I'm Back.... for now

So..... It's been a while. I guess you could say we've had a lot going on. When I blogged last, I looked a little like this:

Shortly after the above photo was taken, I looked like this: 

Don't worry. I know I was not glowing. I was just bloated.  And I was also aware we had a bit of a cankle situation. That photo was taken about 7 hours before Lily Rae Gilbertson joined our world. It ended up being a whirlwind day and Lily was born 3 1/2 weeks early. So, for those of you that are interested, here's the story of April 27th, 2011.

It was a Wednesday and I had several calls and meetings scheduled for the morning. I decided to work at home so I could put my feet up (See above where my ankles look like softballs). Luckily I have an amazing employer who allows me such luxuries.  I took my conference calls and was making some plans with my boss for my maternity leave when the landline at our house rang. It was the doctor's office and my labs had come back from the night before. They weren't good. I was spilling protein into my urine and that combined with high blood pressure does not a happy OB/GYN make. They wanted me to come in at lunch and do some more labs. Boo. I wasn't too happy about this, but I figured I would grab lunch on my way to the clinic and make the best of it. Blackberry in hand, prepared to work while I was there, I started to head out the door and realized that something just didn't feel right. I started getting horrible pains in my stomach and I was dizzy. I knew that something just wasn't right. I got in the car and decided to forego lunch and head straight to the clinic. With a quick pitstop at BHS to tell Mike where I was going and that I thought something was wrong. I underestimated how crappy I was feeling and by the time I got to BHS, I knew I wouldn't make it to the clinic by myself. I tried finding him in his classroom, but alas! He was not there. I made my way down to the principal's office where I proceeded to scare the crap out of the secretaries, who thought I may give birth right there in front of the attendance office. While they went to find Mike, (Who was in the library with his students) I went into the bathroom and threw up. Luckily, there were several high school girls in there who are now scarred for life. But I think it was a good lesson in birth control for everyone involved.  Eventually Mike was found, the very organized school secretaries found subs for Mike's remaining classes and we made our way to the Center For Women. When we got there it was about noon. They put me in an exam room, took my very high blood pressure, and we did a few labs while I laid on my left side to try to get my blood pressure down.

Some of my labs came back good, and others not so good. I was still spilling quite a bit of protein and the top number of my blood pressure would not dip below 110. That's bad. Luckily, my liver seemed to be doing okay so they ruled out HELPP syndrome. That's good. You do not want HELPP Syndrome. Look it up. Anyway, my diagnosis: pre-eclampsia. The treatment: delivering the baby. My doctor came in and told us to go home and pack our bags and meet her at the hospital. We needed to induce labor before my blood pressure got any worse. Okay.... Not what we expected to hear at 37 1/2 weeks, but I guess we'll have to deal with it, right? She felt everything would be okay because 37 weeks is considered full term and every indicator that we had was that Baby Girl Gilbertson was healthy.

We checked into the hospital around 3pm and the process began. I won't bore you with the details of an induction, but things progressed pretty normally for the rest of the day. I felt gross because I had to be on magnesium sulfate to lessen my risk of seizures, stroke and other bad stuff that happens when your blood pressure gets dangerously high. It made me feel a little loopy, but other than that, labor wasn't too bad. The nurses were great and I got in several episodes of Extreme Couponers. I had a few visitors. Ben and both grandmas stopped by to check things out. It was good to see Ben before the baby came and get one last look at our family of three. After everyone left, I got an epidual (Halleluia!) which actually helped drop my blood pressure a little. Things were going pretty good. My mom was there with me and Mike, which was really nice. She was able to talk me through some of the really rough contractions at the end. I was having horrible back labor for the two hours before she was born. When things really got going, it wasn't as smooth as it was with Ben. With him, I slept through the hardest part of labor, woke up at noon, starting pushing at 12:20 and had a baby by 12:46 and I felt great. With Lily, I was in a lot of pain for about two hours, and was sure there was no way that I would be able to push her out. It hurt so bad I couldn't move. It was 11:30 and I was exhausted. Ben had gotten us up at five am that day. I told Mike and my mom that I couldn't do it and I honestly believed I couldn't. Luckily, my doctor and nurses were there to assure me that I could and Mike and my mom stayed calm through the whole process. Once I finally decided that I was going to have to push this baby out, it only took about nine minutes and three pushes to do so.  After a super long day, at 11:49pm on April 27th, Lily Rae Gilbertson entered the world at a healthy 6 pounds 14 ounces and 20 inches long. And our lives and hearts have never been the same! Love you sweet girl!