Hayley's Preemie Story: Part 3 - A Preemie and Preeclampsia

On Wednesday October 9, 2013, at 27 weeks 4 days pregnant I was transferred to a bigger hospital with a NICU because I was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia and we were about to have a preemie. My husband beat us to the hospital and was there waiting when we arrived in the ambulance. I was wheeled into a big labor and delivery room where doctors and nurses immediately surrounded me, putting things in my IV, checking my vitals, and coming in and out. They had my daughter on the fetal monitor and listened closely to her because her heart rate had begun dropping regularly. They were concerned that she was in distress. They attempted to have me lay on my left side with an oxygen mask on to see if it would help her because they hoped to keep her in a couple more days so that I could get all of my steroid injections in to help her lungs develop better.

Meanwhile, they did an ultrasound of her to see how she was doing on there. The ultrasound revealed that she was measuring 4 weeks (23 weeks) behind where she should have been (IUGR, intrauterine growth restriction) and that the placenta was not supplying her with nutrients consistently -- there were consistent lapses in blood flow to the umbilical cord. They did say, though, that she was practicing breathing. Knowing she'd be a preemie, that was good news that her lungs were functioning.

Her first photo, taken moments after birth.
The plastic bag was to keep her body temperature up

After a couple of hours they decided to take her out because her heartrate drops were not improving. They wheeled me into the operating room and did a spinal. The whole time they were cutting me open I was praying for her, not only that she would survive, but THRIVE (because there is a big difference between surviving and thriving, as a brain dead vegetable survives. My mom later told me that our Pastor's wife was talking to her, encouraging her and used that SAME word over our daughter. God's confirmation is always amazing!). She was born at 9:02 PM weighing just 1lb 5.9 oz and 11.4 inches long and thus began the longest 10 minutes or so of my life. There was no cry, just silence. It was a scary silence, but I felt a peace deep in my heart that she would be OK and that God had this! Finally  we heard them say "Dad, do you want to see her?" A flood of relief flowed through me. My husband cut the umbilical cord and, after a few minutes, they brought her over to me all wrapped up with a little yellow hat on her head. They lifted her down to me so that I could see all the hair on her head and give her a little kiss. Then she was wheeled off to the NICU.

I was put on 24 hours of magnesium treatment which meant I had to stay put and couldn't go see our daughter. They had trouble controlling my blood pressure, so I stayed in the hospital until that Saturday (our daughter was born on Wednesday) when they finally released me. While I was there I visited our daughter as frequently as I could. She was doing very well for being born so early and being so tiny. She only had to be on the ventilator for a few hours before they took her off of it, and she was only on a nasal cannula to help her breathe, which is amazing for being so tiny and so early! She seemed to be sailing along in the NICU. 

When she was 2 days old I got to hold her for the very first time. She was around 1lb 4oz at this point (she lost weight like all babies do immediately after birth) and had all sorts of tubes and wires on her, including a central line so that she didn't have to be poked and prodded so much. I did skin to skin with her with several blankets on top of her to keep her body temperature up. It was an amazing moment getting to hold our daughter for the very first time. She was so tiny and looked like a little pixie (she didn't look as much like a baby because she didn't have any fat on her yet and was covered in lanugo--a fine hair babies have on them in the womb until they get enough body fat to keep their temperature up). Our skin to skin session only lasted about 20 minutes because her body temperature started dropping too low, but it was 20 minutes of heaven. 

I was released on Saturday afternoon and that night I got a really bad headache as I was laying in bed sleeping. I woke my husband and told him we needed to go to the hospital, I just knew my blood pressure was up. When we got to the ER they did a blood pressure check. The result: 210/130! My blood pressure was dangerously high and I was in danger of having a seizure or stroke! I was admitted immediately and they put me on another 24 hours of magnesium treatment (if you've never been through a magnesium treatment, it feels like you have a high fever. You are hot and can't focus on anything, even the TV. And you feel all swelled and can't get up out of bed). On Sunday afternoon I was released again, this time on blood pressure medicine and instruction to follow up with my OB on my blood pressure over the next couple of weeks.