Anyone have pre-eclampsia while pregnant?

Justretta- Welcome to A2K!

I had preeclampsia with my son. He was delivered by C-Section a couple of weeks early.

hi! what kind of complications did you have?? Just trying to find someone that went through the same stuff... like I said, my son was born 10 weeks early, via emergency csection. He had to stay in the NICU for one month and one week. it was a very long and hard recovery and process....

I had to stay in bed for a week. When it was determined that I was not doing better, the doctor took me into the hospital and delivered my baby.

My son was fine at birth, but he did develop some kidney problems when he was a year old. He also had some learning disabilities. I don't know if there was any connection with his physical difficulties and the preeclampsia, although I suspect that there were.

Wow. How old is he now? Is he doing ok?
I first noticed something was wrong 3 months before they actually figured out what was going on. I had been swelling up really bad in my legs and feet and the swelling wouldn't go away. When I went in for my OB appointment I had gained 9lbs that month! Usually I only gained 2 or 3. (I was 103lbs when I got pregnant) The dr said the swelling was normal and that I just needed to eat better and lay off the junk food. Well, the swelling got worse and I would call her and complain and she would just tell me it was normal. Well, the next month, I went in, and gained another 9lbs! Ok, and I swear it was not because of my eating. So, I explained to her bout the swelling and she didn't even look! She just said it's normal and quit eating so much! So, by then I was just convinced that I ate way too much and everything was fine. Come May 7th 2003, I went in for my OB appointment, and had gained another 9lbs. I was shocked, and kinda confused as to what the heck was going on with me! I peed in the cup, like always, he nurse came in and dipped that lil strip in(which texts for protein-preeclampsia) and just said ok, and threw it away and said the Dr will be in. My Dr came in and started to lecture me about my eating habits and weight gain, and I started to cry cuz I knew it wasn't from eating, and I lifted my pant leg to show her the swelling and she just shut up and stood there silent for awhile....I was thinking, OHH GOD what did I do??.... and then she said that I needed to put admitted into the hospital right the and started talking bout preeclampsia, which I had no clue as it what that even was, and so I was weighed and put in the hospital and the next day they told me I did in fact have it, and I was weighed on the same scale with my same clothes and had gained 10lbs over night. They took me by ambulance to a much bigger hospital that has a NICU in it and things kept getting worse, they tried to induce me but it was just too early. I was dying and so was my son so they did an emergency csection on May 14th. By then I had gained almost 100lbs in one week... it was horrible.. Damian was born 10 weeks early, weighed 3lbs 1.9in, 15 3/4in long. He really didn't have many complications which was surprising. He stayed in the hospital for a month and a week and came home weighing a lil over 4lbs. Just recently we found out that he had blood on the brain?? Nobody told us this and so it makes me wonder what else we weren't told.
He is now 4 years old and very healthy. He's small for his age, my 3 year old daughter is basically the same size, and she's small for her age! I have noticed he was slow in crawling, walking, talking, and learning things... and compared to my 3 year old, he seems like he's having some problems....
I'm concerned but I really don't know what I should do...

justretta-If you are concerned, and if the slowness appears excessive, take him to a child psychologist to be tested. First though, talk to your pediatrician and ask him if your son is developing appropriately. If there is something wrong, you can take steps early on to help him to maximize his abilities.

It sounds like you had a very serious case of preeclampsia. What happened was that you were retaining water in your legs. Considering how serious your case was, you are very lucky to have come through the pregnancy in good condition.

My son is 46, happily married, and has a child from a former marriage. He is excellent verbally, but has difficulty doing things that take mechanical comprehension. He has never learned to drive, but has always managed well. He has a good job, makes a nice living, and is well liked at work.

When he was small, I was not terribly sophisticated about medical things. The signs were there, but I chose to ignore them, out of ignorance. For instance, in nursery school, he was unable to tie his shoes or do jigsaw puzzles. So I bought him sneakers with velcro ties, and told the school teacher to give him something else to do.

When he was 16, I spoke with the school psychologist who suggested that he be tested. I found that in the IQ test, his results had a "scatter" pattern. In other words, he was way above average in some areas, and below average in others. I read, and found that these inconsistent results are a sure sign of learning disabilities. He was not dyslexic. His problems were in the perceptual area.

For your own peace of mind, it really might be a good idea to look into your son's development. His slowness may be nothing more than a normal variation, but I think that you would feel better if you knew, for sure. Good luck!

Well I am glad to hear that he is doing good!! Sounds like he's overcome his problems.
Yeah, I was retaining water really bad and I had what the call HELLP-Hemolysis(blood infection)elevatd liver enzymes(they said my liver was failing)lowered platelets.
I really high blood pressure. I was on bedrest for that whole week. It's hard for me to remember things that happend during that week because I was soo sick. It was hard to go through and hard after he was born.
After he was born we started taking him to a developmental program because of how preemie he was. He's always been behind in growing and some things he was doing really good at and others he wasn't. Like he couldn't stack alot of blocks up, but it was hard for him to point at pictures when asked too. He seems to be progressed alot since then, but we haven't taken him to another one of those appointments for over a year. My husband and I recently got divorced and things have been hard with that and custody battles. But I do appreciate your input on things.

I also had pre-eclampsia. From about 6 months I swelled up like you wouldn't believe and developed terrible pregnancy hypertension. I was hospitalised on complete bed rest and medication from 33 weeks. After spending 4 weeks in hospital my blood pressure was still not improving very much and I started to develop proteins in my urine - i.e. proper re-eclampsia. I was induced and my son was born at 37 weeks weighing 5 pounds 15. He struggled to put on weight for a long time but at 16 months he now weighs 10.5 kgs and is healthy and happy! He was slow to roll, crawl, sit up and walk, but once he started it all happened very quickly! He seems very switched on and there do not appear to be any developmental delays.
The worries about developmental delays that you mentioned may not be so much a direct result of the pre-eclampsia but more as a result of the fact that your babies were so premature.
My brother was born at 30 weeks (not due to pre-eclampsia) and faced a number of challenges in his life including eye problems and learning difficulties.

I tend to agree with natsmummy on this one.

Preemies take time to develop, but most do ,given love and patienc by their parents.

Does breast milk play any role in these kinds of developmental delays?

I couldn't breast feed my son right after he was born because he didn't know how to suck... I pumped for a month so he could have the nutrients he needed, but went dry.

Thought I'd post my comments, too. I had pre-eclampsia with both my boys. One is now almost 6, the other almost 3. I was on meds for both pregnancies once the proteins showed up and the BP was so high. I was induced at 36 wks with my first (6lb 13) and at 35 wks with my second (4lb 2). My second was in Neonatal Unit for 3 wks before I could bring him home. He is still quite small - fits into size 1 now at almost 3yrs of age. Early on, the Drs diagnosed Failure To Thrive, as he wasn't putting on weight etc for months and months. We were admitted to hosp and went through numerous tests (both of us) to rule out it was me being neglectful! Hardest time of my life! They even stopped me breastfeeding for 6 days and instead fed him through a naso-gastic tube to monitor the amount of milk he was getting from me. I am proud to say I was not the problem, and he is just a slow grower. Two months ago he made it onto the weight growth chart in the back of the baby book, and is now 12kgs (26lb). All kids are different, and I just feel so lucky to have 2 such beautiful boys in the end.