the birth story (nothing like the birth plan) part 1

J is now three months old, and she will finally take more than five minute nap without being held. So, now that I have two hands free for a moment, I'll catch you guys up on how she arrived...it was certainly not how we expected!

On Monday, we drove three hours to Seattle for my dad's heart surgery. He checked in the day before his operation for a heart catheterization and his pre-operative work-up.

Waiting for the heart cath.

 By early afternoon, we knew that his heart vessels were clean and he was good to go for his aortic valve replacement. For the rest of the day, we hung out in his hospital room waiting for some more tests and for the surgeon to come by.

waiting...

It was a pretty low-key...so low-key that, out of curiosity, I strapped on dad's blood pressure cuff and pushed the button. Much to my surprise, my blood pressure was 150/100. Yikes! I took a few deep breaths and re-checked it- 146/98.  I tried to convince myself that it wasn't that high (even though my blood pressure is usually 110/80 or so). I would keep an eye on it. Not much I could do about it then, anyway, other than try to relax as much as possible while my dad went in for major heart surgery the next day. Right. Relax.

The next morning, we were  just in time to say good-bye as he was wheeled off to the operating room. Then we waited. We went out for breakfast and waited some more. 

We got to eat at our favorite Seattle breakfast place- Coastal Kitchen. I couldn't even eat one pancake before feeling stuffed. 

We spent the next few hours in the waiting room reading and listening to music. To start preparing for the baby's arrival (I thought in five or six weeks), I read half of a chapter about childbirth  and found some YouTube childbirth preparation playlists to watch later. The chapter never got finished, the videos were never watched.

After what seemed like days, at one in the afternoon, the surgeon came out and told us that every thing  had gone well. He had replaced Dad's bicuspid valve and also found a unexpectedy dilated aorta which he wrapped in mesh so it wouldn't expand more and rupture. Dad was soon wheeled up to the ICU. 

after surgery- nothing like the ICU in Niger! Look at all those IV medications.

It took most of the afternoon for dad to wake up and have the breathing tube taken out. He is the only patient that I have ever seen tell the surgeon that he wasn't ready to have his breathing tube taken out...I guess he was awake enough to worry about not being able to breath without it! Usually people can't wait to take them out because they are so uncomfortable.

We left the ICU late that evening and stopped by Bartell's to check my blood pressure.  It was still high so we called an OB friend who said I should get checked out. I'm pretty sure she meant we should have gone to the ER right then. But, it was late by then and I just felt kind of silly to go to the ER for a little high blood pressure, right?

Wednesday, April 1st. We slept in a bit, then Luke and I went over to the Bartell's and I rechecked my pressure.

I used the scale to weigh myself and I had gained seven pounds in the last week. Not good. I started freaking out a bit more. I realized I sort of felt terrible. I was tired. My legs were totally swollen and I felt short of breath all the time.  I could still feel the baby moving, but I was starting to get more worried.

I called my OB office and told them I needed to talk to the doctor. They gave me the nurse. I told her my story. She wasn’t too concerned. In fact, she tried to talk me out of being worried. She said that swelling and high blood pressure could be normal in pregnancy...was my face swollen? My family would notice if my face was swelling and if it were really serious, my hands would swell so my wedding ring wouldn’t fit, etc. I looked at my hands...my ring still fit even though my fingers were somewhat swollen. [btw, turns out swelling is not a required feature of pre-eclampsia even though it is common]. She said it all sounded normal for pregnancy and I could just keep my appointment the next Tuesday.

A little reassured, we headed over to the hospital to see Dad and spent the day hanging out in his room. We even played a couple games of pinochle. 

Day one after aortic valve replacement

Late that evening, we headed out to grab some pizza because we were all super hungry. We stopped by Bartell’s on the way to MAD pizza. My BP was high. Super, super high. Even the blood pressure machine said, "CALL YOUR DOCTOR."

Luke said, “We are going to the ER.” So we did.