Addison Lynn was born on December 7, 2009 at 10:23pm.
For almost 2 weeks leading up to her birth I had been experiencing severe headaches and had been vomiting here and there. I asked my doctor about it and he said that was fairly normal and that I could take a Tylenol. But the headaches were almost unbearable. I was horribly sensitive to light and sound. All I wanted to do was close my eyes and lay in bed. Ryan's mom pointed out that headaches were sometimes a sign of high blood pressure. So on the night of Addison's birth, Ryan and I went to the grocery store to get someone to make for dinner. We then ran over to Walgreen's to get my blood pressure read. I can't remember what it was, but it was much higher than it should have been. So I called the on-call doctor associated with my doctor's practice. When I spoke to the doctor and explained what was going on he informed me that I might possibly have pre-eclempsia and that if I do I would have to have a Cesarean birth that night. Eclempsia is very dangerous, it's when the placenta becomes poisonous and can make you and your baby sick and can even lead to death.
Sure enough, I had pre-eclempsia. The nurse had me all hooked up and explained how the birth would go. She told me I would feel no pain at all. In fact, the most pain I had that night was the little IV that was inserted in the vain in my hand. I was given a spinal to numb me from the chest down. It honestly felt like someone just poked my back with their finger. It was nothing. Trust me, I'm a huge wuss. The only bad part so far was that my adrenaline was at an all time high, along with my blood pressure, and that caused me to vomit during the majority of the surgery.
It was all so surreal. I was actually relieved. I wasn't looking forward to natural birth at all, and I had been feeling so awful that I knew all of this was good. I stopped getting sick right before the doctors took Addison out of me. Ryan was sitting right next to me. We were suddenly so excited. This was it, our baby girl was about to enter the world. Then we heard it, her first little cry. Then she stopped. I didn't see her, nor Ryan. Nothing was really said by anyone actually. The doctors continued to finish up and a nurse came over and said that she was going to take Ryan upstairs to talk with him and that she would take Addison too. When I asked why she said it was to talk about Addison's abnormalities. Abnormalities? What abnormalities?!?! I remember the look on the two nurses faces that were pushing the cart Addison was in. They looked at me like I had eight heads. Then they left.
The doctors finished and a nurse started wheeling me out of the OR down the hall towards my recovery room. I started vomiting again. It became more of a dry heave since there was nothing left at all in me. I then started asking questions. She told me that Addison stopped breathing and they had to intibate her. She also said that Addison had defects from the waist down. I remember getting sick again and the nurse telling me I really needed to calm down, that my blood pressure was so high I could have a stroke. I don't remember much after that. We're pretty sure they just sedated me. I remember once I was pushed into the room seeing Ryan sitting in a chair along a wall near my bed sitting with his mom and e was crying. I asked if he was ok. And they just kind of looked at me. My parents were there as well as My best friend Nicole and her husband Stephen. A doctor came in and started explaining the situation. I remember him asking me if I understood. I honestly have no idea what he said to this day. I apparently passed out after he asked me if I understood. The next morning I woke up and was alone. Ryan walked in the room and said that Addison was being transferred to All Children's Hospital in St. Pete and that they would bring her to me before going.
Ryan's parents showed up a little after he told me this. Then the hospital staff arrived with her. Some guy was having me sign all these papers, which took entirely too long. I was in fact getting rather irritated since I hadn't yet met my daughter. Finally, they placed her in my arms. 5 pounds 4 ounces. She looked like a little raisin. A baby only 12 hours old was in my arms. It's actually a bit terrifying. But it was the most amazing feeling in the world. Here was this little being that I created, that would forever change my life, that would now make my existence on this earth make sense. I only held her for about five minutes then they had to go.
The next few days were a whirl wind of information. I was stuck staying in the hospital a few days and Ryan and our parents would travel to St. Pete to see Addison and update me on her progress. What I didn't know was that her prognosis at birth was far worse than I was told. Apparently, since she had stopped breathing and because her body from the waist down didn't fully develop, they were concerned that maybe her organs didn't form either. The doctor that spoke with us the night of her birth had actually said he didn't know if she was going to live.
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