I went in Friday, May 9th for a blood pressure check. All day Thursday and Friday I had a bad headache, my swelling was extreme in my feet and legs; even my hands and face started to swell. I had been in Monday for a regular appt and my BP was up to 110/66 which is a little increase for me (baseline is 100/60) and everything else looked fine. By Friday, I had gained 5 lbs in 4 days, there was protein in my urine, and my BP was 148/88. The OB told me that she couldn't let me go home. I was devastated. I was exactly 36 weeks. I had gone in by myself since I was just going for a BP check. I called my husband (who had just gotten home from work at 8 am, gotten in bed around 9, and I called and woke him up at 11) and my mom, and the nurse wheeled me over to L&D. The induction (pit drip) was started by 11:30. Philip was born at 12:17 pm on Saturday, more than 24 hours after the induction was started. It was exhausting and nervewracking, but the actually delivery went very well; I pushed 4 times. Philip had his cord around his neck and there was also a true knot in it. He was very grunty and was retracting with each breath, so they had to take him to NICU for "a few hours of observation" which turned into a 6 day stay. Fortunately, his breathing problems resolved after a couple of days on oxygen. He is nursing like a champ even though he was on an NG tube for the first 5 days and I wasn't even allowed to hold him for the first 2 days.
The whole first week was so stressful, I had a hard time recovering, too; the pre-eclampsia lingered and my dr was ready to re-admit me to hospital on Friday--the very day that Philip was set to come home. Luckily, my labs came back a little better than she thought they would, so she sent me home with lovely TED hose, a couple days' worth of Lasix, and, finally, my baby boy!!
We are getting settled as a family of 6... he's such a happy, easy baby so far.

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