Tate William James Edwards made his appearance 4 weeks early. I decided to write this blog just to let everyone know the details and to write them down for myself before I forget everything.
My blood pressure issues started happening after I had gallbladder surgery is April of 2009. About 6 months later my blood pressure spiked for no known reason except that I was having a bunch of other health issues. I was put on some meds and it was well controlled on those.
In Novemeber of 2010 we found out that we were expecting our third baby. We were so excited but knew from the begining that since I had Pregnancy Induced hypertension with my other two kids and had pre existing hypertension with this one that there was a strong possibility that I would have blood pressure issues. So I was scheduled for extra ultra sounds and non stress tests to make sure that he was growing well and that everything was ok.
Things were progressing well for the most part until I hit about 33 weeks when my blood pressure started to increase. They were playing with my meds and trying to stabalize things. The changes in meds made my blood pressure go up and down I had one trip to labor and delivery around that time where it was slightly elevated and I had to do a 24 hour urine test. That came back with only slightly elevated protien so they put me on more bed rest. On July 10th my blood pressure had been up most of the day and had not gone down even with rest so off me and Chris went to labor and delivery again.
When I got there my blood pressure was up and spiked at at 165/107 and they said that if it stayed that high that I would be induced that night. Luckily it went down slightly but they decided to admit me to do a 24 hour urine test and put me on hospital bed rest. I was on hospital bed rest until Tuesday night. I had to have my blood pressure checked once and hour. It stayed around 150/85 most of that time so they were playing with sending me home. Then they got the results of my urine test which was 800mg of protein. The normal range is 150mg and below. They took my blood pressure one last time and it was 178/105 and then changed thier mind from send me home to inducing me that night. By this time I was 36 weeks and the baby had a good chance of not needing extra help.
They started giving me Cytotec to help "ripen" my cervix at 8:30pm on Tuesday 7/12 at that point I was 1.5 centimeters dialated. They gave me a second dose at 12:30 when I was 2 cm dialated. By this point I had started having some contractions that were pretty close together but not too strong I lasted until 3:00am and had to have some fetenol which helped a lot and let me get some sleep. I got another dose at 4:30am at that point I was 3 cm and able to sleep a little more. Took a shower and at 8:45am they broke my water. I had some more fetenol and they also started a small amount of pitocin. At 9:45 I got the epidural which went well. i had them give me the smallest amount of medicine as possible which made the pain go away but I could still tell when I was having contractions. I took a nap and they checked me at 11:30 and I was 4-5 centimeters. At this point Tate's heart rate started to drop when I was having contractions so they had my lie on my left side, start on oxygen. Luckily when I am 4cm I usually progress really quickly.
By 12 I was 6cm and by 12:20 I was 8cm. Tates heart rate kept getting really low with the contractions so it was kind of scary. Luckily I went from 8cm-10cm in ten minuets and Tate was born at 12:35pm. He weighed in a 6 pounds 10 ounces and was 19 inches long.
