Oh, hey... I have a blog. I should probably post something.

Once upon a time
a girl started a blog.
It was a quiet little blog
with a very small following.
But she loved it.

Around three years ago she had some strange health concerns arise.
They made it difficult for her to think & concentrate
which in turn made it difficult to work on her blog posts.

Her regular posts began to dwindle,
but she kept her link party going
since it didn't require as much thought on her part.

Most of her symptoms began to improve
aside from the occasional flare-up,
but her anxiety continued to worsen.

Her schedule & her anxiety grew over the summer
as she prepared herself for her firstborn's segue to Kindergarten.

She could no longer maintain her blog.
Before she knew it her link party came to an end
& all was quiet.

She gave birth to her fourth child,
Little Snowflake,
at 5:30pm on 1/9/17,
exactly 100 years after the child's great-great-grandmother was born (in 1917).
Her sweet baby weighed 8 lbs 1 oz & was 20" long
which shocked everyone since her mother was induced three weeks early
due to symptoms of preeclampsia.

A few hours after delivery
they had to put the young mom on a 24 hour magnesium drip
because things weren't quite right.
Her reflexes were off,
her bleeding was heavy,
her platelets were low,
& they were still keeping close tabs on her blood pressure.
She ended up staying an extra couple nights
until the doctors felt comfortable sending her home.

She called her OB a week later
since she was still dealing with heavy bleeding
with no signs of slowing.
After a couple days of bed rest
they asked her to come back in to the office to do an ultrasound.
Her doctor looked at the findings
& scheduled for an emergency D&C
to be done right after her appt.

Apparently there was some leftover tissue left behind from the delivery
which was causing all the heavy bleeding.
After this surgery,
her platelet count improved & her bleeding stopped.

It was time for her to finally relax & enjoy her precious newborn.
Right???

Stay tuned for:
Colic & Reflux
One Big Thing

xoxo

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

Little Sunshine - a birth story

In case you haven't noticed...
Things have been pretty quiet around the blog lately.
I've been enjoying the snuggles & cuddles of our new baby girl!
Meet Little Sunshine (:

I can't believe that she's already a month old!
She is absolutely adorable
& we love that she is part of our eternal family!

Little Dudeman & Little Princess are really great with her!
They love being my helpers (:

Today I'm going to read share with you her birth story...
Once upon a time
in a land known as central Indiana
lived a small,
but growing family.
It was the beginning of August
& the mama was having a tough third trimester.
She still had a couple weeks to go
but she felt larger & much more drained than her previous two pregnancies.
Maybe it was because of the stairs
or simply because she had two other children
that required so much of her energy.
Nobody truly knows.
She was torn between wanting the baby to come ASAP
so that she could be more comfortable & see the sweet little girl,
& enjoying the last couple weeks of baby kicks & only two kidlets while she still could.
Sleepless nights were inevitable either way.

The family went to church on Sunday, August 3rd
& the mommy noticed she was having some contractions on the drive home.
They got home & changed into comfy clothes
then she started timing them just in case.
They were 10-15 minutes apart
so nothing to get too excited about,
but they weren't stopping.
That evening they got as close as 8-10 minutes apart
with the occasional contraction only 5 minutes from the last one.
They continued all through the night
although they weren't so strong that they kept her up.
She had an appt the next day,
& was excited to see what the OB had to say about the progress.
Her contractions were roughly 5-8 minutes apart
& they seemed to be getting stronger.
The mom was slightly disappointed to find out that she was only dilated between a 1 & 2
& that the contractions were most likely just braxton hicks.
Weren't braxton hicks supposed to be painless & sporadic?
They kept up at that same pace the entire day
& all throughout that night,
but when she woke up on Tuesday
they were gone.
They would come back to tease her
from time to time every day
for the next two weeks
but they were definitely more sporadic at that point.

Her father,
whom her children refer to as Grampa,
came out to visit the weekend of her due date, the 16th,
just in case the baby decided to make her debut on or before then.
Alas, the child had other plans.
Grampa had to leave early that Monday morning to go to work
since he was also on a business trip a couple hours away.
He assured the family he would return on Thursday
with hopes to meet his newest granddaughter.

The expectant mother went into her appt that same Monday
to discover that she was dilated to a solid 3.
Her OBGYN stripped the membranes
& scheduled an induction for the next morning at 6 AM
just in case the baby didn't come on her own before then.
The mom took her kids to the park & they went on a couple walks throughout the day.
She even ate half of a fresh pineapple that evening to speed things up.

Really though.
It was quite delicious!

She & her husband stayed up late that night
instead of getting extra rest like they probably should have
because they were so excited to see their newest addition the next morning.
Also because they had started a Harry Potter marathon the week before
& simply HAD TO watch 'Deathly Hallows: Part 2' before the baby came.

No regrets.
Okay, maybe a little bit.
I was pretty drained the next day...

They woke up bright & early at 5 AM the next morning.
Let me rephrase that.
It was early, but definitely not bright outside.
She noticed that she was having regular contractions around 5:30
& they seemed to be getting closer together.
Was it the pineapple perhaps?
The contractions were roughly 5 minutes apart,
but they were fairly tolerable.

They dropped off their sleepy kidlets
Thanks so much for watching them Chelsea!
then headed to the hospital.
The nurse hooked up the contraction monitors
& sure enough the wife was in labor!
Things were progressing.
However, they were progressing very  s l o w l y...
So they broke her water around 7:30
to see if that would help speed things up a bit.
People didn't come in to check on her very often
since there were so many C-sections & deliveries going on that morning.
The next time she saw her OB was around 10 AM.
The doctor checked her & said she was dilated to a 5... 80% effaced.
Things were happening.
Just not very fast.
A pitocin drip was started around 10:10
& the woman was still doing alright with the pain.
The nurse kept upping the pitocin every so often
then came in a little before 12 to let her know that they would be helping with a C-section.
If she would like an epidural it would have to be right then or in an hour.
Even though she could still tolerate the pain just fine in that moment,
the contractions & pain were getting stronger so she decided to go ahead with it
rather than miss her window of opportunity if she ended up needing it while they were unavailable.
They gave her the epidural,
but then her blood pressure dropped so low that they had to give her epinephrine to bring it back up.
Her lack of sleep & super small way-too-early-in-the-morning breakfast weren't helping.
I was feeling queasy when I woke up... 
 Her blood pressure went back to normal,
but she was still tired, hungry, & slightly lightheaded.
The couple had watched 'Thor: The Dark World' earlier that morning while waiting
& decided to turn on 'White House Down' to kill some more time.
She couldn't feel her contractions at that point,
so she was able to actually enjoy the movie.
After a while, the woman started to notice more pressure
but of course her OB was in the middle of a C-section.
She continued to feel more & more pressure
& was extremely relieved when they finally came in to check her around 2 PM.
Sure enough, she was fully dilated & ready to push.
After 40 minutes of pushing
the couple finally got to meet their sweet little summer baby.
Little Sunshine (:

She was born at 2:42 PM, weighed 8 lbs 14 oz, & was 21 3/4" long!!!
Their other two kidlets were much smaller...
7 lbs 10 oz - 20"
& 7 lbs 3 oz - 19 1/2"

What's even more surprising is that I didn't tear.
At all.
Because I did with the other two.
Weird.

Anywho...
Everything was all fine & dandy until approx 46-47 hours later.

Stay tuned for the second chapter titled:
Postpartum Preeclampsia

xoxo