Aidan's birth story: Part I

This might seem somewhat random, but I've been having bouts of insomnia and for some reason I sit and think about the events surrounding when Aidan was born. Maybe it's because his 3rd b-day is coming up or because it's the time of year when I was going through everything, who knows. I've never written about it before, so I was thinking it was time that I did. I have some things written down in a notebook since Dr. Jackson wanted me to keep a journal to note changes, etc... but it's mostly going off by what I remember, which may or may not be accurate. ☺
This may be boring for most of you so feel free not to read!

(18 weeks)

When we found out I was pregnant, I was living at EskDale, working, and Cary was living in Ogden, about 5 hours away, finishing up his last year of school. When I was 9 weeks along, I started bleeding, I went to Dr Jackson (in Delta) pretty sure that I was going to miscarry, but it turned out I had a subchorionic hematoma (a large blood clot that was between the placenta and the uterus, as the baby got bigger it was pushing the blood out), and Aidan was measuring 8 days ahead so they changed my due date from Oct 1 to Sept 23. (that is important to my story) I was put on permanent bed rest and was not supposed to lift anything over 8 lbs, which was quite a change for me since I was exercising regularly and my job was fairly labor intensive. The bleeding continued for about 5-6 weeks which was always quite scary, but I was getting regular ultrasounds and they were showing that the baby was fine and the hematoma was getting smaller.

(24 weeks)

At 15 weeks, Rosaleen and Crystal came to my ultrasound with me and I found out I was having a boy. (Remember, Cary is in Ogden!)

Around 19 weeks, Dr Jackson sent me to a Perinatologist and she told me that the hematoma had resolved itself but that I had a placenta lake (a pool of blood in the placenta) which made me more susceptable to pre-term labor and placenta abruption. So I didn't have to be on bedrest, but I was still supposed to take it easy. That was very hard for me to do since Cary was graduating and we were looking for places to move to in SLC, and then when I was around 25 weeks we did move to SLC.
Moving meant I had to switch doctors which was something that really stressed me out, since I was very happy with Dr. Jackson. He had given me a list of doctors in SLC that he recommended, so I basically chose a doctor that was closest to where I lived. After living 1.5 hrs to the nearest doctor or hospital, a 5-10 minute drive seemed unbelievable. ha ha. ☺

(29 weeks)

I met Dr B and at this point I was around 28 weeks, I gave him my chart at that appointment so I obviously didn't expect him to know my history and problems, but I did explain that it was recommended I have an ultrasound every 4-6 weeks to check my placenta. (at this point it had been 5 weeks since I'd had an ultrasound) I failed my glucose test at that appointment so I had to go back and do the 3 hr test a few days later, which I also failed, which meant that I had gestational diabetes. I had to set up an appointment with a nutritionist at Cottonwood hospital.
In the meantime, I went back to Dr. B for my second appointment, I was sure that I was leaking amniotic fluid, I had had some more bleeding, I was starting to look really puffy, and my blood pressure was on the rise. He STILL hadn't read my chart, didn't know any of my history and totally blew off any of my concerns and wouldn't schedule an ultrasound. I left that appointment SO frustrated I wanted to cry, heck, I may have cried, I don't remember. What I do remember, was that I was ready to drive to Delta to talk to Dr. Jackson, but I figured that maybe I was being high maintenance. I only had about 8-9 weeks left so I'd just suck it up.
My sister, Janille, was furious when she heard about my appointment and told me that if I started bleeding again to go the emergency room.
On August 6, a Monday, I would have been 33 weeks-ish. I had decided to catch up on some sewing projects that afternoon, and was cutting out material to make a baby sling/ wrap, when I started having contractions, I had one so bad all I could do was lay on the floor. I started spotting too, so then I started getting nervous. I called the doctors line to see what I should do, and the doctor on call told me to go the ER. I started calling people we know to see who could drive me to the hospital, I couldn't get a hold of anyone, so I called Cary who was 45 minutes away at work. He started to drive home, but he got a hold of Chad, so Chad came and got me.
While I was waiting for Chad,  Kenneth called to ask me some questions about a picnic we were planning for later on in the month. I don't really remember how the conversation went, but at some point he asked me if I was okay, and then I started bawling. I can't talk when I cry, so somehow I conveyed to him to get on messenger and then I was able to tell him what was going on.
Chad soon picked me up and off to Cottonwood hospital we went, in hindsight I probably should have just gone to labor and delivery, but I didn't know what the heck we were doing, so we went to the ER. Once there, it was confirmed that my water had indeed broken and I was in labor. Cottonwood hospital (close to our place) wasn't equipped to handle babies less than 34 weeks, so they transferred me by ambulance to LDS hospital. (not so close to where we lived, BUT not a hospital that Dr.B had privileges at). Ironically enough, the female paramedic with me in the ambulance had two children delivered by Dr. B and she really liked him.

 (the first night at the hospital) 

(My feet and ankles were SO swollen it hurt to walk anywhere)

At LDS hospital, it was all kind of blur, doctors were asking lots of questions, I had an ultrasound and there was lots of confusion over how far a long I really was, since if I was to deliver this early it made a big difference. Aidan was only measuring 32 weeks, I was supposed to be 33w 1d, but the goal was for me not have the baby until at least 34 weeks but regardless, I had to stay in the hospital until the baby was born.

Cary had caught up to me, Josh and Kiera came to visit, Janille and mom had rushed in. (I think, was it mom or Sharon?) lol.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were boring days filled with lots of TV watching, Cary visiting me after he got home from work, and daily non-stress tests. I was having bouts of contractions, but nothing serious. Wednesday night we thought things were going to get interesting and they moved me into a L&D room, but around 10:00 PM they settled down and I sent Cary home.
Thursday night, same story. I was having a lot of contractions, so Cary stayed later that night, but once again they started to taper off around 11:00, so I told Cary he could go home before they had even moved me back to my room from the labor and delivery room. (They just like to monitor you and baby for awhile before they take you back to your room.)  I was just laying there trying to go sleep when out of the blue, I started coughing, coughing, and coughing. I finally paged the nurse because I was having a hard time breathing. She came in heard me coughing and ordered an X-ray of my lungs. She took my blood pressure and it was really high, so then they were worried about me having Preeclampsia, so they put in a catheter to get a 24 hr urine sample to test for protein. I'll just say that life really sucked for me at that point, but I did grow to love that catheter! I was just getting worse and worse, and the x-ray came back that my lungs were filling up with fluid. Around 2:00 AM the resident came in to talk me about possibly needing an emergency c-section. Around 2:30 AM I was pretty out of it, but I know that nurses were checking me constantly and then the doctors came in again and said, "Where is your husband, we need to do an emergency c-section NOW!?"


To be continued...☺
Part II

(I think these were taken Aug 9, I was wearing compression socks to try to keep the swelling down...)

(I don't think it worked, but dang, I look good!) ☺