Long Story. Be Ready.
It all began on Monday, March 14th. I woke up and got ready, as usual and headed to school, as usual. I had the luxury of being given a sub for part of the day to help me out with my day. She took over my groups of kids as I worked to finish writing IEP's and updating IEP goals. I started having contractions, but they weren't consistent and they weren't excruciatingly painful . Overall, I just didn't feel good.
At 12:20pm, I headed upstairs to teach my 5th Grade Math class. This is when things got weird. About 10 minutes into the class period, my eyesight started to get fuzzy. I was having a hard time focusing. I was getting worried that I was going to fall down or faint, so I sat at one of the tables and tried to continue to teach from there. The kids started to nervously giggle at my lack of being able to focus on page numbers and math problems.
After a little while of the eyesight problem, I all of a sudden began to speak gibberish. I thought I knew what I was saying, but the kids were getting more and more confused with what I was trying to say. I was having trouble focusing on how to form the words that I was trying to get out. I had one of my students write some page numbers on the chalkboard and I had to point to them because for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to say them out loud. To make matters worse, my right hand all of a sudden went numb.
I wasn't sure what to do so I had one of my kids run down to my office and grab my lunch. I was thinking that maybe a Diet Coke and some pretzels may help. They didn't.
So, I sent another one of my students down to get my friend Katie. She happened to be meeting with our principal at the moment, so they both ran up thinking that my water broke. At this point I was able to walk out of the room and into the hall to talk to them. I preceded to break down into tears - terribly worried about what was going on. Joan, my principal, took me down to the nurses office and Katie finished teaching my class for me.
I layed in the nurses office for about 20 minutes and felt a lot better. I then convinced Katie to let me drive myself home. Probably not a good idea.
I made it home safely talking to Katie on the phone the whole way. I called Brian & my mom and about 30 minutes later I was headed to the hospital. Brian called the doctor and they told him that I needed to head to the hospital immediately. My mom and I arrived at Labor & Delivery where the nurse tells us Dr. Weeks wants us to head to the ER. The ER?
We went to the ER where in between painful contractions the doctors began asking me to stick out my tongue, wiggle it, and push and pull with my hands, arms, feet, and legs. A CAT scan was scheduled because the symptoms I had experienced at school were indications that I may have had a stroke.
A stroke.
Labor & Delivery sent a nurse down to monitor the baby. She checked to see if I had made any progress and we found out that I was now 4-5 cm. This changed everything.
I was now in labor and they needed to cancel all of the tests and get me back up to the L& D floor. Because this was my 2nd baby, they weren't sure how fast labor would go and they didn't want to chance anything. Plus, I wanted an epidural...so we had to get moving!
Labor & Delivery Room 115...same room that McKenna was born in! 
GranMom & GP ready to welcome grandchild #2! 
Brian grabbing a bite to eat...thanks to Brad & Megan! oh yeah...check it out, The Bachelor Finale was on! 
table all set up and ready to roll 
waiting, waiting 
Aunt Krissy getting one last belly rub 
one last picture of the baby belly...ugh...I got stretchies this time around... 
8:58pm...our son, Benson Richard Witkowski was born what a moment this was my sweet boy 
our first snuggle snuggle 
7 lbs. and 19in. of perfection 
GP lovin' on his grandSON! 
Grandma Witkowski snuggling with Benny 
Hi Aunt Krissy! 
love you! 
Aunt Mackie! 
AB with Benny Boo 
checking out all of his hair 
perfect picture to explain this moment 
probably already talking baseball 
Hi Aunt Megan! I love all of Mackenzie's expressions...full of love 
Best Friends! 
SISTERS! first boy in the family!!! 
first picture with our boy 
We love you Benny! Just wait 'til you meet your BIG sister and your puppy! 
Proud Dad - excited to get outside and toss the ball around and share his love of the St. Louis Cardinals 
first bath on Monday night...loved it! 
Grandma & Grandpa Witkowski watched McKenna for us while we were in the hospital. They brought her on Tuesday afternoon to meet her little brother. Oh, how I missed her! 
She loves him so much! SQUISHY! 
I can't get enough of these two. 
Grandpa Witkowski meeting Ben for the first time! 
Aunt Lynnie lovin' on our boy... 
...and our girl! 
...and then there were four 
she leans in all on her own and says "Ahhhh!" it melts my heart! 
massage? yes, please. 
Uncle Eric & Aunt Sabrina came to meet Benny on Tuesday night 
We were allowed to head home on Wednesday afternoon. GranMom came to capture the final moments in the hospital. 
ready to roll
to be continued...
Overall, both the ER doctor and my OB were happy with how I was doing and weren't worried about the stroke symptoms I had experienced earlier in the day. They figured that it may have had something to do with going into labor and they weren't really sure why my body reacted the way it did. I was under a strick order that if I had any of the symptoms again that I needed to call immediately.
We both came home healthy. Thank goodness!
