My entire pregnancy was very difficult. I was very sick from the start. I threw up every day, multiple times a day. Despite how sick I was, Kennedy was growing and developing normally inside of me. At 20 weeks I had a 4D ultrasound and she was absolutely perfect. She had all of her parts and was growing as expected.
At my 24-week appointment, my blood pressure was slightly elevated to about 145/85… I believe. The nurse did a full blood and urine work up and determined that everything was fine. She thought I might have been stressed out or eating too much salt. She told me to come back at 28 weeks and to call if I had any issues.
On October 20th (28 weeks exactly), I came to my appointment to see my doctor and have my glucose test. I drank the sugary drink and then got blood work done. I went into the exam room and the nurse tech took my blood pressure…. 5 times. She said my BP was 185/113 (emergency state). She said she would be right back and I heard her tell the doctor in the hallways he yelled, “WHAT!” At that point, I knew it was time to go. He had asked me if I was feeling okay. I told him that I have been feeling a little bit light-headed, but I had thought I just needed to eat more. He told me that I needed to go straight to the hospital before I had a seizure.
At around 3:30pm, I called Steven to come pick me up. He was working third shift at the time and was getting his last little bit of sleep in before we headed to Chicago for my baby shower when I got home from my appointment. My sister was also headed to my house so that we could all drive to Chicago together the next day. Steven was in shock, neither of us had any idea what was going on or what was going to happen. I immediately started crying for my mommy in the car.
When we got to the hospital, I went straight to a room in the women’s center. I was hooked up to monitors and immediately hooked up to an IV to be pumped full of IV blood pressure drugs. I was maxed out on 1 medication that wasn’t working at all. They tried another medication which finally brought my BP down to the 140’s-150’s. I felt SO out of it. After I was stable, I was admitted, and they brought me up to labor and delivery. This time period was all a little bit fuzzy. I remember my sister coming to the hospital. The doctor told me that we HOPEFULLY had 2 days until she would come. This was just enough time to get steroid shots to mature her lungs. I began to ball my eyes out saying that it was too soon. I was only 28 weeks pregnant.
That evening, they started me on magnesium sulfate, which was supposed to protect my brain and my baby. Being on magnesium was the most awful thing I have ever experienced. Your whole body feels like you are on fire, even when it was freezing in the room. I was throwing up, sweating, crying, dizzy, and peeing my pants all at the same time (hahah TMI sorry).
Here is a picture of me on “the mag” living my best life hahaha
So after 2 days of magnesium and steroid shots, I was able to leave labor and delivery to go to a normal room. I was told that I would be on bed rest in the hospital until I deliver, which they hoped would be 34 weeks. However, they knew I was just a ticking time bomb.
4 days later, on October 24th, I started to get a headache. It just got worse and worse to the point that I thought my head was going to explode. It was a hypertension headache.. and I knew it. All night, they gave me migraine cocktails and monitored me in hopes that I would feel better. Unfortunately, I continued to decline. My blood pressure spiked, and my head was pounding. A labor and delivery doctor came up to do an ultrasound. He told me that the baby was breached and if we delivered today that it would have to be via C-section. He told me they weren’t planning on delivering me, and that they were going to try to put me back on the mag.
When I was halfway upstairs to labor and delivery, my routine blood work came back. It was not good. My liver enzymes were starting to elevate, and my platelets started to plummet… my liver was failing. I had pre-eclampsia with severe features and HELLP syndrome.
Before I knew it, I was up in labor and delivery signing papers to have my C-section at 28 weeks and 5 days. Due to a neurological condition I have, the surgeon thought it would be best for me to go under general Anesthesia. This meant that Steven could not be in the room during my C-section. Honestly, as much as that sucked, my anxiety was so bad, all I wanted was for someone to put me out. hahaha
On the morning of October 25th, I had my daughter Kennedy Grace Pape at 9:10am. She was 2 pounds and 4 oz. This day was not only special because I had my daughter, but it was also my birthday. I share the same birthday as my miracle baby. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me
I will be posting about my 64-dayemotional roller coaster in the NICU soon :-)
