My pregnancy was far from normal. I found out I was pregnant on October 21, 2005 and I was taken out of work on November 10th for pregnancy induced hypertension. My doctor put me on blood pressure medicine and told me to relax. I’m not sure how a type A personality with a surprise pregnancy relaxes but I know I wasn’t good at it. After the holidays I literally had nothing to do and my husband was gone Monday through Friday for work. Going from a fast pace environment to lying on a couch all day is definitely a shock. I found out I was expecting a girl on January 31, 2006 and my husband was unable to be at the ultrasound. So I made a 2 and a half hour trip to surprise him and tell him a princess was on her way. We thought we had all the time in the world; I was only half way through my pregnancy. March 11th I went to the hospital because my blood pressure on my home machine was running 160/110 so the doctor just wanted me to go in just in case. They did tests, everything came back fine and they made me an appointment first thing Monday morning. On Monday they started more tests and protein showed up in my urine and the preeclampsia started. I was admitted into the hospital from the doctor’s office. I spent 1 night in the local hospital before they sent me to Burlington, VT which is about an hour from my home. I spent 2 nights in Burlington and they thought I could make it another month so they released with me with an appointment with my doctor the following Monday. The following Monday the tests that they did and the ones that had been done the previous Friday all came back that the preeclampsia was getting worse and fast. I was admitted again on the 20th but this time I was sent straight to Burlington. Tuesday night the doctors didn’t think that I would make it through the night so I had to meet with a doctor so they could give me all the percentages of everything going okay and everything going wrong. I told my husband that we needed to come up with a name and that he needed to keep his figures crossed that we made it through the night. We did make it through the night and by morning; Craig had come up with the name Gillian. I was able to get both steroid shots because the doctors knew I wouldn’t make it much longer. The night of the 23rd I knew I was struggling. I was having a hard time moving around and I had to ask for medicine because I had such a terrible headache. I promised Gillian if she made it through the night that her Dad would be there and we would make sure she was taken care of. First thing the next morning, my doctor came in and told me to get whoever needed to be there to Burlington because we would be parents that day. I got a hold of my husband, parents, siblings and friends to let them know what was happening. Gillian Jane was delivered at 2:35pm via emergency c-section. She came out screaming which we had been told her lungs would not be strong enough. Craig and I took this to be the greatest sign of hope! If she can cry, she can do anything. She has since proven to us and the rest of the world that this is so true!
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