Crazy Night in Austin

View from our backyard. I really don’t like those clouds…

Oh look, they’re rising.

Clouds continuing to slowly rise up from the groud. Hmm… not really a good feeling….

It was coming together so slowly I wasn’t really sure of what I was seeing… but um, yeah, that was the tornado forming. It was moving SE and right down the 1431 highway toward Round Rock… A couple minutes later is right when & where there were reports of a tornado! (when it had moved down the road a couple miles.) OMG!

Um, maybe we should go take cover.

The Story of Drew, Part 2

First of all, I’m sorry if it might feel like this drags on and on, but I’m not sure how to filter and take things out. I’m writing my story, every little detail of my story. If only for myself. I don’t want to forget Drew’s amazing story.

Part 1, in case you missed it.

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The LONG Story

Part 2 – Waiting

Jamie and I pulled up to the hospital. She dropped me off and left to find a parking spot since they have HORRIBLE parking at Banner Health. (Don’t get me started. ) I got situated into a triage room and nervously waited. Jamie came back awhile later and we talked and joked in between nurses hooking me up to monitors, checking vitals and asking me questions to get me signed in. Having her there definitely took the tension off. We would routinely crack each other up and laugh – about nothing really – and then comment about what dorks we were. It all seemed oddly normal. Like we did this every day – it just so happened to be at the hospital. They took more labs to reconfirm the HELLP diagnoses, (which is a ‘cousin’ to preeclampsia) and we waited for those labs to come back before I would be officially admitted. I was hoping that the diagnoses would be wrong since I didn’t have high blood pressure – or maybe I could just be sent home on bed rest. I just didn’t want my baby to be born right now – he was only 33 weeks along! I was so worried for my little Drew.

During our wait I remembered a dream I had during the first trimester. I had forgotten all about it until now. I dreamt that I was going to have a girl and that she was going to be premature. I remember in my dream seeing her in the car seat with that reddish preemie skin and being so very tiny. But I also remember in my dream knowing she was okay. I picked her up from the car seat and held her and thought, She’s tiny, but she’s healthy. That was my only dream about the baby during my pregnancy. I had a ton of dreams about Collin during his pregnancy and kept waiting for more in this one but they never came. And I had all but forgotten about this one! Obviously I wasn’t having a girl, but now I wondered if God had wanted to prepare me for what was coming. And kept me from dreaming other dreams so when the time came, I would remember this one. I can still replay it so clearly in my head.

After about 3 hours of waiting in triage I said, “I can’t believe I’m here! And without Dave! It’s so weird that he’s not here with me! I’m so glad you’re here, but where’s Dave?” Jamie said, “I know what you mean! What am I doing here!? This is just weird.” We couldn’t get over the strange turn of events and had the same conversation a few more times. Boredom and waiting and anxiety intertwined kind of does that.

Dave popped his head in around 5 o’clock. He had spent the day travelling across the country and back without a break. My face lit up when I saw him and I felt so much more at peace with him there. He immediately came over and gave me a kiss and held my hand. I don’t think he let go until I was officially admitted and we were transferred to my first real room a few hours later. He probably wouldn’t have let go even then, but you know, that would’ve been weird. With Dave’s arrival, Jamie was able to go home. Poor thing, she had been with me for 6 hours – 4 of them just sitting at the hospital waiting. I was happy she could go home and be with her family!

My Dad stopped by on this way home from work. I had called my mom and filled her in on the way to the hospital. She was currently traveling with work and out of town, so my Dad came alone. He stayed and chatted for awhile – I filled him in on where we were at in the process and we all agreed that everything would be just fine. But I’m sure he was as nervous as we were inside. He left and we told him we’d let him know when we knew anything.

A couple hours later my triage nurse told me that I would be admitted and that the labs confirmed something was going on. I moved to my first real room in the Labor and Delivery section. They told me not to worry. They were only bringing me here due to a lack of space in the Antepartum Unit, a section for high-risk pregnancies not yet ready for delivery. Well, thanks. I wasn’t worried about it ’til now. (Btw – I would have about 8 rooms in the course of my hospital stay!) A lady came in for an ultrasound for Drew around 2 a.m. I remember thinking - This is weird. I didn’t realize they even did these types of procedures in the middle of the night. Well, I guess when you’re high-risk, they do! It showed that Drew was measuring at a 3lbs 15oz. Oh Lord. Don’t let me deliver. He’s too little. How would he possibly be okay?! He’s too tiny! Collin was 7lbs 15oz. – An entire 4lbs bigger. The difference was bigger than Drew himself.

“Tiny, but healthy.” I replayed it over and over in my mind, praying that it was a promise from God.

Dave called Julie, who was watching Collin, and she assured us he could spend the night and she’d bring him to school in the morning. She even washed his clothes so he wouldn’t have to wear dirty clothes the next day! She told us that they were having a blast and that everything was a-okay. We then got Dave the last cot on the floor (thank you Lord!) and tried to get some rest while being woken up for vitals tests every single hour.

