Project Flashback: Background

To start out Project Flashback, I thought I would give a little background about how D came so early.

I had my 27 week appointment and my blood pressure was a little high. My doctor told me to keep an eye on it and to come back in if it got too high. That Friday night, my husband and I went to dinner and a Mariner's game with a couple of friends. By about ten, I was completely worn out so DH and I walked back to the car and went home. We went straight to bed but unfortunately I wasn't sleeping very well that night. I was very uncomfortable and sore. My right shoulder was aching very badly and I just felt horrible. I knew that something was wrong but I waited until the morning so my husband could take my blood pressure.

Morning came and I hadn't gotten much sleep. Jeff took my blood pressure but it read so high I just couldn't believe it. I called into my doctor's office to let them know and they told us to go to a fire station to get a blood pressure reading. The fire station verified the prior reading and off we went to the hospital.

Once at the hospital, things started happening very quickly. I was told that I had preeclampsia and that I was spilling proteins in my urine. We needed to lower my blood pressure to keep D inside as long as possible. I was given a steroid shot almost immediately to ripen D's lung just in case she was going to be born early.

Unfortunately, the medicines weren't lowering my blood pressure. We were holding pretty steady otherwise, but were told that D could be delivered at any time if things started going South.

We made it through the night with my blood pressure being continually taken and nurses poking and prodding. The next morning we were told that my liver panels weren't looking so great and that D also was starting to show signs of "stress". It was decided that afternoon that she was going to be born that day.

About 9pm I was prepared for surgery and D was born. She weighed in at 1lb. 12oz. and was immediately put on vent. Of course we all thought she was absolutely gorgeous even though we were all extremely worried.