Yes I totally disappeared, and yes it’s because I did end up as a long term (9 day) resident at the hospital when I told you I was going to the ER to be monitored for a few hours.  Thursday I checked in to be monitored around 7pm.  It didn’t take long for the nurses to realize I was going to be there awhile.  The doctor arrived around 10pm and let me know I”d be staying until Saturday morning so they could run a 24 hour urine test on me. 

The next day things started looking even worse.  After being on bed rest all night and morning my bp was only getting worse.  I was started on magnesium sulfate to keep me from convulsing and/or going into a coma, and I was being given labatelol by iv every so often, but it wasn’t helping.  My bp was dangerously high, so I was sent for an ultrasound at 10am to make sure the baby seemed to be developed enough for delivery.  Within a couple hours the doctor was in my room explaining why he had to induce me immediately, and at 6pm they started the pitocin.  Anyone who knows me knows my birth plan said absolutely no pitocin unless absolutely necessary, and in this case it was.  It came down to delivering her or seriously harming both of us.  Honestly everything was so far off of my birth plan that it never came out of my bag.

I labored all night, and by noon the next day I still hadn’t dilated beyond 3 1/2cm, so the decision was made that I needed an emergency c-section.  I would have refused if the situation had been normal, but my bp was well beyond 200/115 at that point.

At 12:11pm Elliana was born.  She gave 2 little cries before quietly surveying what was going on around her.  They held up this teeny tiny little thing in front of my face, and I cried at how small she was.  She weighed in at 4lbs 5oz and measured 17 1/2 inches long.  She showed up 5 weeks early, but other than being small she is 100% perfectly healthy!  She was given the normal amount of oxygen the hospital gives to any baby delivered by c-section, but she didn’t need any “extra”.  Her apgar score at birth was an 8, and at 5 minutes was a 9!  She does have a sacral dimple, but it’s being checked.

Unfortunately her delivery didn’t solve all our problems.  Even though she was perfectly healthy I wasn’t.  My bp didn’t return to normal after delivery like it normally does with preeclampsia.  Instead I ended up in the hospital until October 31st while the team of doctors tried to control my bp.  I also ended up losing a lot of blood, so I was given a transfusion and pumped full of potassium.  I was finally released after my bp came down enough that I was out of the danger zone for seizures, but I’m still hypertensive. 

Needless to say it’s definitely be wild around here lately, and I’m just really happy to be home.  But hey…now I have a beautiful baby girl, and I can once again ride!