Our Growing Family: Melanie Jane is here!!!

I don't even know where to start with this post. So much has happened and I haven't had the time to keep up with the blog. So this is going to be a loooooong post. I had been having problems with swelling and high blood pressure since about 24 weeks. I went to the doctor on Monday, March 14, and the doctor came into the room after seeing my urine test and told me that I was spilling protein into my urine and that I had preeclampsia. He told me that I needed to go to the hospital to find out how bad the preeclampsia was. Oddly enough, Jarod and I had a conversation the night before about what we would do if I went to the doctor and he told me that I needed to be admitted to the hospital. I thought it wasn't a possibility, but feeling as bad as I had been feeling we thought the conversation needed to happen. He decided to go ahead and take his flight and I would just let him know if anything happened. Well...we had gotten a lot of snow that morning, so I called him and his flight hadn't taken off yet, but had already taxied off the tarmack. So he couldn't get off the plane. He had to go to Detroit, turn around and come back home. My mom took me home from the doctors appointment and we packed a bag and went off to St. Mary's. The first day I was there we didn't get a lot of information. They did a lot of tests. The next day we found out that I had severe preeclampsia and they would not be letting me leave until the baby was born. They couldn't tell me how long that would be. We would just be trying to keep her in there as long as possible because at the time I was only 30 weeks along. That same day that I found out that I needed to be there as long as the baby was there, they did a comprehensive ultrasound. While doing this they had some concerns with the size of Melanie's arms, legs, and nose. They said that they were short and that these were markers for Down Syndrome. So we decided to do an amnio sentisis to find out if our Melanie had Down Syndrome. We were told that the test results wouldn't be back until 10-14 days, however, they were going to try and get the tests back in 48 hours. They weren't sure that this would be possible because there was so much blood in the sample they took due to complications during the amnio. So wait we did. Jarod's mom came up to stay with us for a few days. As the days rolled on they did ultrasounds on Melanie everyday. She had to pass a biophysical test. She would normally fail it in the morning and then pass it in the evening. They always said if she were to fail it twice they would be doing a c-section to get her out. They also did numerous blood tests on me everyday and took my blood pressure every fifteen minutes. On St. Patrick's Day my mother in law secured a wheel chair ride to the roof to raise my spirits. We got to be outside for 30 minutes and best of all off the monitors for 30 minutes. I felt funny being wheeled around, but it was wonderful. Things took a turn for the worse on March 20th. My blood pressure couldn't be controlled with medications anymore. They even had me on magnesium, (the most horrible stuff in the world,) to control blood pressure and contractions. I had been having contractions the whole time, but they weren't regular. Well on the 20th they started getting stronger, closer together, and very regular. So besides the blood pressure being uncontrollable, I was also going into labor. At about 9:30 p.m. a doctor came in and told me that the thread was wearing to thin and that both the baby and I would be better off with her on the outside.

I look pretty miserable. I lost 40 lbs. of water weight within a week and a half of having Melanie.

Jarod said he was so nervous waiting to come into the OR.

At 10:23 p.m. on March 20, 2011 (exactly 2 months early,) via emergency c-section our beautiful Melanie Jane was brought into this wonderful world. She was 2 lbs. 10.5 oz., 15.3 inches, and just about the most beautiful thing her mommy and daddy had ever seen in our lives. Jarod was able to go see her while they were still working on putting me back together. I got to see her as they wheeled her by in her incubator on the way to the NICU.

Right after she was taken out of my tummy.

A picture that Jarod took once they let him into the NICU that night.

Once I was all sewn up they took me back to a room to recover. Both my parents came in one by one to sit with me, since I wanted Jarod to go to the NICU to be with Melanie. They put me back on the icky magnesium at a much higher dose to make sure that I didn't have a seizure. I had to be on it for 24 hours so I wasn't able to walk to go see Melanie. They did wheel me down to see her as we were on our way to a regular room. However, I was so weak, that we were only in there for probably 3 minutes. The NICU doctors were trying to talk to me and explain things and all I heard was wak a wak wak wak....(Like on Charlie Brown.) My only concern for that day was to start pumping breast milk for Melanie. So they got me set up and I began the lovely process of pumping. That day they also got me up and moving around. That way I would be able to go see Melanie the next day. I made Jarod go see the baby constantly and take pictures. It was the only way I got to see my baby girl. I was able to stay in the hospital for 4 days after the C-Section. The last night I was there Jarod went home to sleep so every time I brought breast milk down breast milk I spent about an hour just holding Melanie's hand. Since I have left the hospital Melanie has had so much success. She is doing amazing! She's got so much that has to be accomplished before coming home. She has to breath on her own, regulate her temperature on her own, come off IV fluids, and eat regularly on her own.

Here is a list of all of her Milestones to celebrate: (We have a list on the refrigerator!)

3/24: No sunglasses (No need for the billy light)

3/25: Sunglasses back on, but no CPAP (Melanie is breathing on her own!)

3/26: No Sunglasses, No CPAP, and we got to hold our beautiful baby girl for the very first time!!!!!

3/27: First Cuddle Care

3/30: New big girl Incubator and she weighs enough for clothing (2 lb. 12 oz.)

4/1: Came off IV fluids today

4/3: Took a bottle for the first time

4/5: Took my breast for the first time.

And here are a ton of pictures of our beautiful baby girl!!! It's incredible to see how much improvement she has made in such a short time!!!