Being Thankful

I always feel a little sentimental this time of the year. Five years ago I was 2 months out from giving birth to my first child, a son named Hunter. Hunter was born the first day of my 37th week of pregnancy. His birth ended a very rocky pregnancy. I was so excited to find out I was pregnant and after a little morning sickness I was feeling pretty good. Then around 20 weeks I started to swell. I came down with what I chalked up as a virus the very end of June. I felt terrible for a week..bad pains in the upper right part of my stomach and bad nausea on and off. By the grace of God I had a regular ob appointment the following Monday. My nurse took my blood pressure and looked really worried..asked me questions about how I'd been feeling, etc. She told me that my bp was "a little high" and had me lie down on my left side. My ob came in to see me and my bp was still up. My urine was also showing protein. I was sent to the hospital where there wasn't a lot of optimism about my situation. At 24 weeks it was terribly early to deliver. Somehow over the next 2 days I started to respond to left sided bedrest. My protein also came down. I was sent home on strict bedrest. I spent the next 13 weeks between home and hospital bedrest. It was no bed of roses and certainly things were touch and go many times during those 13 weeks, but somehow one day turned into another, then into a week, then finally into 13 full weeks. At the end of my 36th week my blood pressure spiked to the 220/high 100 range and I was on magnesium sulfate to keep seizures at bay. I remember very little about delivering my first baby boy. That has always haunted me. It should have been such a happy day. I know that it was, my ending was happy, but I have felt so robbed of having a normal pregnancy and childbirth. I have met many amazing women and children through our online community of preeclampsia survivors. I know that things could have turned out much worse. I am so thankful to have my little boys here on Earth with me this Thanksgiving. Far too many women will spend this holiday missing their babies.