She will be commonly referred to as "Kota", "Kota-bug", "Kota-bear", and sometimes Squishy or "my wittle". Also, she may or may not be named after the Dodge Dakota because we just aren't redneck enough. Her middle name is from J's mom (her grandma), a woman that I deeply admire for her strength, selflessness, and heart. I honestly hope Kota grows up to have such qualities.
Last November, shortly after my seizure incident (will touch on this later), I found out I was pregnant after having a massive breakdown about some restaurant messing up my food. Yes, that's how I knew I was pregnant. So this was actually my third pregnancy (one when I was 17 and J and I had one just the July before). It was completely unplanned and I was actually supposed to get the IUD put in (I had issues with the shot) when I ended up stuck in the hospital for my seizures and had to reschedule it then found out I was pregnant before my next appointment.
Pregnancy was not good to me. I have no idea why anyone would enjoy it (other than the kicks and movement. That was pretty cool). But then again, I got pregnant at the WORST time possible, my first trimester was in the dead of winter and my third was in the blazing part of summer. During my first trimester, I got sick with anything and everything - strep, upper respiratory infection, bronchitis, ear infection, and even the stomach flu. I never really had morning sickness or heartburn at all but I was still plenty miserable.
Then the swelling happened. At my last appointment I was over 200 lbs(I started at 132 and generally weigh around 135) because I was retaining a minimum of 20lbs of water all over my body. Like my fingers, belly, and everything from the waist down was just blown up to the point that I now have stretch marks on my calves from how much they stretched with all the water. It was brutal. Especially because I was working 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week to try and save for maternity leave. Well around my 28 week appointment they diagnosed me with preeclampsia because of the swelling, elevated blood pressure, and protein in my urine samples.
On June 9th, I went in for a regular blood pressure check up and non stress test for the baby and was admitted to the hospital for observation. They had decided that I was going to be induced by 37 weeks but they really wanted to make it to 36 to ensure the baby would be healthy. As a precaution, they gave me two steroid shots to help her lung develop. I was released the next day (just in time so I didn't miss my own baby shower) and went back to work until the 14th when I admitted myself because the swelling was so bad I could barely move at all.
They did several rounds of blood work and hooked me up to all the monitors. My blood pressure was dangerously high (though it didn't seem to be bothering the baby at all) and my urine came back with a protein level higher than the nurse had ever seen (apparently its supposed to be around .9 and mine was 5.5) so she said "within 24 hours there will be a baby". At this point I was only a centimeter dilated and only 33 weeks along. Because my blood pressure was still through the roof, I was hooked up to an IV of magnesium sulfate and had to have a catheter. They used this tube thing to manually get me dialated and then started to induce. J showed up that afternoon and my family from Tennessee and West Virginia showed up that night. I had decided prior to going in that I didn't want the epidural because of my fear of needles so all night I suffered through horrible contractions and my mom trying to keep me semi calm. Sometime early morning they nurse finally aggressively insisted I get the epidural because my blood pressure was so bad I was putting the baby at risk. They broke my water later that morning and Dakota Lynne Duncan was born at 10:22 am on June 15th, 2017 weighing 5 pounds 1 ounce and measuring 17 and 3/4 inches.
They put her on my chest for a split second and then she was gone to the NICU where she was locked up for 10 days after she was born. I was also stuck in the hospital for 4 days after delivery because of my high blood pressure continuing. I ended up on two different medications that I was off of by my 6 week check up. Dakota was on a CPAP machine for her lungs and in the box (incubator) until she could regulate her own body temperature. She also had jaundice for a time and had to be under the blue lights. Then of course she failed the stupid car seat test the first time (for those of you who don't know, premature babies have to be able to sit in a car seat for like 2 hours with all their monitors to make sure that they can make it without their vitals dropping if they needed to be transported to Columbus) so that was a set back. This whole time we were told that she was making amazing progress and as soon as she passed the car seat test, she could leave. Well then we came to find out that we weren't allowed to leave until she was "35 weeks gestation" so we had to stay even longer.
All in all, I was not impressed with the doctors and most of the nurses were not helpful and just rude and condescending. The whole thing was extremely difficult for me because everyone else was in mom and baby wing with their babies and my daughter was locked in a damn box where I could only visit. Emotionally, it was everything I had to keep it together because I knew breaking down wouldn't help any. We had to stay in a hospitality suite in a different building and walk to the nursery every three hours so I could feed her. It was like 5 miles a day... after I had just popped out a baby... it was miserable. Finally, the 25th of June, Kota and I got to go home.
