Postpartum Preeclampsia

If you missed Little Sunshine's birth story
but would like to read it first to make sense of this random illeism
you can find that post here.

Chapter Two: Postpartum Preeclampsia
The hospital required Little Sunshine & her mother to stay 48 hours after birth before being discharged,
because unlike the hospital in California
they wait until the baby is 48 hours old to do the newborn blood screening.

Her husband stayed at the hospital with her the first night
while her kids stayed at home with their family friend, Meg, & her two boys.
He had to leave the hospital at 5:30am to go watch the kids
since Meg had to get her boys to school & go to work.
They tried to find someone to watch the kids during the day
so that he could go back to the hospital
& keep his wife company while they enjoyed their new baby,
but they were unable to find someone.
He decided to take them to see 'Planes: Fire & Rescue'
at the movie theater as a daddy date,
then they all came to the hospital for a little while afterwards.
He stayed at home with them Wednesday night
since he was cold & uncomfortable at the hospital anyway.

As promised, Grampa stopped by the hospital on Thursday to meet the wee one
before heading home from his business trip
& the father-of-now-three brought the older kids with him that day
so they could see their grandfather before he had to go to the airport & fly home.
They stayed & visited for a while
& the young mama was glad to have their company.
She was also very excited that she & her new baby would be going home in just a few short hours.

A little bit before her father left,
she noticed some tightness in her chest & shortness of breath.
She found it peculiar,
but dismissed it because she had experienced a lot of that during the third trimester.
She began to notice a slight headache behind her eyes
& it was getting difficult for her to concentrate or focus.
The children were a little stir-crazy & were running all over the place
so she thought that perhaps that was why her focus was off a bit.
They said quick goodbyes & headed back to the house to get the other car
so that the wife & newborn could come home with them after the 48 hours was up.
Things continued to get worse after they left.
The mother began having heavy palpitations & a pain in the center of her chest with each one.
It was getting more & more difficult for her to concentrate.
She felt a lot of anxiety & got very lightheaded & dizzy.
She thought that maybe her blood pressure was low
so she pressed the call button.
When the nurse came in to check it
she was shocked to hear that it was waaay too high.
I can't remember exactly what it was since there was so much going on & I couldn't concentrate
but it was 180 something over something.
Not normal.
They called the OB in to check on her.
When the doctor arrived,
she asked the mother a bunch of questions
then ordered a CT scan with contrast...
STAT.
She wanted to rule out clots because of the chest pain, palpitations, blood pressure, & whatnot.
She also mentioned that they would not be discharged that day.
The bewildered mama called her husband in tears
& filled him in on everything that had happened after he left.
After the call, they took her to get the CT scan done.
The right side of her neck began hurting after they put the contrast dye in,
& it would continue to hurt for almost a week.
She had no clue as to why.
The results of her CT came back normal which was quite comforting,
so the OB came to the conclusion it was most likely postpartum preeclampsia that was causing the symptoms,
& they treated it as such.
The mother was moved back into a labor & delivery room
where she was placed on a magnesium sulfate drip for 24 hours,
accompanied with air circulation cuffs for her legs,
a pulse monitor on her toe,
& a blood pressure cuff that was checked hourly.
Little Sunshine was sent to the nursery for the night, except for feedings,
so that her mom could get adequate rest for a speedy recovery
& also because her mom was confined to the bed
aside from bathroom breaks when a nurse would unhook everything but the IV.
Halfway through the night she was sent back to a postpartum room
since all the babies in the area decided to be born right then.
The next morning, Little Sunshine's father drove her siblings to the hospital for a visit.
GrandBo & CiCi also drove up to see their new granddaughter, although they could only stay one day.
The mommy loved the company, but wished they were all home.
Her husband & other children felt the same way.
Little Princess even brought her mommy a 'get well soon' flower after a walk with CiCi.
It brightened her day immensely.

Her OB wanted to keep her there another night
for observation without the magnesium sulfate drip.
Her blood pressure was elevated a few times,
but not so high that it concerned the doctors.
It fluctuated all throughout the night,
her symptoms would come & go,
& she had a pretty big anxiety attack at one point
but when her doctor came in the next afternoon,
she was given the okay to go home.
GrandBo & CiCi came back to the hospital with her husband & kids
to pick up the mama & new baby
& to spend some time with them before they drove back to Tennessee.

