Reminiscing...(SORRY LONG POST)

Since I lay around a lot these days and just think and think and think, my mind has been brought to the pregnancy and birth of my Boston Boy.  And since my blog was started after he was born, I don't really have any written documentation of that experience, so I am going to get it written down today.

Ian and I are planners. We plan and prepare for everything. It helps us feel safe and in control I suppose. Now we fully understand that not everything goes as planned, and that was soon discovered with this pregnancy, but I guess we were somewhat prepared for the craziness that was brought on by pregnancy, or better yet it was easier to cope.

When we first got married, Ian and I were renting a house from Ian's parents. His mom had inherited the home when her parents passed away, so we were fortunate enough to be able to rent from them for a couple of years. We continued going to college full-time and worked full-time. Our life was busy, but we had a lot of fun! We had been married for almost two years when we decided it was time to try for a baby, but before we wanted a baby of our own we wanted a house of our own too. So just before our two year anniversary we bought our first home! We were growing up! Then a couple months after moving in, we find out we are pregnant with our Boston Boy! We were excited! We planned and prepared for all of this to happen, and it was all working out wonderfully! I had one year left of college, and thought that I could definitely make it through my senior year, and then have a baby and then stay at home and be a mom. Pregnancy couldn't/wouldn't be that rough on me. Boy were we wrong! And at this point, a lot of our plans started to fall through...

The first few weeks of pregnancy were fine. A little tired, but nothing I couldn't handle. I was still working "full-time" in which I was working two part-time jobs, and going to school full-time, so being tired was understandable at that rate. Then at about 7 weeks pregnant was when the horrid morning sickness set in and the exhaustion was horrible. One of my jobs was in the morning before classes, so I would go to work for a couple of hours, but get so sick and miserable that I would skip college on occasion to rest and recover before I had to go to work in the evening. Keep in mind, I was throwing up on a daily basis, more than once a day at times, which carried on throughout my whole pregnancy! So, I fell behind in college and decided to postpone my senior year until after Boston was born. Which was the best decision at the time, because shortly after the semester ended is when the pregnancy craziness really began...

I was about four months pregnant or so when I started to feel a little funny throughout the day. The symptoms would come and go, but I never really knew what it was. My heart would start beating really fast, as if it was about to beat out of my chest. I would start to feel really jittery, and it seemed a little difficult to catch my breath. I couldn't get comfortable. I would sit down to see if that would help. Nope. I would lay down to see if that would change anything. No such luck. I would eat and drink, and just wait for it all to pass. These symptoms would happen at work or at home. It didn't matter where I was or what I was doing, they'd just come and go and cause me to wonder what in the world is going on. I called my doctor a few times, and even went in to see him, but they symptoms had already passed and I checked out normal. His question was, "Have you fainted yet?" My answer was no, not really thinking that was a possibility, but shortly after, we found out the reason why that question was asked! My doctor told me to drink a lot of water when I start to feel that way again. So through the months of November and December these symptoms continued. I started to get used to them by now, and I even remember Christmas morning while opening presents at my parents house, I had to go lay down because I just wasn't feeling right.

Well it was December 27th, and my mom, sister, and I were looking forward to the After-Christmas sales. We decided to hit up Target.  When we got there I started feeling funny again. I followed doctor's orders and grabbed a water and drank that while shopping. It didn't seem to help. I decided to take my blood pressure by the pharmacy, and I can't remember the exact numbers but it was really low, somewhere in 90's over 60's! I sat and rested for a minute by the pharmacy, while my mom and sister were finishing up shopping. They were just about done, and we were going to go to lunch afterwards, hoping that would help me feel better too.  It was time to check out, and I asked if I could go first so that way I could sit down in the food court while they checked out. Then I remember while my mom and sister were checking out, I looked up to see if they were finished, and my head was really foggy and they looked really blurry. I am pretty sure at this point is when I passed out, and fortunately I was sitting down! I don't know how long I was out for, but I must have came to at one point  because my mom had opened up an Ensure that I had purchased to have me drink it, but I don't remember that at all. When I finally came to, there was a little bit of chaos around me, (no big surprise, I just passed out at five months pregnant) and I had apparently threw up the Ensure that I had recently tried to drink. However, I felt fine after that! My sister was on the phone with 911 and they were sending an ambulance to take me to the hospital. I didn't want to go, like I said I felt fine! They insisted, but I told my sister to call 911 back and cancel the ambulance because the hospital was right across the street, and I wasn't about to pay for an ambulance ride for that short venture. I was trying to convince them to lets just go to lunch and then I can go home and go to bed, but nope my mom and sister weren't easy to budge, and they took me to the hospital. My mom called Ian at work, and he rushed out the door, squealing tires the whole way to the hospital to come and be with me. And then more fainting pursued...

We got to the emergency room, they put me in a wheel chair, and did the whole registration thing. Ian was with me at this time. I felt quite embarrassed and that the whole thing was unnecessary still. When we were done with the registration, I was wheeled out and saw Ian's twin and Ian's mom there waiting too. So our families were quite concerned too. I then started to feel funny again. I told Ian that I needed to lay down, so he asked the nurse for a bed, and she said there weren't any available beds at the moment. At this point, I was willing to just lay down on the cold tile floor in front of me, but that thought didn't get passed my brain, because my arms started shaking, and I passed out again! I don't know how long I was out this time, but I woke up in a triage room with doctor's and nurses everywhere! I was crying hysterically that I wanted my husband (who was standing right next to me). There was blood all over the side of me, because the nurse putting in my IV did something wrong and caused the vein to burst. My mom and sister were there too, which was too many people in the room, so security was being called because my sister was refusing to leave. Pure chaos! My sister left, and called my brother, who happened to be a volunteer firefighter at the time as well as working as a corrections officer. So when he came to the hospital he was in uniform, so he was able to just walk back to my room, without questions asked! Sneaky little devil!

