Rylan Connor Lund: The Birth Part I

It was about 6:30pm when we arrived on the L&D floor for my “24 hour observation”. Since we had pre-registered for the birth, they whisked us straight into an L&D room and hooked me up to several monitors…after I put on my gorgeous hospital gown, of course. They hooked me up to a fetal monitor, a blood pressure machine, drew my blood and started running tests. At first they were checking my blood pressure every 15 minutes, which was still in the 160/110’s. Once I was settled in they brought me “dinner” (lasagna which smelled nothing like the Italian dish that it is) and gave me my BP meds. They also offered me some Ambien, a sleeping aid, which I initially declined but after some convincing I decided to take. Well, that turned out to be a disaster when I went crashing into a table at 3:00am on my way back from my umpteenth trip to the bathroom. The next morning my blood pressure was still high, and although my blood results showed normal organ function, I was spilling more protein than I had been. After breakfast they moved us to an ante-partum room, and I began to get the feeling that our stay was not going to end after 24 hours. Sure enough, Dr. Flowers told us on Tuesday that I would need to stay another day, so we settled in. I had a different nurse every 12 hours, and they would ask me the same questions during each rotation. For those of you who are unfamiliar with pre-eclampsia it is defined as pregnancy-induced high blood pressure that causes severe swelling and/or a high concentration of protein in the urine. The classic symptoms of pre-eclampsia are swelling, severe headaches, upper abdominal pain and visual disturbances. My close family sat with me in shifts while trying to juggle their jobs and homes. On Tuesday night the weather started to take a turn for the worse, so my Dad decided to move his car to the parking garage. As soon as he got the elevator, alarms started going off and a voice came over the intercom saying "Code Black, Code Black.” Within seconds nurses came by and wheeled all the pregnant women into a hallway. After we returned to our rooms we found out that Code Black was indicative of a tornado! By Wednesday we knew that we would be there for the rest of the week, so we started making long term arrangements. Our wonderful friends, Chris and Jen, offered to take our two crazy dogs until I was released from the hospital. Paul’s parents went to our house and did laundry as well as put our new baby gifts together. My parents brought me real food and anything else I needed. Once word started getting out that I was in the hospital, our friends started to drop by. As the days passed without much change in my BP, my condition was deemed more serious. I was confined to the bed all day, minus trips to the bathroom and the occasional shower. I begged my doctor for daily wheelchair rides, and she eventually authorized 30 minute excursions, albeit hesitantly. During these rides we’d sit in the cafeteria, look at other babies in the nursery, and go outside for fresh air.



When my original medication quit having an effect (even after increasing the dose), they switched me to Labatelol. I also had to wear leg pumps for 8 hours a day, which I affectionately called my “geriatric socks;” the pumps were used to ensure that I didn’t get a blood clot after laying horizontal for days on end. Although I technically had a month left in the pregnancy, I was already very uncomfortable. My hips and back would throb and after days of laying down my behind was always numb. Since I could no longer make it up to Dr. Flowers’ office for sonograms, I was taken to a Perinatalogist, or fetal medicine doctor, to have in-depth sonograms. He would thoroughly check out Rylan and use a little vibrating buzzer on my stomach to make him move. Luckily, my BP did not seem to be having an effect on Rylan’s growth. At my Thursday sono, Dr. Graham said that Rylan was about 6lbs. 9oz. At this point I was 35 ½ weeks, so the doctor’s decided to give me a series of steroid shots to help Rylan’s lung development in preparation for his early arrival. After days of waiting “just one more day” it became clear that I was destined to be in the hospital until Rylan was born. This actually made it easier to tolerate being there without the false hope of going home every day. During our daily excursions and occasional tests outside of my room I began to meet other women who were living on the ante-partum floor. Many of them had been there for weeks or were scheduled to be there for weeks until their due date. Most of them were carrying twins, but a few others had pre-eclampsia like me. Between the days on end in a tiny room and nurses coming in all hours off the day and night to check my BP my schedule was thrown totally off. Paul would work during the day and come stay with me at night. He bought a parlor guitar for Rylan during our stay and brought it to our room so he could play songs for Rylan. The nurses monitored him twice a day for movement and contractions. In order to get him kicking, I would drink a shot of cran-grape juice (my new fav) and he be up and around in less than 2 minutes. On Saturday we celebrated Valentine’s Day in the hospital. We had originally planned to go to Pappadeaux’s, as was our yearly Valentine’s ritual. My mom had brought up her leftover decorations from her school party and put them up in my room. My dad brought me flowers and a gift, as he does every year, and my wonderful husband brought me takeout from Pappadeaux’s since we couldn’t go together (he brought me flowers, too). Although Rylan was doing fine, my condition started to get worse. My swelling was increasing and my BP was extremely unstable. While we were taking bets as to when Rylan would be born (we kept a tally on the white board), the nursing staff seemed more alarmed by my BP readings. I knew something was up when I was told Dr. Graham would be coming in Sunday evening to do another ultrasound (all my other appointments were in the morning and I wasn’t scheduled for another until Monday). After seeing me, he spoke with my OBGYN. My mom was with me that night and had brought me Boston Market for dinner. We had just finished and I was about to take a shower when Dr. Flowers and Dr. Graham came in to tell me that my time was up! They were inducing me at 4AM the next morning!