A little while after they got home, her husband took their oldest two children to the airport to go pick up Nani.
It was really windy & stormy out & her flight was delayed.
As they were sitting in the cell phone lot waiting for her plane to land,
he was monitoring her flight on an app.
He watched the plane circle around a few times to wait out the storm,
then it eventually turned around & was headed towards Illinois.
It wasn't a very large plane so it needed to refuel before heading back to Indianapolis.
They decided to get some dinner while they waited,
then went back to the airport to pick her up once her flight landed
It was great having Nani at their home for the week.
The young mother continued to have symptoms periodically throughout the week,
but they were never as bad as they were at the hospital.
Her blood pressure was very inconsistent.
The systolic would range between 160 and 130
& the diastolic would range between 105 and 75.
By the end of the week it was back within normal range,
with the occasional spike around 140/90.
She enjoyed her mom's visit nonetheless
& appreciated the help with the kids while she was there.

Gramma came to visit a week later.
The mama was doing much better at this point.
Her blood pressure was completely normal
& her symptoms were mostly gone.
She was grateful for the company & help
as she adjusted to life with three kids,
but Gramma couldn't stay forever..
This meant no more visitors for a while,
& that she was on her own yet again.

Chapter 3 coming soon...
Three Kids

xoxo

MOPS: Courage to Be a Mom

As I mentioned before,
The theme this year for MOPS is 'Be you, Bravely'.
During our last meeting we talked about having the courage to be a mom.

We started by watching this video about the world's toughest job...



Being a mom.
It's definitely the toughest job in the world.
It's also one of the most rewarding.
I would know...

Being a stay-at-home parent means everything is expected of you,
& nothing is expected of you all at the same time.
It just depends on who you ask.

My children expect everything of me.
My husband only expects me to take care of myself & the kids.
(If I manage to get other things done that's great, but we are his priority.)
Some people may expect that my house would always be spotless since I'm home all day.
Others know that even though I'm a stay-at-home mom my house is rarely spotless
because my children expect everything of me.

We talked about how sometimes society thinks that because we aren't earning a paycheck we aren't contributing to society & that we are simply too lazy to work.
It's quite the opposite really.
Stay-at-homes are very busy people.
Cooking,
cleaning,
paying bills,
running errands,
changing diapers,
taking care of sick children,
helping watch other peoples' kids,
scheduling appointments,
going to appointments,
& thousands of other things that come our way.
It's definitely more work than your typical high school babysitting job (;

We talked about how easy it is to get discouraged
when we are doing 'all the things'
& somehow we still can't manage to get everything done.

Then we realize that our children are growing up before our eyes
so we slow down for a bit & embrace those little moments
only to notice exactly how much we are contributing to society.
We are raising these children to be wonderful adults.
We are teaching them important values.
We teach them:
to listen.
to be kind.
to have faith.
to love.
We are teaching them the importance of family,
responsibility,
& so many other things.
We are teaching them all the things they will need to know in order to get through life.

A couple things really stood out to me during the meeting:
"Today is the day that really matters"
"Motherhood is your worthy calling for today, and you ARE enough."

Although they didn't share it at MOPS,
this video also came to my mind...



"You never know how much good you do."
- President Gordon B. Hinckley -

We broke into our discussion groups
where we talked about how difficult yet rewarding being a mother can be.
We also each received paychecks for a gazillion dollars for all the hard work we do!
For some strange reason by bank won't honor it...
Shucks.

We met back up as a large group then finished off the meeting
by watching this inspirational video about the power of a mother's love...

One last thought...
Someone mentioned this poem in our group & I've always loved it:
I hope my child looks back on today
And sees a mother who had time to play.
There will be years for cleaning and cooking
But children grow up while you are not looking.
Tomorrow I'll do all the chores you can mention
But today, my baby needs time and attention.
So settle down cobwebs, dust go to sleep;
I'm cuddling my baby, and babies don't keep.
- anonymous -

xoxo

Happy Mother's Day

I had a rough day on Saturday.

REALLY rough.

A day that brought me to tears multiple times

due to mere frustration with the kids.

I'm sure my pregnancy hormones had something to do with it as well,

but still...

I felt like I was talking to a wall.

I became a broken record.