Well that was the last time I passed out that day, but I underwent a series of tests and monitoring to figure out what was going on. Keep in mind that this was my first pregnancy, so I didn't know I was suppose to go to the Women and Children's Hospital--Labor and Delivery, and instead just went to the ER. Things probably would have been a lot different had I just gone to Labor and Delivery, but you live you learn, right? The ER docs were in communication with my OB, but I think they were pushing their own agendas too. I underwent a couple of echo-cardiograms to make sure my heart was okay, which it was. I was pumped full of fluids, which made me have to use the bathroom A LOT! Boston's heart and movements were being monitored, which is when I was finally able to make the connection of his movements in my belly. We also did an ultrasound to make sure he was doing okay, and he was doing fantastic! I also had an x-ray done of my lungs to check for a blood clot. This x-ray required radiation to be pumped directly into my blood stream so we could get accurate results of the x-ray. We were a little reluctant because we were nervous about the effects on Boston, but decided we wanted to rule out all possibilities of what was causing me to pass out, so we went ahead with it. Now when Boston acts a little crazy, we just blame it on the radiation! ;)  Fortunately, there was no blood clot. All the tests came back okay. We were in the ER for about 12 hours, and they decided to keep me over night for additional monitoring. It was a crazy day to say the least!

The night went okay, and I talked to my doctor on the phone the next morning. I already had an appointment schedule for the following week, so he told me to go home and stay on bed rest until my next appointment. Because my family was on pins and needles at this point with me, Ian dropped me off at my sister's house every morning when he went to work, so she could "babysit" me. He would then pick me up when he got off work. I was so badly wanting to be off of bed rest, so I was looking forward to my doctor's appointment.

However, I wasn't very honest with him the day of my appointment! I was feeling fine all week at my sister's house, but the morning of my appointment the strange symptoms came back again. I got up in the morning to go to the bathroom, and after doing my business I just laid on her cold bathroom floor. My body felt really hot, so the cold floor felt fantastic! Gross I know, but you do what you gotta do. :) I laid there for a good twenty minutes before laying back in bed. I started to feel better, and by the time my appointment came around I felt great. So I told my doctor that everything was going well. He said okay, and let me off of bed rest. Yay! I can drive again and go back to work! My appointment was on a Thursday, so I was going to take the weekend off still and resume my work schedules the following Monday.

I took it easy the next couple of days. On Saturday I spent the morning up at my mom's house. I did feel a little off in the morning, but not as bad as before, so I pushed it aside. I laid down for a minute at my mom's, but started to feel  better. I wanted to visit Ian at work before I went home to take a nap, so I left my mom's and headed to the bike shop. While driving, the thought came to my mind that I should put my seat belt on just in case I get into an accident. I thought it was silly, but buckled up anyway. I was only a few blocks away from Ian's work when I started to feel uncomfortable again. I turned up the A/C, rolled down the window, tried to reposition in my seat, but kept heading to the bike shop. I then pulled up to a stop light that was a block away from his work, I could see the shop right in front of me, but my head started to get really foggy again, just like it had when I was at Target. I told myself, "I only have one block to go. I can make it." So I pushed on, however I don't remember that light ever turning green!

Now at the bike shop, Ian's twin brother was only working half-day that day. So his wife came to pick him up early afternoon. They hung around for a while and visited before leaving. As they were visiting Nate (Ian's twin) had a distinct impression that they had to leave right away. So they loaded up their baby and themselves in the car, and were pulling out of the parking lot of the bike shop. Fortunately our timing couldn't have been any better. Just as Nate had pulled up to the street my car had driven pass. He said my blinker was on and the car was slowing down, but I didn't turn into the parking lot. I drove pass, and he saw that I was hunched over! At the time, right next to the bike shop was a little old house, with a telephone pole and giant tree out front. And next to the house was a big, open grass field with a bank on the corner. Fortunately, my car turned onto the grass field, and April, Nate's wife was able to jump out of  her car and put my car in park! Holy Cow! We were surely blessed how everything fell into place at that exact moment! I woke up to Nate saying my name. I was again embarrassed and confused. Nate called Ian on the phone and said that I was outside and had passed out while driving. Ian came out but couldn't see us, because we were over in the field. He finally saw where we were. Ian drove me to his parent's house, and we then decided to go to labor and delivery to be monitored for a little while.

Nothing came back amiss. But I was put on bed rest and my driving rights had been taken away! Which I was okay with, because I wasn't about to chance another encounter like that. We were very fortunate that no one else was involved and that I didn't get injured at all!  We never really knew exactly what caused the passing out, and I never did pass out again the rest of the pregnancy. However, my family was quite nervous for me and if I didn't answer my cell phone right away, because I was either napping or showering, then several phone calls were made to other family members and I would at times have some of them show up unexpectedly! I was very loved and cared for! :)

The only diagnosis I got from my doctor about my passing out, was that while pregnant, my body wouldn't pump enough blood to my brain. He said that during the first and second trimester, the uterus is a low pressure zone, where the brain is a high pressure zone, so it was easier on my body to pump blood to the baby instead of my brain, which caused the passing out. He said that during the third trimester, the uterus becomes a high pressure zone and blood flow evens out. Which I felt fine once I hit the third trimester and was able to resume working. I didn't start driving right away though.

The rest of the pregnancy was quite uneventful, until the actual birth story. Stay tuned for that fantastic adventure...