we found out i was pregnant on july 4th. the first part of my pregnancy was so easy. i didn't have any morning sickness or any other issues. i did start having a lot of swelling pretty early on though. i know that at my 12 week visit i already couldn't wear my wedding rings. when i went to texas in october with my mom and sisters i was really starting to feel uncomfortable. from there on the swelling just continued to get worse and worse. i was about 19 weeks then. around week 23 i made an appointment because the swelling in my feet had gotten so bad. i had to see another dr that day because my dr wasn't in. he said my blood pressure and my urine looked fine so there wasn't anything to worry about.
on friday november 15th i was at work and could tell my blood pressure was elevated. (i've been on blood pressure meds for about 5 years) i had a girl check it and it was really high so I called dr. mullenix. he said i needed to go to the hospital immediately. i was so stressed out! we had planned for me to have graham at st francis bartlett, so that's where i went. around 3:00 they told me they were going to admit me because of my blood pressure and my lab work. at this point i was still asking when i would be able to go back to work...i was in denial as to what was going on. they started me on a medication called magnesium sulfate. it made me feel absolutely horrible! i had a headache and the chills and was very out of it. i also had to have a foley catheter the whole time i was on it, and that was no fun.
the next morning the dr told me that i had to be transferred to methodist germantown. he told me that if i had the baby at this point (25 weeks), the NICU at st francis would not be able to take care of him. so...we got in an ambulance and headed to germantown. i was pretty much just hanging out there until monday night when everything started going downhill.
on monday night i started dropping my oxygen levels and was short of breath. they did a chest xray which showed that i had fluid on my lungs so they started me on lasix (so i would get rid of the fluid). the next morning they told us the bad news...i would be having a baby that day. i just kept saying "it's too early...it's too early", but they weren't listening to me. my mom and dad were in texas with julie who was having june that very same day! someone called them to tell them what was going on and they immediately came home. unfortunately, they didn't get to meet june before they came home.
when they took me into the operating room i was so scared. they thought i was going to have to be put to sleep for the c-section so jesse couldn't come back with me. the anesthesiologist really wanted me to have an epidural, but the nurses didn't think i could lay flat for that long because of the fluid. he kept telling me to lay down, but i couldn't breathe! i would try, but then i would have to sit up to catch my breath. i was terrified by this point. i think i was a little irrational...i kept thinking that i was going to die and i'd never see jesse again or get to hold my baby. (i apologized to my dr later for acting a fool! haha) they did eventually put me to sleep.
when i woke up i was in ICU. i don't remember much of that. jesse says that when the nurses brought graham out of the OR all he could see was his little head. the nurse was bagging him and jesse says that he just kept thinking, "get him up to the NICU!" i didn't get to go see graham that night because i was still on the mag and they wouldn't let me get out of bed. jesse got to see our little miracle that afternoon. graham edward boyd was born on november 19, 2013 at 12:28 in the afternoon. he weighed 1lb, 12oz and was 13inches long.
graham was so tiny that jesse's wedding ring fit around his arm.
the next day i finally got to see my baby. at this point i was still feeling out of it, so it was hard to take everything in.
as you can see, i was still extremely swollen at this point.
jesse and i stood and looked at this beautiful son that God had given to us. jesse said that he couldn't believe that there are people who want to abort babies at the same age that graham was. this made me so heartbroken.
so, our little man made a grand entrance into the world. i'll go into his time in the NICU in the next post. as i write this graham is 3 weeks and 3 days old and up to 2lbs, 6.8oz.! God is good.
