Before I make this a normal, "update everyone on our lives"blog, I feel like I need to tell the story of Eirion. After she passed away, I was commanded, not just told, but commanded, in a blessing to tell my story and to use our experience with Eirion to help others throughout my life. This will be long, so I can't tell it all in one post, but a series of posts.
Last August 2010, we found out VERY unexpectedly that we were going to have another baby. I was really upset about this at first. I had problems with my blood pressure at the end of my pregnancy with Jared and I didn't want to go through that again. Also, I had just turned 39, which concerned me and I knew by the time this baby was born Kyrie would be 18 and about to graduate from high school. All precautions were set into place, and yet it still happened. Layne had told me previously there was a little girl up there, but after Jared, I was done.
But, as usually happens, the Lord let me know that I was not the one in charge. After I got over the shock, I started to get excited. I figured it was a girl, because with all my girls, I have thrown up. I never threw up with any of the boys, but I did with all the girls. My pregnancy was pretty uneventful until the end.
When we had our ultrasound at 20 weeks, we found out that we were indeed going to have a girl and in the words of the Dr. "she looks perfect." So we were expecting a perfect little girl. We ended up having 4 more ultrasounds and not one of them picked up anything abnormal. Looking back, I think that was a tender mercy. I think if we had known the prognosis before her birth, we would not have fought so hard to keep her.
Anyway, things were fine until I was about 32 1/2 weeks pregnant. Suddenly my ankles and face swelled up. I knew from my experience with Jared, that that probably meant my blood pressure was high. I went to the house of a friend who is a nurse, and had her take my blood pressure. We took it twice and she told me to go home and call my doctor. By this time it was about 9 p.m. I called him and he called back within 5 minutes and told me to go to the hospital. I can't remember how high my blood pressure was, but I do know that they told me later that I was at risk for having a stroke.
They attached me to a fetal monitor and I was reassured when I heard the steady beat of her heart. She hadn't moved much that day, so that was another concern I had. I figured they'd tell me I was on bed rest and send me home. Instead they admitted me.
I stayed in the hospital so they could monitor me. They gave me an I.V. of magnesium sulfate to prevent a stroke. It is nasty stuff. It makes you feel all woozy and hot. For anyone who knows me, I am never hot. If the temperature drops below 80, I think I'm freezing.
The next day when my blood pressure wouldn't go down, they turned my care over to a perinatologist who told me that I would stay in the hospital until I had the baby which would probably be within a week.
Then we met a neonatologist who told me I was being transferred to a different hospital where they had a Level III NICU(Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). Because I was going to have a preemie most likely, they wanted to move me where I would be if I had any problems. That also turned out to be a blessing. If she had had to be transferred, she probably would not have made it in her fragile condition.
Being on the magnesium sulfate, she hadn't moved hardly at all. We had 4 ultrasounds in the 2 different hospitals, and again, not one of them picked up any sort of a problem. She didn't move much, but her heartbeat was steady and she got the hiccups, which I was told was a good sign. They also said according to her measurements, she weighed about 4 lbs.
By this time I was almost 33 weeks. I was continuously monitored. That night, her heart rate started to dip and then it would be o.k. After it dropped a few more times, the doctor on call was really worried, so he told me that he was going to induce me. They tried, but at 33 weeks, my body wasn't ready and didn't respond fast enough. Her heart rate kept dropping, so he told me they were going to do a C-section. I went into major panic mode as they started to prep me for surgery. I have never had any kind of surgery, no broken bones--nothing. So the thought of them cutting me open terrified me. I remember thinking as they wheeled me into the operating room, "people go through this every day." And I tried to remember all the women I know who have had C-sections.
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