.

This time the nurses checked the bp and is was 167/100-ish. So the doctor checked my bp and it was perfectly normal after a few minutes laying prone. We were a little embarrassed and went home on bed rest with orders to stop at the lab for some blood work. BUT, and this is big, the lab was closed for the day, so we knew that we had to come back first thing Friday morning before Matthew went to work.

I had a rough night on Thursday and my husband drove me back for lab work on Friday morning. When we came back home, he started getting ready for work when, all of a sudden, I felt HORRIBLE, as bad as I've ever felt. My bp was going crazy and I had terrible abdominal pain. Because he had stayed to take me to the lab, my hubs was able to drive me back to the doctor for the third day in a row. If you know me, I hate going to the doctor, hospital, being sick, etc... so I really had to have felt bad!

When we arrived and the doctor checked me out, she said that they would run some more labs but I was going to be in the hospital till babygirl joined the family, no matter how long it took. They wheeled me over to maternity, but this time I didn't stabilize. My bp went so high that the nurse and my family wouldn't tell me what it was and my abdomen hurt more and more. It was just a steady pain that intensified at times, but never went away.

After a couple of hours, my doctor came in and announced that I had HELLP syndrome, that it was on the verge of being really dangerous, and that we were about to have a baby. During the hour that we waited on an operating room we googled and learned that I had (H)emolysis - breakdown in red blood cells; (E)levated (L)iver enzymes; and (L)ow (P)latelets. This was combining with my high bp (preeclampsia) and, long story short, I was one sick puppy. The only cure was delivery and I prayed that Reynolds (34 weeks and 1 day old) was ready.

Since HELLP syndrome prevents a normal cesarean and a standard labor would take too long, I had an emergency c-section. While I was out of it for a couple of hours, Matthew reports that he spent an anxious thirty minutes waiting for a nurse to bring him Reynolds. He carried her to the NICU, then rotated from family to baby to me in the recovery room. Per him, I asked the same 2-3 questions about Reynolds over and over again because I was coming off anesthesia and onto a morphine drip.

What followed was one of the longest, most medicated nights of my life while I waited to find out if my condition was improving and to meet my sweet Reynolds for the first time. When the doctor came around with my lab work from Friday night, my condition apparently "bottomed out" around 10 p.m. She said that we were fortunate that we didn't ignore my symptoms because it would have been a very risky delivery had we waited just 8 hours.

So without further ado, meet Mary Reynolds Elliott! Here is the first picture taken of her and the only way I was able to see her until I finally met her late Saturday, when she was 1 day old.

It may just be me but I don't think she really looks like a preemie in these pictures. She was born 8.17.12 at 2:48 p.m. and was 4 lbs. 7.6 oz. and 17" long. Here are some more photos taken of sweet MR during her incredibly long 19 day stay in the NICU.

Our first time to meet! :)