Just wanted to get anyone who was curious up to speed on the events that took place during my pregnancy...
I found out i was pregnant on July 1, 2008. My husband and i were so excited to be having another baby. We already had a little girl and a little boy so either a girl or boy would've been great! Deep down inside i wanted a girl. (lol) Well I didn't know this, but this was going to be the most difficult of my 3 pregnancies. At the beginning of August 08 i started to have cramping in my calves and I called my OB and they kept telling me "this is normal during pregnancy". Well i knew the pain I was having wasn't normal. I was only 8 weeks pregnant and I had never felt pain like this with my other two kiddos. For 4 days I was in so much pain and decided there was something else wrong. I could not even stand up without my calve feeling like it was tearing inside. I went to my Ob's office and he checked me and when he saw for himself how much pain I was in he decided that I should go to the hospital just to get my leg scanned for any blood clots. Well, it wasn't just leg cramps. It was a "pretty good size blood clot" in their words. I had lots of blood test done and found out that I had a blood clotting disorder called antiphospholipid antibody syndrome. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiphospholipid_antibody) Having this disorder and being pregnant DO NOT go together. It causes preterm labor and severe preeclampsia. Anyways I was sent home on a blood thinner called Lovenox that I had to inject myself with twice a day! Not fun! I thought everything would be okay after that but i was wrong. On November 9th I started feeling a pinching in between my shoulder blades so my husband took me to the hospital. I was sent home a few hours later on some pain killers. Again my gut instinct felt like something was not right. I couldn't get into a position that I was comfortable in. It hurt to breathe and I felt like crap! About 8 hours after I left the hospital I called my doctor in pain again and told him something was wrong and explained my symptoms. He was on call so he asked me to come in and he would keep me under observation. They thought maybe the blood clot had detached and made its way into my lungs and that would explain the pain. I had about 4 different kinds of tests done and they all came back negative for whatever it was they were looking for. While waiting for them to figure out why I was having this awful pain, my vision started to get blurry/spotty. I thought it was because I wasn't getting any sleep. Then I noticed that when I did start to get comfortable it felt like my heart was beating so hard and was going to pop out of my chest. i could feel my pulse in every part of my body. I mentioned it to my nurse and she came back a little while later and let me know they were going to collect 24 hours of urine because I was showing signs of preeclampsia. When the 24 hours was up they noticed that there was very little urine and that was another sign of preeclampsia. Well more bad news...I was now spilling proteins in my urine. I was 22 weeks and 6 days and I had mild PE. On November 12th I was transferred to another hospital where the NICU could accommodate babies born before 28 weeks. This was so unbelievable. I wasn't even 6 months pregnant and they were talking about my giving birth already. I thought to myself it's fine if I have to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Anniversary and Valentine's Day in the hospital as long as my baby is okay and I can carry her to term. Unfortunately that didn't happen. After I had a blood pressure of 190/110 and the protein levels in my urine were getting higher and the oxygen flow to Melani was being cut off I ended up having her on Sunday November 16, 2008 at 23 weeks and 5 days gestation. She was only 1 pound-1ounce and 11 1/2 inches long. her skin was translucent and looked very raw. Her limbs the size of my fingers and head could fit in my palm. She was here and ready for the fight of her life!
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