In July 2022 I gave birth to my firstborn, an uneventful pregnancy. Our first night at home was stressful, and I began to experience chest pains, and a sense of impending doom. I tried to rationalize it with having a newborn and being tired. The next day I was readmitted for postpartum preeclampsia after my L&D nurse twin sister told me I needed to go back to the hospital. I spent 3 days getting my BP regulated, and finally went home. I spent the next few months scared to be alone in case anything happened to me while my husband was at work and I was alone with our baby. I was able to wean off of the labetalol at my 6 week pp appointment and return to my normal health.

I gave birth to our second daughter in May 2024, with an even smoother pregnancy, thanks to aspirin. I kept waiting for preeclampsia to show up again upon discharge, and at 4 days pp, I was admitted after developing a searing headache, chest pains and high BP. This bout was much harder to control. For 5 days I stayed in the hospital trying to gain control over my blood pressure. At one point I was told my BP was 180/112 (scary when my normal is 115/60), and another they wouldn't let me know or see the reading. There were just a lot of wide eyes and frantic actions to administer rapid release nifedipine to prevent a stroke. I can't remember how many times this happened in those 5 days. My last morning in the hospital, a Dr came in and said my BP wasn't as under control as they'd like, but that I'd relax at home and it'd get better there. Although scared, I was finally able to be with my husband and both of my girls at home, on 3x the dosage of labetalol as last time, plus 2x/day of nifedipine.

My Lilly Jo will be 8 months in a couple of weeks, and I'm still taking BP meds. In the past month I've gone down to the lowest dosage, so I finally have a glimmer of hope that I may someday return to my normal BP. While I'm lucky in comparison to so many other preeclampsia stories, it has been a traumatic introduction to motherhood both times. It breaks my heart that both of my girls' first weeks are two of the scariest of my life. I'm lucky to have had my twin and husband advocating for me, and an amazing OBGYN that goes above and beyond in her care as well. I'm not sure of the lasting impacts these experiences will have on my body, especially with how extended this second time around is. I'm hoping someday there will be more answers about preeclampsia, and that my daughters will never have to experience it.