Kian's Birth Story

I had Kian way early. Ten weeks early. Right at 30 weeks to the day. It just couldn't be stopped. I had been having some severe issues with my gall bladder since early March and what we thought was just the pain and progression of the gall bladder getting worse and far more painful turned out to be something far more lethal. Finally I wound up in so much pain that I couldn't even stand let alone walk very far. So we decided since St. Vincent said they couldn't do anything else for me and that I just needed to "tough" it out and wait till Kian came that we needed to get a second opinion because if my gall bladder wasn't infected or inflamed than something else must be wrong to be causing the amount of pain I was in.

We took me into OHSU late Wednesday night/ early Thursday morning which was April 2nd or 3rd and they put me on the monitors and immediately noticed that not only was my blood pressure unusually high considering the medication I was taking for it but that Kian's heart rate was really mellow and just steady instead of having the accelerations and a lot of movement like I had been having before. They even noticed a few decelerations which was serious cause for concern. They stopped giving me pain medication to see if that is what he was reacting too and after about a day of constant monitoring and the steroid shots they finally decided they had to do the emergency c-section and take him out. The pre-eclampsia had hit me severely and without any real warning. I only had the high blood pressure and the swelling. I didn't have the protein spilling in my urine so it went undiagnosed until it nearly killed us both. By that time my blood pressure was getting worse and his heart rate wasn't showing any improvement. They set the
epidural and got everything ready to go and most of the last thing I remember is the epidural wearing off when they were making the incision. The rest is a huge blur. Evidentally I stopped breathing twice and Kian came out not breathing at all. They almost lost us both. My blood pressure had skyrocketed to a dangerously high rate and I am lucky I didn't stroke out. Next thing I know I was in recovery and they let me see Kian for all of maybe 2 minutes. I got to let him squeeze my finger and when they took him away he went "EHHH" and was just all squirming arms and legs and was just completely ticked off.

He was born at 6:14pm on April 4th weighing 2lbs 14oz and measured 15 and a half inches long. He has tons of strawberry blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He gave the nurses hell since he disconnected himself from some of the monitors. He's really strong and is a fighter. And so far he seems to have my temper. At first we couldn't hold him or sometimes even touch him because if he is settled down we didn't want to aggravate him because he tended to forget to breathe when he got all ticked off. They had told us to plan on his due date for a homecoming which he was supposed to be born on June 13th.

He didn't have to be put on a ventilator. He was on a CPAP machine like what they use for sleep apnea. They inserted a PICC like what I had to have so they can draw blood without having to stick him over and over again (I had to have one because the other hospital blew every single vein in my arms). I had to take it pretty easy because of the c-section. They performed the old fashioned one on me which split me vertically on the outside from a couple inches above my belly button on down and then horizontally on the inside to get him out. Three and a half weeks later I went in for another surgery to have my gall bladder taken out.

Kian came home on May 26th and is doing really well. He never had to have any surgeries and we are blessed with one very healthy baby boy. He's got one hell of a temper and lets us know when he wants something but overall he is adjusting really well to being home with us.

Just a side note...from what I was told by the doctors here is that only a small percentage of women get pre-eclampsia. Of that small percentage only 5% of those women have severe pre-eclampsia where the tell tale sign of protein turning up in your urine doesn't come up. So if you think something isn't right...trust your instincts and go in and get seen or go for a second opinion.


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