The day our sweet Penelope Jane entered our life is easily my favorite day. I remember when she was born and looking into her dark (at that time) blue eyes and just falling in love immediately. I cannot imagine being able to love another child as much as I do her, although I know it is possible because others tell me so :)
Penelope was born on November 23, 2011 at 7:23am. She weighed 6lbs. 9oz and was 20 & 1/4" long. But her birth story really begins the Saturday before..
That Saturday I travelled down to Sumner to spend the day with my mother and three older sisters. We had long been planning a holiday baking day and special lunch to celebrate my mother's birthday which is November 25th. I made spritz cookies for the first time with a cookie punch that I had bought at a garage sale. Luckily my parent's house has two kitchen and with all the baking someone had to use the oven in the basement. I'm not sure how it was decided that I, the 8 months pregnant one would be the one to have to walk up and down the stairs to check on my cookies but this is how it was. I remember feeling tired about half way through the day and sitting down at the dining room table just watching my mom and sisters busy about their baking in the kitchen. I didn't think much of it, just regular pregnancy fatigue I guessed.
The next day was Sunday and the day of my nephew Davis' 1st birthday party, another day I was long looking forward to. The party was supposed to start at 4 or 5 in the evening I think. That day Ryan and I spent running around doing errands. By the time we came home to change and leave again for the birthday party my feet and ankles were so swollen all I wanted to do was put them up on the couch so we unfortunately missed the birthday party.
On Monday morning my swelling hadn't gone down very much and I felt sluggish and achy all day. I thought I might be coming down with the flu. I stayed home all day and didn't even go out for my usual swim at Bally's that morning. Ryan brought home a pizza so I wouldn't have to cook. After eating dinner I called my mom to chat and casually mentioned how I felt a little ill. She told me I should take my blood pressure. I should have mentioned here earlier that I had been having pregnancy induced high blood pressure for the last two weeks but hadn't been diagnosed with pre-eclampsia. I had however been put on semi-bedrest with 2 hours rest in the morning and 2 hours rest in the afternoon. We had a home blood pressure monitor Ryan and I borrowed from his parents. My blood pressure read something like 187 over 98 at that time. For some reason instead of immediately calling my doctor I called my mom back and told her I thought the blood pressure monitor was broken. She said we should go to Walgreens and check it there. I remember going to tell Ryan that we needed to go to the drug store to check my blood pressure because ours was broken. He also must have realized the seriousness of the situation before I did because I could see the excitement in his eyes and he was all a buzz about grabbing my hosptial bag "just in case". I told him I was sure we would be back in a couple of hours. After all we had gone to the hospital already once before, exactly one week earlier because of my high blood pressure. I was put under observation for a couple of hours and then sent home.
To be continued.....