I couldn't go to the bathroom without something spilling or breaking.

The kids were screaming at each other.

Their toys weren't being shared.

There were diaper blowouts,

runny noses,

whining,

tired & crabby kids.

I'm used to these things happening each day.

It's part of being a parent.

It's not unusual.

But when it became a constant all day battle with all of the above

mixed with stress & my pregnancy hormones

I was ready to throw the towel in.

I tried turning on movies.

The kids wouldn't stay in the room.

I tried playing with them.

They continued fighting with each other.

I tried to get them to take a nap.

They both wanted to cuddle on the same side of me

& ended up arguing over who got to cuddle with my left side.

My patience would fluctuate.
It started out fairly high,
but it diminished little-by-little as the day went on.
When the kids would do something adorable
it would jump up a bit,
but soon drop back down to a discouraging low.

Hubby was two hours away
at our old house trying to touch up paint
& do other odd jobs that needed to be done there,
then he came home to take care of the yard at our new house.
I felt like he had done so much more with his Saturday than I had done with mine.
I had only been able to unpack one box all day
& our house looked like a tornado had passed through it.
This whole "nesting" phase just isn't working out for me.
I wanted the house to be unpacked & in order,
but being the mom of two young children I should have known better.

I can try my hardest to have a routine,

but I have to expect the unexpected to happen each day.

Routines just don't work for us.
At least not right now.

We got the kids ready for bed right after our late dinner.
(Daylight savings time really throws my cooking schedule off
as well as my internal 'get the kids ready for bed' clock.)

Little Dudeman went to bed & fell asleep easily,
but Little Princess wanted cuddles.
Hubby & I started to doze off in the process,
but my bladder woke me up shortly after she fell asleep.
I was still pretty grumpy
& was hoping that there would be enough time for us to cuddle on the couch & watch a movie,
but I also reeeally needed a shower.
I knew I couldn't stay up to watch an entire movie thanks to that little cat nap
so I complained & cried to Hubby about my day while eating ice cream,
then opted towards the shower.

I was still crying when I hopped in the shower.
I thought about Mother's Day
& how we didn't get gifts, flowers,
or even cards mailed out to our wonderful moms.
I thought about how undeserving I was to be wished a Happy Mother's Day,
especially after a day like that
when I had no patience for the very children who made me a mother.
I thought about a lot of things...
I noticed I kept putting more & more negative thoughts into my head.
So I quickly said a prayer that I would be able to be comforted,
& that I would have the strength to keep Satan & those negative thoughts away.
It worked.
Almost instantly.
The rest of my shower was relaxing
& I started thinking positive thoughts...

I realized that I'm not a bad mom.
Rough days happen.
That doesn't mean that I love my children any less though.
I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity I have to be a mother...
I'm grateful for the two wonderful children that put up with me all day every day.
I'm grateful that they ask what's wrong & remind me that it's more fun to be happy than it is to be sad.
I'm grateful for our unborn daughter that wakes me up in the middle of the night just because.
I'm grateful for Hubby & that he understands being a stay at home mom isn't always easy.
I'm grateful for the joy that motherhood brings.

I realized that between Hubby & I
we are blessed to have 5 amazing moms (:
This is what our kidlets call them:

Nani

Gramma

Gram

CiCi

Nana

I could spend plenty of time explaining the wonderful qualities each of these women have,
but I'll save that for another post since this one is already a bit lengthy...
We love each of them the same amount,
but for many different reasons!

Nana & Nani are half of the reason that Hubby & I were born.
Gram & Gramma took care of & raised us the most.
CiCi, Nana, & Nani weren't able to spend as much time with us,
but the time we were able to spend with them was time well spent
& we still learned a lot from each of them.
CiCi & Gramma helped us realize that not all step-mothers are evil.
Nani & Gramma are the ones I call the most when I need to vent
because they are my actual moms,
but I know Hubby's moms are great listening ears as well... (:
Gram is no longer with us,
but I know that she is still watching over us each day.
Each of these women have an immense love for us

& we have an immense love for each of them.
They are absolutely wonderful
& I'm sure that they love us even when we are so scatterbrained that we forget cards!

At church today we had a great lesson about choosing to be happy (:
It was just what I needed this crazy Mother's Day weekend!
I can't wait to tell you all about it!

xoxo