Birth Story for Madilynn Aubrey Meredith

BirthThey advise you to create a birth plan and then they tell you not to expect everything to go perfectly. Little snafus happen. Moms that want to go completely natural can’t bear the pain and need epidurals, video cameras fail to work, or the hospital won’t permit you to light 200 candles in the room for ambient lighting. Sometimes moms are devastated that the delivery doesn’t go picture perfect and they perhaps lose touch with the bottom line. Is your baby healthy? Are you healthy? At the end of the day, a “yes” to each of those questions means everything went ok.

28-WeeksMadilynn and I had a good ride through the first two trimesters. I was able to stay active walking and wrestling with Jensen. Maddie was such an active baby in utero that it almost felt like she was already an energetic participant in our play doing somersaults and back flips. The third trimester arrived and, like turning on a switch, my chronic high blood pressure was out of control. I spent the majority of my days in the range of 160/105. I made my first trip to the ER on August 4th and never had a healthy bp reading again after that day.

By Saturday, August 23rd, I was tired of fighting it. I was angry and frustrated and when my bp hit 181/125 I was flat out pissed. I was eating right, I was resting as much as I could with a 16-month old monkey/toddler, I was avoiding sodium and salty foods. I didn’t know what else to do. I called my doctor’s office (of course it was after hours) expecting to be told just to add another pill because I knew I wasn’t at the max dosage of one of my blood pressure meds (yeah, I was on 2 different meds, maxed out on one). My doctor wasn’t the one on call and the other doctor didn’t feel comfortable authorizing another pill so I was sent to the ER again.

Soon after arriving in the ER I was taken up to Labor and Delivery but I really only expected to be there 2-3 hours (long enough to bring my bp down) then to go home. Wow, did that not go as expected. I was pretty quickly told I needed to spend the night and it was suggested that I accept a course of 4 steroid shots over the next 48 hours that would give Madilynn’s lungs a jump start. Apparently there are natural hormones released from the mother’s body to the baby at 32 weeks and again at 34 weeks that are part of the lung development process. What I did not realize at the moment is that they were not expecting me to make it to 32 weeks. I was 31 weeks and 2 days then. They were calling it a precautionary measure and we began the steroids that night at 10pm.

Saturday night they also started giving me an IV push of a drug to instantly drop my bp each time the bottom number was above 100. That was almost every time so I received several doses of that on the first and second days. It was that night around 2am that I got the mind-splitting headache that stuck with me until Monday at least. Painkillers didn’t even touch it. I don’t know if that was related to the pre-eclampsia or the instant bp dropper but its another sign of pre-eclampsia so the medical staff asked me about it often.

Magnesium SulfateSunday, August 24, I met with the on-call doctor for the first time. He told me that he was not comfortable increasing my meds because I was on the highest doses on bp meds without having my bp anywhere near controlled that he had ever seen. He didn’t believe we had a chance of getting it under control. As another “precautionary measure” I was being put on a drip of magnesium sulfate. That was for seizure prevention. I’d have to say there was a bit of fear setting in at this point. I didn’t fully understand my situation and for the most part I think I was better off not understanding.

The doctor said there was no chance I could go home before I delivered the baby. The protein level in my urine was 9 times the starting point of pre-eclampsia and my platelet count was down which was a concern for clotting in the C-Section I was almost certainly going to have. I was really blown away because I thought we were still shooting for 36 weeks. He basically laughed at that idea and told me that our goal was to get through the 48 hours of shots then an additional 48 hours beyond that. I was to have my baby on Wednesday morning with very little chance we could wait beyond that point. I knew that everyday Madilynn could stay inside was good for her though so I was still very hopeful.

The magnesium drip was started very quickly. I was told it was going to make me feel worse than I’ve ever felt in my life. They didn’t attempt to sugar coat it. I was going to feel horrid. Period. Accept it.

Sunday and Monday were just days that blur together for me. My energy was gradually drained from my body. Getting out of the bed became nearly impossible. My ankles would give. My legs moved like jell-o. My head was in a total fog. Breathing began to feel like a chore. Was there an elephant sitting on my chest? They were right. I did not think I could feel much worse.

Tuesday, August 26, was more of the same until I realized I was getting a lot more attention. Sometime around mid-day it occurred to me that my nurse really wasn’t leaving the room for more than a few minutes at a time. I would wear the baby monitor belt for an hour every 4 hours. Maddie’s heartbeat had been strong and steady and she was moving all over just like usual but I began to notice that her heartbeat and movements were slowing on Tuesday. I’m told that she never dropped into an unhealthy range but at all our doctor’s visits her hb was always 150 and it dropped down to 120 while I was on the magnesium. It was hard to keep her heartbeat on the monitor so my nurse pulled up a chair and held the monitor in place each time for the whole hour. She just sat staring at the monitor and the paper trail it was spitting out.

Dr. McGuireI received a phone call from my doctor around 2pm informing me that the proteins in my urine had doubled again and I was being classified as severe pre-eclamptic. She said we could still wait until Wednesday morning if I really wanted to but that she would recommend us delivering Maddie that day. I told her I was ready to have Maddie and she started the ball in motion.

My fear was still tucked in the back of my mind where I could control it. Even now it’s hard to bring it forth and think about what was really going on. I still don’t really understand. My condition was rapidly declining but was I really as close to death as I think they were indicating? Was it really that bad? It’s not something to dwell on of course. It’s just something to think about and be very thankful that everything turned out just fine. And another reason to live every day to it’s fullest. You know, all that carpe diem stuff except with true meaning, not just awesome movie Dead Poets Society meaning.

Anesthesiologist BoxOnce the decision was made to deliver Maddie there was no screwing around. Nurses were in and out of my room in a blur. I had to call Jamie and tell him to hurry because they planned to deliver Maddie within the hour but Melinda (the nurse who had cared for me all morning) said they would wait for him. My epidural ended up being a problem again and took multiple sticks and quite a bit of time. That’s one of the top 5 things about pregnancy that I never have to endure again! For those that do not know me well I have a huge tolerance for pain but I’ve got about as much patience as a, well, um, I can’t think of anything but rest assured I am the least patient person you know.

Again, time is a big blur from the epidural setting in to the trip down the hall to the operating room and slicing and dicing time. Oh, yeah, there wasn’t a chance I could have natural childbirth. The magnesium sulfate had wrung every ounce of energy I had out. I couldn’t have pushed a penny across a table with my index finger let alone, well you get the picture.

Tiny MadilynnAt 5:05 pm our precious Madilynn Aubrey made her entrance into the world and we knew in an instant that there was nothing wrong with her lungs because she protested loud and long. It was the most wonderful sound I had ever heard and reassurance swept over me. We soon learned that Maddie was in great condition but of course very small at 3 lbs 5.5 oz and 16” long. She had to be put on a ventilator just because of the amount of magnesium sulfate in her system. It slows everything down and the doctors did not want her to have the added trouble breathing. She has improved everyday and we only expect her to be in the hospital approximately 4 weeks. She has to reach a weight minimum of 4 lbs 7 oz and be able to coordinate the suck, swallow, and breath reflex.

Removal of the placenta resulted in almost an instant reduction in my blood pressure. Over the coming weeks I will visit with my pc doc and my meds will gradually be decreased to a reasonable level.

Maddie and I did not have a picture perfect delivery. Snafus most certainly happened but the bottom line is that Maddie is healthy, I am healthy, and all is well. Thank you to everyone for the prayers and well wishes along our journey. I’m certain it helped! Please keep them coming until we can bring our lovely girl home and bless you all!