I was pregnant for the first time in 2018, when I ws 26. We were excited and scared. I remember seeing preeclampsia on my pregnancy app before it happened to me -I remember the thing that stuck out was it said to watch out for headaches that won't go away. At my OB appointments, my blood pressure was always in the normal range and truthfully before that I never had concerns about my blood pressure.

When I was 28 weeks, one night I couldn't get comfortable in bed. The only way I can describe the feeling is it was like I was running a marathon but not moving. I soaked in the bath at 1am thinking that would help but nothing did. I woke up my husband to tell him something didn't feel right. I didn't have the normal signs - my head didn't hurt, my vision wasn't blurry. My chest just felt like it was going to explode. We live about 45 minutes from the ER and we got there around 2am. My blood pressure was 220/126, there was concerns of seizures and a lot of it was a blur. My OB was on vacation. They checked the baby's heartbeat, got my blood pressure down with a magnesium drip...and sent me home with a prescription for labetalol...yeah you read that right. I think back and I wish I made them keep me, I wish I put up a fight. But I thought they wouldn't let me go home if I wasn't okay. And I just didn't know. The next day I felt awful like I lifted a lot of heavy weights and was really sore.

At next night, I felt the same way and we went back to the ER. The baby was gone and I still had to give birth to him. It felt like a slap in the face. My body wouldn't go through contractions, so they did an emergency C section after I developed HEELP syndrome. Over the next year, I never felt like myself. I ended up in the ER scared it was happening again, even when I wasn't pregnant. I still had elevated blood pressure but it was under control with a very low dose od medication.

In 2024, we decided to try again. After a horrific ectopic pregnancy, we were pregnant again with a boy. I was terrified. After 20 weeks, my PTSD was so bad, I was in the ER weekly. I obsessively checked my blood pressure and got weekly blood & urine tests. I saw a fantastic specialist and hospital team (different than the first). I was on blood pressure medicine, low dose aspirin and exercised regularly and still had issues with my blood pressures. At 28 weeks, I was extra anxious thinking my body would do the same thing as last time. But I knew something was brewing even though my blood and urine were clear. My swelling was terrible, I couldn't grip anything and my feet were footballs. And ended up hospitalized at 29 weeks for high blood pressures 140/90. They altered my medication, gave me steroid shots in case I had to give birth soon and I released me after 5 days. 2 days later, I went to the specialist and ended up back at the hospital because my blood pressure was high and the fluid around the baby was decreasing. They said I'd be there until I gave birth.

Later that night, at 30 weeks, I had an emergency c section and gave birth to a baby boy, at the tail end of 2025. Before my blood pressures were 170/110 and refused to go down, with the magnesium drip and rounds of medication. And again, I didn't feel any headache, I didn't have any symptoms. I was in the hospital for a week after, with high blood pressure and progressive swelling. To be honest, I was so relieved that I wasn't pregnant anymore and my body couldn't hurt him. When I left I was on 4 medications and managing as I took my pressures (5 months later i'm now on one) My baby boy was born 2 lbs 10 oz and was in the NICU for two months with respiratory issues and eventually anemia. He is now almost 5 months, home and is progressing normally. And although we can't change what happened in 2018, and it will forever haunt me - I'm grateful for the hospital, specialists and NICU that this situation was immensely better than the last. I'm also grateful for the happiest sweetest little boy.