Why am I here?

My gorgeous little baby is already 4 months old. He's been home for two months today and I cannot believe how fast this is going! Brennan is such a different baby than the preemie we met four months ago. My aunt asked if I was writing all of this down somewhere, and of course, I wasn't. So here's my solution, a blog about Brennan's life, as well as my life as a new diabetic mom. I'll start of with Brennan's birth story!

~Brennan's Journey to the World!~

My Braxton-Hicks contractions started early, at 26 weeks. They were pretty regular sometimes, but the doctor wasn't really concerned since they always went away if I laid down for awhile. She said I continue everything as normal, which in hindsight, perhaps it would've been better if I'd stayed off my feet more. There's no way of knowing if it would've helped, though. I did eventually cut my work hours down to only one day a week. Starting at 28 weeks, I had biophysical profiles done. It was so much fun to watch the baby yawn, hiccup, and play with his hands! I couldn't wait to meet him. He always passed with flying colors, although I did have too much amniotic fluid. The MFM (high risk) doctor warned me I could go into preterm labor because of this.
In late September, Ken and I took a weekend birthing class. I had contractions every four minutes during class, but I ignored them and they went away after dinner. Sunday I worked in the nursery and finished the birth class, and Monday I worked 14 hours! On Tuesday, September 22, I went to my regular ob appointment only to find out I was already 4cm dilated! I was only 31 weeks along, so I went immediately to the hospital. They gave me steroid shots to help the baby's lungs mature faster and meds to stop the contractions. The steroids wreaked havoc on my blood sugars, but baby was still healthy, so I remained on bed rest in the hospital to keep growing baby. Thursday night I had a few more contractions, but we were still holding labor at bay. Through the night, though, I kept getting sicker and needed an oxygen mask to breathe. Fluid was building up in my lungs and they didn't know why. In the morning they told me they were going to let me deliver the baby that day! I was nervous and excited and called Ken to tell him he better get back to the hospital (he had just left for work). Ken said, don't worry, the contractions will stop again, and I told him No! They want him to come today! By the time Ken got back, the doctors had done a chest xray, EKG, and an echocardiogram to see what was wrong with me with no real answers. The doctor would only tell me that I was "very sick" and "things are tense". I labored all day with the pain getting worse but nothing really going anywhere. They gave me a shot for the pain which let me relax for awhile. A few hours later, I knew something was wrong. The nurse kept asking me what was wrong but I didn't know what it was, just something was bad! The doctor came in and watched the monitors. When they made me roll on to my side, I knew exactly what was happening, and I kept telling them to just get him out! They waited a few more minutes, hoping I'd be able to push him through even though I was only dilated to a 6. I yelled, "No! Get him out!" Within minutes a decision was made, and I was wheeled (still yelling!) down the hallway for an emergency c-section. They moved very fast, and had already cut me open by the time Ken got in to the OR. I didn't even know they had started until Ken started taking pictures and I heard a little squeak! It turns out the cord was draped over Brennan's head and wrapped twice around his body, so there was no way he would have been born vaginally. What an entrance! I saw his little face briefly before they took him away and wheeled me down to get a CT scan. They wheeled me in to the NICU and the nurse lifted him up so I could see my little monkey before I went up to ICU. Brennan needed a breathing tube through the night but was already off it by the morning. It turns out I had preeclampsia that was presenting in a weird way - story of my life! After Brennan was born I was treated with magnesium sulfate for 24 hours. It was a nasty drug and I couldn't spend much time with Brennan, but I was sort of in a daze anyway. I got up and moving around pretty quickly after that and got to go home on Tuesday. That night at 1AM I woke up with the worst headache of my life, so Ken sped me to the ER! Turns out my preeclampsia was not gone, and my blood pressure got up to 180/110! So I spent another day and a half in the hospital, too sick to get out of bed and see my son. It was pretty miserable but it was over soon and I spent the next 8 weeks visiting my beautiful boy in the NICU!