Brendan's birth story....

Brendan's birth story....
Brendan Gerard was born at 29 weeks on June 9, 2008 - 11:39pm. He weighed 2 pounds 4 ounces and measured 15.2 inches long.

We weren't expecting Brendan to arrive for at least another 8 weeks. Monday was no ordinary day, as most know I had PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension). On Monday as I do everyday I took my blood pressure, it was high but not the highest it has been and went about my day. I started to feel dizzy and get a really bad headache so again I took my blood pressure and it was higher then earlier. So I put in a call to my OB who immediately sent me to my perinatologist. The perinatologist ran some tests and concluded that I was pre-eclamptic. So they sent me to L&D for what I thought was just going to be a couple days stay for observation...bp would go down, baby would stay put and home I would go to rest some more.

Boy was I wrong! Devin and I got to the hospital around 530pm, I sent him back home because I was so sure this was going to be an un eventful night. The nurses got me set up with an IV, and took my blood pressure. They tried every trick in the book to get my bp number low but none of them were working. Waited a bit, about an hour and again took my bp...again it didn't drop in fact it went up a bit. I called Devin and told him how the docotor said we may be having a baby in the next day or two. We did this routine for the next couple hours until my doctor decided that my blood pressure was at too risky of a level and it was time to have a baby. Now I had to call Devin and tell him to get to the hospital because we were having a baby that night.

The doctor decided at a little after 10pm that I was having the baby that night, via c-section. In the next hour and a half my bp was taken many times, many nurses were in and out of my room and the anestesiologist came in to talk to me about the spinal and possibly having to put me totally under for the procedure. They also started a magensium sulfate drip in my iv.... this stuff made me flip out and have some crazy anxiety. Devin arrived at the hospital as soon as he could and off we all went to the ER for my emergency c-section. The last thing I remember from that room is the anestesiologist giving my iv line another injection and out I went. Devin later filled me in on what exactly happened. They had to put me totally under so Devin was asked to leave the room and a couple minutes later our baby was born.

1139pm our lives changed forever!