it's your BIRTHday!

Presenting....
only a couple months late
Mayson's birth story!!

In typical Mayson fashion her birthday was a bit of a suprise! I had been on bedrest for exactly two weeks when I finally broke down the morning of september 24th  and decided to go back to the hospital. My vision had been spotty for days and for the second day in a row I had a headache that just wouldn't go away.

 

(exactly 34 weeks and as it would turn out taken the night before Mayson was born)

 

Six o'clock in the morning Greg and I headed to labor and delivery. I didn't want to go. In the back of my head I knew that this trip was only going to result in one of two outcomes- either hospital bedrest until 37 weeks or they would want to deliver Mayson now. And I personally wasn't thrilled about either of those two scenerios playing out. Luckily Greg talked me in to going and even talked me in to bringing our bags which I foolishly wanted to leave behind.

We arrived at Beaches Baptist around 6:30 in the morning and I was immediatly hooked up to fetal moniters and as always Mayson looked great. It was that dang blood pressure cuff that got me!! Every ten minutes it would tighten and then flash my pressures on screen. For the first hour my pressure looked good, so good in fact that I felt silly for even coming in to Labor and Delivery in the first place... but of course those good readings were short lived. Pretty soon we were marking the passing of another ten minutes with the sounding of an alarm. As my blood pressure readings grew higher and higher, my dread of the impending outcome grew higher and higher as well. Pretty soon my OB was visiting yet again and worriedly checking me over. My reflexes were all over the place, my bp high, my head hurting and my vision blurry... all of this equaled up to only one possible outcome... due to my worsening pre-eclampsia we needed to deliver the baby. 

No one wants to hear that at only 34 weeks and 1 day your baby needs to be born. Especially when your baby is happy and healthy swimming around in there and you are the one who is sick.

I felt guilty.

 I felt anxious.

 I felt terrified.

 I suddenly felt like everything was out of my control. 

All my feelings aside a decision had to be made and after that things moved quickly. Beaches Baptist doesn't have a NICU so I would have to be transfered to Baptist Downtown. I was hooked up to magnesium (the devil drug, lol) to bring down my blood pressure and to prevent seizures, given a catheter (ouch!!) and shortly thereafter loaded into an ambulance for the very bumpy and nauseating ride downtown. 

Once there I was immediately checked in and hooked up yet again to more moniters. A new OB came in and preformed another ultrasound. Of course little miss looked amazing and suprising enough to me the moniters showed that I was having contractions even though I didn't feel them. However I wasn't dialated, nor was Mayson's head engaged so the option of inducing me was out. Once it was decided I was going to need a c-section things moved quickly. My mom arrived looking like a hot nervous mess, we met with the OB who would deliver me, the anethesiologist, and one of the NICU doctors. At this point everything was a blur. Gregory was given a pair of scrubs, my wonderfully sweet nurse prepped me for surgery, I tried to reasurre my mom that everything would be fine and I was on my way.

Just 12 hours after walking out of our apartment that morning- at 6:03 pm to be exact- Mayson Pearl came into the world, fist first and eyes wide open!