The battle of wills
As i am sitting here typing this, my 15 month old just dumped her cereal all over the floor, because food off the floor tastes better. Good thing we have dogs to help clean up the mess later. Yes I vacuum, and clean daily, but sometimes you just have to learn to go with the flow when it comes to stuff like that. It’s something I am learning to do, I am a person that like to plan and be able to control the situation. Having a child stops that from happening ever again.
When I was pregnant with this child I started to have pre-eclampsia issues. My plan was to work until a week before my due date, and all would be fine, get to spend my maternity leave with my little one, then go back to work part time. Life said “that’s funny”.
At around 20 weeks my blood pressure started climbing, I cut back my hours at work to relax a little more. Then I started swelling up really bad, like 40 pounds of water weight in 3-4 weeks. The swelling in my feet never went down, they were so swollen i could no longer even attempt to tie my shoes. One day at about 30 weeks my boss told me he wanted me to get my blood pressure checked at the doctors office before I head home. As I live an hour and a half from the nearest hospital on a good day. So, I did, I stopped at my doctors office, next to one of the hospitals in the area, they took my blood pressure, and sent me to the hospital next door, I was told I was not to go home, I had to go to the hospital.
I wasn’t even admitted to an actual room, all the rooms in the labor and delivery where full. Not to worry, they didn’t plan on keeping me long, they just wanted to try to stabilize my blood pressure before putting me in an ambulance, and sending me to the other hospital in the area. The other hospital was the one with the NICU and specialty doctors. I was put in an over flow type nursery, just a spot for a bed. While nurses started giving me medication in an IV. They started with magnesium, that stuff is not fun and I don’t wish that shit on anyone. They also gave me the first of 2 steroid shots for the baby’s lungs, as I was only 32 weeks along. The main goal was to get me to 34 weeks before delivery. Every day counts when you are pregnant. While in the first hospital, I was trying to get a hold of my boyfriend, who was at work over an hour away, and hoping he could make it there before I was transferred to the other hospital. He made it, with enough time to grab some of my stuff, take it to my car, and see me loaded into the ambulance and brought to the other hospital. I wish I could remember some of the nurses, they truly are an awesome group of people.
That was the start to a long journey to me hopefully staying pregnant longer, and the journey of having a new born, prematurely, and all the chaos that goes with it. I am very grateful for my boss that made me go to the doctor that day. Not a lot of bosses would truly care that much, and this all could have turned out way worse, had I not gone.