Charlie's Birth Story

This time last week I was 34 weeks preggo. I honestly did not feel anything but very preggo. The normal tired, kinda nauseated (yes still hahaha but so much less than first tri!) preggo feelings.

It was these very preggo normal feelings that lead a post work Melissa after a busy day to want to journey to Trader Joe’s to get some of their fall items. Ya girl loves fall. On the way out the door I took a little spill and hit my knee and my hands. I have been a very cautious preggo the entire time. So we called the doc and they recommended just a quick check in triage. 

Baby was clearly very safe and I had just been a classic paranoid mom. Unfortunately for some reason we couldn’t get my blood pressure down. I was pretty shaken up so we tried just giving me time to calm down and just understand that we were safe but we could not get it down. After lots of treatments it was decided that I go on a magnesium. (Timeline update this is still thursday night)

Going on Magnesium would leave me stuck in a bed as it just makes you feel dizzy and all sorts of gross. We spent the day Friday trying to troubleshoot what was going on with me. I had no problems with blood pressure earlier in the pregnancy. I had been the model preggo as far as this was concerned!

 By Friday afternoon we had attempted lots of different fixes to bring my blood pressure down and I was diagnosed with Preeclampsia. This meant that it was going to be time for us to look at delivering my sweet baby girl early. We decided that Saturday would be an extra day for her to get just a little bit more time for lung development. Then Saturday night we would start getting my body ready for delivery. 

For delivery I would be stuck in bed on the mag. It wasn’t going to be fun. Thankfully I had lots of AMAZING nurses, the best husband in the world, and the gorgeous Brandi Norman (sister from another mister) helping me regulate my blood pressure enough to prevent “treatable numbers”. 

Sunday was here and it was time for my body to get ready to have this baby. I knew it was going to be a slow day but honestly it wasn’t as slow as it would seem. My body reacted to all of the medicines very well and Charlie Kay Seba was earthside by 9:25pm after a total of 3 not very difficult pushes. (She really took it easy on me… Also… guys… epidurals rock…) 

Charlie came out crying which made my heart so very happy. She was able to lay on my chest for some skin to skin for a bit but we knew that Charlie was going to go to the NICU. At 34 weeks and 3lbs 15 oz she just had a lot of growing to do and lots of baby things to learn. It will be awhile until my perfect baby girl can come home to be with us but I know that this season of life is short compared to all the days I will get to spend with her. 

I also had a long way to go to feel better. After delivery you need to stay on the mag for 24 hours and that meant I wasn’t able to get out of the bed just yet to watch her get settled in.Thankfully Charlie has the best dad ever and he was able to go be with her. Brandi was able to stay with me. Very early Monday morning I was cleared to get out of bed, walk, and go visit my favorite baby girl. You bet I showed up at 9am to see her for some good skin to skin. 

Both of our roads to normal are going to be far from traditional. Charlie will not be coming home for quite some time. We will for sure party as much as a baby can party when she is able to come home for snuggles and I just can’t wait for that day! For now I will post her updates here and my updates when I feel like I can. I am a busy mom now… 

I don’t want my story to scare people, but these things happened so suddenly. I really had very little signs and symptoms. I was very lucky. Everyone remarked that I was lucky to have taken a spill that lead me to triage and I completely agree. I do think that Charlie and I were being looked out for. I am beyond grateful to our amazing medical team, (nurses in general are just angels people…), Best husband and dad ever Andrew, and Brandi!!! I honestly couldn’t do any of this without them!