Alexandra

Last Tuesday when I went to my OB/GYN appointment the Doctor noticed I'd gained 20 pounds in a week and there was protein in my urine. Then they noticed my blood pressure was really high so he sent me to the hospital for some tests. They monitored my blood pressure for a few hours and ran some blood work. I thought maybe they would keep me overnight to get my blood pressure under control and then send me home on bed rest. After the blood work came back the doctor said I had severe preeclampsia. No one really knows what causes preeclampsia, from what the doctors told me it can happen in your first pregnancy or your fourth. They said it doesn't matter what you do it just happens to some women for soome unknown reason. There's no cure other than to deliver the baby. Because the baby was going to be so premature my doctor wanted to send her to UAB because they have one of the best NICU nurseries in the country.

I was sent to UAB by ambulance that evening. Incidently I've never been in an ambulance before so being in one for 3 hours going 97 miles an hour was quite an experience. Before I was sent to UAB I was given a steroid injection to help the baby's lungs develop. The best chance for the baby to do well was to get 2 steroid injections 24 hours apart and then to deliever by c-section 24 hours after the 2nd injection. So Thursday at around 7:45 they delivered Alexandra by c-section.

She was delivered at 29 weeks and weighed 2 pounds and 5 ounces. She never needed supplemental oxygen because of the steroids, and was moved out of the intensive care nursery to the continual care nursery after a day. She had to have UV treatments to make sure her bilirubin levels weren't too high. She had little googles on while she was in there sunbathing. After a day they stopped the treatments. Now she's on full feeds and no longer needs IV dextrose so they took her IV catheter out today.

The doctors have said that they are impressed by how well she's doing and expect her to continue to do well. We're not sure how long it will be until she can come home. Usually around her intended delivery date is what we're told, but it can be a month more or less depending on how she's developing.

Ransom had to go back to Dothan on Sunday(somebody has to go to work and keep the lights on)and I was discharged from the hospital today. I'm in Birmingham not too far from the hospital. He's going to come up here on the weekends while me and Alex are up here. He's so proud of his little girl. I couldn't have asked for a better daddy for Alexandra.

I am thankful that I have a smart doctor who saved Alexandra's life and maybe mine also. I'm thankful she was able to get both steroid injections before being born. I'm thankful to have a wonderful husband and a beautiful little girl and so many people who have asked about us and kept us in their thoughts.

I can only hope that she continues to reach milestones every day and that she doesn't suffer any long term effects of being born so early. I've learned to focus on the positive and not read statisics about all the problems pre-term babies can suffer. I choose instead to think of the pretty young doctor that came to my hospital room to check on me and told me that she was born at 30 weeks.