B.C. - Before Children

I'll start this blog off by sharing our original updates, the e-mails sent to friends and family to keep everyone informed as our lives changed so much.

For it all to make sense, a little history is needed. I have PCOS (poly cystic ovarian syndrome), hypothyroidism and several other minor health issues. It was difficult for us to start a family, and I was told I may never have children. We were truly blessed to get pregnant with Will, with medical help, in spring of 2006.

I became very sick by 7 weeks along. I lost my job and spent most of my time at home in bed. At the worst of it I was losing about a pound each day and couldn't even keep down water. I developed hyperemesis gravidarum, HG. I had a PICC line put in, a long term IV line, to keep me hydrated and well enough to stay out of the hospital. I lived on Zofran and oatmeal.

As time went by my nausea got a bit better. I was finally up and around, though nowhere near being myself. I got about a month of being okay. We found out the baby was a boy!

I had several incidents of extreme pain while pregnant, that were misdiagnosed as a slipped disk or dislocated rib. Turns out they were gallstones. Not threatening at the time, but the stress and horrible degree of pain may have contributed to what came next.

I scheduled an appointment with my doctor thinking I had an infection and found out I was in early preterm labor instead, at barely 27 weeks along. I was already about halfway dilated, and was immediately hospitalized. My doctors put me on magnesium sulfate to stop labor. I hung in there 4 days on magnesium, though it didn't completely stop labor for me and did make me very sick. Breathing became difficult, my whole body was in pain from laboring so long and finally I'd had enough. I started showing signs of infection, and Will started to go into distress. Magnesium was discontinued to try to let him be born, but I failed to progress any further in the couple hours we tried. Will wasn't handling it well, so an emergency c-section was ordered.

I think of this as when we got dragged down the rabbit hole. A whole world we'd never considered being part of became ours, where we knew all kinds of medical jargon and spent days worrying about oxygen percentages and weight gains measured in grams. Preparing to welcome an unplanned micropreemie is surreal, wonderful, horrifying and confusing all rolled into one. We'd never considered that the outcome of our family would be anything but a fat, healthy term newborn, even after all the wrong turns we always thought that was something that happens to someone else. Not us. Not our baby. Obviously, we were wrong. But it all turns out to have a silver lining. Here's a window into our trip through Wonderland.