Allison's Jounney to Birth: Surprises, Extra fluid and a Teeny, Tiny Baby

      My darling Allison was a "planned surprise".  How could I have know that she would be full of surprises.   Three months after weaning my then 14 month old daughter, my fertility still hadn't returned. Finally, I took a pregnancy test, not because I thought I was pregnant--I was sure I was not--but truely just to appease my mom and sister who was sure that I was.   
     In comes surprise number one.  I was pregnant.  Surprise number two?  Not only was I pregnant, but I was 13 weeks pregnant at that. I had missed my entire first trimester!    My pregnancy continued completely uneventful as my belly grew to enormous proportions.  We didn't think anything of it. I measured large with my first daughter, a 9 pound 38 1/2 weeker, and everyone assumed that I just "grew large babies." 

    At 33 weeks, I went a day and a half without feeling the baby move.  Terrified, I went to the hospital at 11 PM.  she started kicking while I was checking in.  I never did feel her move as much as I thought I should.
     I started into early labor at 35 weeks, our thrid suprise.  The OB, believing my due date could be a little off, was unconcerned.  It stopped on its own that night. 
    The 36 week ultrasound, gave us suprise nnumber four.  Allison was not going to be a 9 pounder.  No, she was measuring only about 5 pounds or so--a good 2-4 weeks behind.  I was so large, not because of a large baby, but because I had double the normal amount of amniotic fluid.  I researched the topic and found out that I had polyhydramnios, a condition with numerous causes:  down syndrome, trisomy 18, turner's syndrom, congential defects, gestational diabetes, etc.  Ultrasounds weren't showing anything abnormal and I didn't have GD, so no one was concerned. 
     But I was.  Yes, Polyhydramnios could end up having no none cause (30% of the time)  and I found many stories of women who went on to deliver perfectly healthy babies.  From everything I could tell, they had mild cases; infact,  I could find a single story of a woman with moderate polyhydramnios whose child did not have some sort of problem.   I decided I would talk to my OB about my concerns at the next visit. 
    A few days before my next visit, I noticed that my legs hurt and were very swollen.  I had developed pregnancy induced hypertension and I had small amounts of protein in my urine.  That was the final straw and my OB sent me straight to the hospital to be induced.  I was just a few days shy of 37 weeks.
    My labor was easy and extremely fast--24 minutes from the time my water was broken to Allison's birth--and completely natural, my hope for this delivery.   Everything was going according to my ideal birth plan, and then she was here, and my nightmare began...