In the morning I talked with an ob/gyn from my doctor’s office and he told us we would be seeing a specialist in high-risk pregnancies sometime today and wait to see what she suggested. A nurse told me that I was on bed rest and could only get up to use the bathroom, that I was sick and I shouldn’t have too many visitors because my job was to rest. The longer I was in the hospital, the more I heard and saw how they were handling things, the more I realized it was a pretty serious situation. But I tried to pray and stay calm and just wait for the professionals/specialists to tell me what was going on.

Dave stayed with me waiting for the specialist for most of the morning, but in the afternoon he left to gather some things from home and pick up Collin from school. We wanted Collin to not be too confused. I think he was having too much fun to have any questions so far.

While resting, my sister Natalie came in with beautiful flowers and a stack of magazines to pass the time. I started filling her in, but was interrupted when someone came in and I was finally being moved to the Antepartum room. She helped me gather my things and get settled into my new short-term home. It had a bigger, more comfortable bed and even a movie selection. Score! (Hey, it’s the little things, right?!)

Dave brought Collin to the hospital with him. I missed him so much. I was hoping he wasn’t too confused about everything. With seven weeks left of the pregnancy, I didn’t even think to start preparing him quite yet on what might happen when the baby was ready to come. And here he was being tossed around from place to place out of nowhere. My heart hurt for him, but he seemed okay so far. Collin hung out with us for awhile and then my parents came to pick him up. He would be spending the night with them until we got home. My mom was there and had flown in and put her project on hold until we knew what was really going on.

Finally the specialists came in to see us! She was a lot younger and prettier than I expected. That really has nothing to do with anything.  It’s just, I don’t know, when I thought of a high-risk specialist I thought of someone old… and maybe balding. But this young-ish lady came in, sat down on my bed, was very personable but forthcoming and stated the facts. Like you would want in such a situation. She told me that they would continue monitoring my blood pressure, my liver enzymes and platelet count every hour. They would basically do every test to rule out HELLP and if nothing else came up they would assume it was HELLP syndrome and need to induce labor. I would need to take a steroid shot first to help Drew’s lungs and wait at least 24 hours to induce. It was kind of upsetting to hear they might induce me on an assumption, but that was the process and I (rightfully) trusted they knew what they were doing.

During the night they took a gazillion blood samples for various tests and then they sent me up for an ultrasound of my liver to see how it was functioning. We would wait ’til tomorrow for results. Dave and I then hunkered down, waited for our turn for the movie selection and naturally told the nurse we wanted to view Mike Myers’ gem “Gold Member”. We figured we needed some laughs. I’m a firm believer in laughter being the best medicine. But what the nurse must’ve thought of us… and the rest of the Antepartum patients for that matter. I think the movie before it was “Flicka”, with Tim McGraw, or some movie like that. Out of the hundreds of movies to choose from, during our very serious time in the hospital and we had to choose the movie that has the term “member” in it. HA! Anyway, I actually only watched about 1/2 of it and was soon out for some much-needed sleep. My body was exhausted.

The next day we waited the entire day. I’d say no earlier than 3:00 a new doctor came in, told us all of the additional tests turned out okay so they were assuming it was HELLP. The only cure is to deliver and I wouldn’t leave the hospital without delivering the baby and the sooner, the better since the condition can rapidly decline. We would wait for the steroid shot to be at 24 hours and slowly start the inducing process.

I don’t know why, but I was in shock. I sat there wide-eyed unable to speak or know what I should be thinking. I had expected it. This was now Saturday – so it was two days of knowing that this would most likely be the outcome, but I was still shocked. This whole time we were hoping and praying that maybe it was something else. Maybe I would just need to be on bedrest. But here I was about to deliver my baby. My teeny baby. A wave of worry washed over me. Lord, be with my baby. Help him be strong. I wasn’t concerned of myself in the slightest. I wanted my baby to be okay and that was my only worry. Dave voiced that he hoped I would be okay. I instinctively rubbed my belly and said, “I just worry about little Drew.” and teared up. It didn’t help ease my fears when the Neonatal Doctor visited us to prepare us for what may lie ahead. Her job is, apparently, to help parents get ready for the worst. I’m sure she’s seen it all. I was glad that we would have been prepared if things were “the worst” but she scared the living daylights out of me! But at least we could prepare ourselves.

That evening they brought me to my Labor and Delivery room. It was HUGE. And actually nice, even nicer than I would’ve thought a “nice” hospital room would be. They had a big, comfy cot for Dave – nothing like the flimsy cot on the regular L&D floor from the first night. They inserted something that might help my cervix soften and started me on a Magnesium drip and told me it might make me feel “weird”.

I said, “Oh, really? Okay.” and the nurse responded with chuckling, “Oo-oo-ooh yeah. Really weird.” and gave me look with intensity in her eyes.

Uh, okay. Jeesh, with that response, what’s this going to do to me?  I was a little worried, to say the least! She told Dave that many women get extremely nauseous and/or emotional when put on it. Lucky me (and Dave), I just was spacey. They told me to try to get some rest – that tomorrow they would start pitocin and induce labor.

I breathed in deep. This is really happening. I can’t believe this is really happening. Lord, be with me. I turned to see exhausted Dave already sleeping and tried to get some rest.

Collin's visit in the hospital

CLICK HERE FOR Part 3