Dear
Journal,
February
20, 1998
My
second pregnancy was more strenuous for me and
easier on the baby; or so I thought.We
hadn’t decided for sure if we wanted to have
another, so we left it up to the Lord and
didn’t do anything to prevent it.At the end
of February 1997 we discovered we were going to
have another tiny one. I was going through many
different kinds of feelings than I did with the
twins.Already being overweight, I fretted about
gaining too much weight. I was terrified of what
might happen this time.But I understood that it
was time for this sweet spirit to come to the
Earth. I did not want to acknowledge my
pregnancy. I really did want another child but at
the time I did not want the difficulties that
comes along with it. I felt ill often and very
exhausted, but I did not throw up as often as I
did with the first pregnancy. I had my first
prenatal visit scheduled for May 1. Celeste
changed that as she often does.
We
had to take Celeste to Salt Lake city for an
emergency surgery, surgeries as it turned out.
But I will talk about that later in my journal,
for now I want to concentrate on Mary. When we
returned to Idaho my allergies acted up and it
was difficult for me to catch my breath. I called
Dr. Halls office to see if he couldn’t do
anything for me. I had my visit rescheduled on
June 3, but he decided he needed to see me
earlier. So a few days later I was in his office.
He told me things looked fine and gave me a
prescription for my allergies and hemorrhoids.
Deep down I knew things were not going perfect.
At four and a half months I began to see flashing
lights. I knew I had pre-eclampsia again. I think
the doctor felt I was just being over reactive.
But I knew my body and it was telling me it was
not all right. I decided to take it easy and rest
frequently. At 30 weeks gestation I began to
throw up more frequently. At my prenatal visit
they again found sugar in my urine and my glucose
check was 156. So again I had to drink the sugar
and have more blood extracted. For three hours I
went through the analysis, blood drawn every
hour. It came back slightly elevated this time
and the Doctor informed me to observe my diet for
a couple of weeks. Things were occurring in a
similar sequence as it did with the first
pregnancy. It turned out he made a mistake. He
should have scheduled me with the Diabetic Nurse
right away. Nurse Rose was not happy with him.
She told me from the sounds of it I had it in my
first pregnancy too. I went about five weeks with
the Diabetes. It turned out I was insulin
dependent, so I had to take insulin injections,
which Darren assisted me with. On October 1,
1997, I took my first trip to the hospital for
high blood pressure. Dr Hall finally believed me
that I had pre-eclampsia. He allowed me to go
home the following day on strict bed rest. I was
only to get up to use the bathroom.On October 6,
1997, my water broke about 5:00 A.M. and we again
dashed to the hospital.The nurse examined me to
see if in fact it was amniotic fluid and it
definitely was.The labor had started.
I
received an IV and sodium fluid instead of
Glucose because of my diabetes.They also
extracted blood every four hours to check my
glucose level. At 7:00 A.M. my contractions were
still erratic so they decided to induce my labor.
Things went tediously for the first while. They
kept a constant eye on my blood pressure. For a
time I had to have oxygen to keep the baby’s
heart rate up and my oxygen level up. My Aunt
Carla was thrilled to be a part of the
delivery. She got to coach me and Darren was
there to assist some too. Darren and I decided
since Carla has never had children of her own
that it would be neat for her to see a child born
into this world. The bishop came and helped
Darren give me a blessing to help the birth go as
it should. A great calmness came over us. We knew
our baby would be just fine. At 5:00 P.M. I was
dilated to 4 ½ at 5:30 P.M. I was still at 4 ½
how frustrated we were. My water broke some more
and to our surprise and the nurse’s at 5:36
P.M. I was dilated to 9 ½ centimeters. When I
told her that I needed to push she did not
believe me. She examined me and sure enough I was
ready. She let me push briefly, than she
commanded me to stop. To make matters worse my
epidural anesthesia ran out. I hope to never
experience natural labor again. I only had about
ten minutes of it and that was enough. I was
wishing at that time that the anesthesiologist
and Doctor Hall would hurry. When all was well
and the Doctor let me push again my water broke
more. The doctor had to dodge and he was joking
about his new shoes, he didn’t want them
dirtied. After the fluid missed him, the baby as
he put it, tried to get him with blood. At 5:46
P.M. October 6, 1997, Mary Elizabeth Landon was
born to us at 7 lb. 1 oz. and 20 inches long. The
spirit was so powerful and testified that this
was a very special spirit, as we all are. The
first thing the doctor and nurses said was,
“She has red hair.” Mary’s due date
was November 3, 1997, but she was in a hurry and
came to us four weeks early. Because of my
diabetes she was bigger than she would have been.
If she had gone full term, she would have been 10
to 12 pounds, ouch. It was neat to have Mary
natural. Mommy and baby were released the next
day.
I
continued to have high bloodpressure. The nurse,
who came out to our home, commanded that I remain
in bed for at least one more week. On October 11,
1997, I returned to the hospital with a fever of
102.2 degrees, a backache, and a migraine
headache. Dr. Thompson in the emergency room had
trouble finding the problem. They did an
ultrasound of my kidneys to see if there were
stones. They took many blood tests, achest x-ray,
checked for pelvis infection, and even did a
spinal tap to check for spinal infection; that
could have been caused from the epidural. They
could come up with nothing. Thompson called Dr.
Hall and they admitted me. In the end they could
never find the cause of the infection, but they
knew I had one. Dr. Hall ordered antibiotics to
get rid of the infection and rest in the
hospital. As soon as they figured the infection
was gone, I still had a headache. They felt it
was probably a spinal headache. They did a blood
patch to help my headache go away. It helped my
headache disappear. The next day I was released.
I received a surprise though. My daughter,
Celeste, was being brought to the emergency room,
by a sister in the ward. So the nurse wheeled me
down to the emergency waiting room. When Celeste
arrived I knew it wasn’t critical. She had
another ear infection.What a perfect ending to a
horrible day.
A
couple of weeks later I felt I was all recovered.
Then my migraine and backache returned, as well
as a fever. I discovered I had hard spots on my
right breast.We discovered on our own that I had
mastitis. It makes us wonder if that is the
infection I had in the hospital. Bed rest and
vitamin C were all I needed. Finally I recovered
somewhat.
Update!! 05/11/2005
Mary's voice is still hoarse. It is frustrating, especially for her. She likes to sing but it is hard for her. We like to do this as a family, that and playing games and watching movies.
Right now she has been having trouble with being afraid and she has resorted to some of her mean ways again. She is constantly whinning. Many people thinks she is just wanting attention but this is far beyond this. We know the difference because when she is on antibiotics she is not that way. She is still having lots of stamach aches. But she is still able to play with the other children outside. She looks normal but there are unseen symptoms like, itching all the time, bruising easily. Another thing she has started this month is inflicting pain on herself. We will see what the doctor says about this. I will keep you informed.
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