Well, I know I'm not around here much anymore. I honestly don't have time to think anymore. The only reason why I am finding time to write this and not be at the hospital is because I have come down with a sinus infection.
So...my pregnancy was going good until about 22 weeks along. I started swelling and gaining weight rapidly, having terrible headaches, and having random visual disturbances. There were also a few times I had to be hospitalized because I couldn't feel my baby move for days. My doctor, I guess being used to a lot of women watching those baby shows and thinking they have everything under the sun wrong with them decided that all the things I was telling her was my imagination. My 32 week prenatal appointment arrived and my blood pressure was some insane number like 175/105, and they found plus 4 protein in my urine which apparently meant that my kidneys weren't functioning right, and I had gained 15 pounds in just 2 weeks. So FINALLY my doctor see's that something isn't right and sent me over to the hospital where a specialist diagnosed me with Preeclampsia. It's a disease that only occurs in pregnancy and affects blood pressuse, organs, your nervous system, and the baby. At first I was told that they would keep me in the hospital on bed rest for a few weeks until the babys lungs matured, but early the next morning here comes my nurse giving me steroid shots for the babys lungs and tells me that they're delivering me by c-section that afternoon because I could be on the verge of seizures, and the baby has no fluid around her. I freaked out of course because being a full 2 months premature I knew I wouldn't be leaving the hospital with my baby and that broke my heart. I was very scared of what might happen with her being born so early.
So they delived me at 4:01pm on December 4th. I didn't even get to see her until the next night, and I couldn't hold her until she was 5 days old. I was released and back to normal after 11 days, but my daughter is still in the NICU and will be for about another month. She'll be 2 weeks old tomorrow and is breathing on her own, they took her off of oxygen last night, and her feeding tube should be gone by the end of this week. She's gone from 3 pounds 7 ounces at birth to 3 pounds 14 ounces as of yesterday.
Even though she's doing good now, this is has been the hardest thing I have ever had to experience and we need all of the prayers (or whatever it is that you do) we can get. I'll be sure to keep you all posted every chance I get.
This is tiny Clara Elizabeth
