Penelope's Birth Story - Part 1

Ok, shew...this one is going to be a long one.  Well, a few long ones - I'll break them down for ya.  I'm warning you.  Also, I warn that it may be a bit TMI for some - but I feel it's important to document all that happened during the birth of our beautiful daughter.  Thankfully baby and mommy are doing great...but it was a scary road.  And honestly, I think it's a road we shouldn't have had to go down.  Deep breath, here it goes.

For those of you who have read my blog for a while, you may have noticed a recurring theme.  I was constantly complaining about being swollen and puffy in the ankles, hands and face.  I also was extremely tired.  Freakishly tired I would say.  Although I had brought up these things to my midwives (I go to a practice with about 6 midwives and so I rarely see the same one) they said it was just a part of being pregnant.  I figured they knew what they were talking about and moved along.  I also, at one point, said that I didn't feel my baby moving that much.  They hooked me up to a fetal heartbeat monitor and all seemed fine.  I figured it was my anterior placenta (the placenta was in the front and therefore acts as a pillow to muffle the kicks).  They didn't do an ultrasound at this time.  Then a week before the shit went down I had a routine appointment and there was protein and blood in my urine.  They didn't seem too concerned and told me to come back in a week to follow up.  So yeah....the signs were ALL THERE...but yet this is what happened.

So, I woke up on Thursday morning and my hands and face and ankles were extremely swollen.  Way more so than they have been (mind you that they have been varying degrees of swollen for over a month at this point).  I was concerned and decided to take my blood pressure because I read about preeclampsia and knew that the puffiness was a sign of it along with high blood pressure. Thankfully we have a blood pressure cuff in the house.  I took it and it was around 170/90.  That's pretty high.  My husband and I decided I should try to get in to see the midwives "just in case something was wrong."  I I had brought up the preeclampsia to my midwives before because of the face/hands swelling - but again nobody seemed to worried about it, so I wasn't that concerned when I walked into the midwives office that morning.  They bring me in, I do a pee test, they take my blood pressure....and the midwife says "I hate to tell you but you have to go to the hospital right away."  Um, ok?  So I called Sean and said I had to go to the hospital, and at this point we're not really worried.  We just figured they'd monitor me and probably send me home on bed rest or something like that.  We live across the street from our local hospital so I drove back home, switched cars, and he drove me over and came with me to the hospital.

So now I'm at the hospital and they're checking my blood pressure and it's high.  They do some blood work, another urine test...and then we go to the ultrasound.  At this point I'm starting to freak a little bit.  They start the ultrasound....and the baby is not moving.  Her heartbeat is going but her little legs and arms are not moving.  They're wiggling my belly, asking me to cough...and she barely moves.  Then they measured the blood flow going from the umbilical cord to her...and it wasn't giving her as much as it should be.  Oh crap...this just got scary.