premature. During Holly's pregnancy with Jordan, Holly got preeclampsia at 31 weeks.
She was leaking protein from her kidneys, had high blood pressure and starting having
contractions every 2-3 minutes. After a week of bed rest she was hospitalized so that
she could be monitored around the clock and the doctors realized Jordan had IUGR
(Intrauterine Growth Retardation) and hadn't grown from weeks 32 to 34. It was time to
deliver Ms. Jordan at 34 weeks.
With the 2nd pregnancy, Holly was automatically considered high risk and we were told
that there was a 15% chance of getting preeclampsia again. Holly was monitored very
closely from the start and all was well until the stress of numerous deaths in the family
took a toll on her body. Some of you already know that Holly's older sister, Dee Dee,
passed away in May after a very short battle with cancer. In mid-May, Holly began having
Braxton Hicks contractions and was told to keep an eye on them and to try to take it easy.
She was also leaking protein from her kidneys, but not enough to be concerned about.
At the end of June, Holly was put on bed rest because she was having the Braxton Hicks
contractions more frequently. On July 11th, she was hospitalized because the protein
leaking from her kidneys had doubled. Her doctor informed her that he hospitalizes
anyone leaking more than 1 gram of protein in a 24 hour period. Holly was leaking 1.6
grams and was also told that she would be staying in the hospital until she delivered the
baby. Jada wasn't due until September 27th! Based on all of her labs, the doctor figured
she would deliver Jada in 1-2 weeks, but we were shooting for the end of August. The
only reason we would have to deliver Jada early is to keep Holly from having permanent
kidney damage. After being in the hospital for 1 week, Holly was now leaking 2.6 grams
of protein.
On July 23rd, the protein went from 2.6 grams to 5.6 grams and other kidney functions
were getting worse. Jada was healthy and reactive, and still seemed to be growing.
Then, on July 24th we were told "tonight's the night" because Holly's kidneys were getting
worse. For some reason pregnancy takes a toll on Holly's kidneys, but the doctors
expect her kidney functions to return to normal after delivery. It took a year after Jordan
was born for that to happen and we are hoping the same things happen this time too.
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