Who Would have thought….

Who would have thought that a similar birth story to my first daughter would be much the same for the second.

If you didn’t know from our social media, we were expecting another little girl. But no one, not even myself, would have expected her to come charging into the world in a similar fashion as my oldest, Taelor.

In order to truly talk about this story, I need to go back to when Taelor came Earth-side.

Just over 8 years ago, I had gone in for a standard appointment. I had found out just a few weeks prior that I was pre-eclamptic through blood tests. I had a few symptoms, none that I had really noticed but they were there and had my Doctor’s cautious. So they decided to send me 30 miles away to meet the Doctors at one of the best children’s hospitals on the East Coast as a precaution. In case anything went wrong, they wanted me to know who would be there for me and my child (I didn’t know yet what I was having). While at this standard appointment, they took my blood pressure like normal. It was slightly elevated, but they took it as the drive stressing me (I hate driving in cities). By the end of that appointment my blood pressure got so high that everyone kept asking me 1. if I felt all right and 2. how have I not had a seizure yet.

They sent me down to the ER and immediately took me to labor and delivery to try and get the blood pressure down. Again, I had several other symptoms for the Pre-eclampsia, this just happened to be the one that showed up and was the final straw. They spent 2 days trying to control and drop my blood pressure and nothing worked, so Emergency C-section was the only way. And she came screaming into this world a whopping 6 weeks early at barely three pounds and nine ounces.

Now for our newest daughter’s story.

Hers is very similar but also very different. I had worked so hard this entire pregnancy to stay as healthy as possible so I wouldn’t have an emergency. I ate super healthy, I kept extremely active. I even worked out on occasion (not as much as I used to, but enough). My Doctor kept a close watch on my bloodwork and my blood pressure. Everything, and I mean everything, was completely normal and in the normal ranges. Nothing was elevated, nothing was of any concern, until……..

A few days after Thanksgiving, I went in for a check-up. One that was scheduled months ago, it was a standard appointment to check our little girl’s growth. During this appointment, my blood pressure was slightly elevated. Nothing too high at the beginning, they suspected it was from the drive as we were in the middle of yet another snowstorm. About 30 minutes later, they checked for the final time and it was not going down. So they sent me down the road to the nearest hospital with the Labor and Delivery unit (it wasn’t high enough for them to worry about me driving……. yet).

By the time I had arrived at the hospital, my BP was so high that I had almost every Nurse and Doctor running. My Doctor who was on call came running in and started dosing me on everything and anything just to get it down enough for them to transport me to the nearest city that had more capabilities for early labor. My BP was at 225/115 at this point. And again, everyone was in complete shock that I still felt perfectly fine. I had absolutely no symptoms warranting the high blood pressure.

They finally got it down enough and transported me to the other hospital, where they were finally able to get my blood pressure back to a more normal level. And for the next month I would spend sitting in that hospital room, doing everything in my power and the hospitals power to keep my blood pressure down so that our little girl could stay inside one more day.

Literally, that was our mantra. Our whole family’s mantra was just give us one more day. We just needed to get to 34 weeks where our baby girl would have the best chance. Every Doctor, Nurse, Kitchen Staff, and Janitorial Staff began to cheer us on for each day. Each day was a celebration and we were going to take it.

We finally made it to the day before I would hit 34 weeks. They got us scheduled for the C-Section the next day at 8a and we all were excited for the final arrival of this little girl and I was overjoyed over the fact that I wouldn’t be stuck in bed any longer.

However, our story does not end there. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. They started noticing that our baby was beginning to struggle. It wasn’t horrible, but enough for them to start keeping a closer watch on us. By 11 pm that night they were noticing more struggling in our little one. At 11:59p the Surgeon was walking in our room to tell us that we would be going into surgery, another emergency surgery.

At this point we were so close to the 34 week mark and every Doctor was on our side and wanted it to happen as well. Even though the surgery would happen on the 34 week mark, we didn’t want to hear of the surgery till then. So….. Justin and I both knew what was happening, and we both, laughing, told the Surgeon to turn around and come back in after 30 seconds. The Doctor at this point looked up at the clock, laughed, and did just that.

They also wanted to wait to give the news. And here we go, I get rushed in for emergency surgery yet again. And our little girl was born and weighed a whopping half pound heavier than Taelor. And we couldn’t be more happy. She was as healthy as ever and wanted to eat immediately.

She has shocked every Doctor and NICU nurse every step of the way.

Who knew, I would be so lucky to have birthed two amazingly strong and resilient little girls. They both are and will be quite the spit-fires.

Keep me in your prayers when they hit their teen years.