Baby Ben

Well, I went to my doctor appointment on Monday. He tested my urine and checked my blood pressure. After finding way, way too much protein in my urine and seeing that my blood pressure about 160 over 110 he sent me straight to the hospital. I asked if I could go home first and he told me I better get straight over to the hospital. So I called Cal who was driving home from Utah and told him he better take the next few days off work since the doctor told me I would be lucky to make it to the weekend. I was so scared. This was all so new and confusing to me. So I had to stay in the hospital overnight. That night I was awakened by bright lights and a lot of commotion. I guess the baby's heartbeat had dropped a couple of times and they were going to do an emergency C-section right then. Fortunately they got things stabilized. So they put me on an IV and oxygen. They had to monitor my urine for 24 hours. The results came back on Tuesday night. My protein levels were dangerously high. The number was 2,444, whatever that means. So Dr. Isbell decided we needed to do an emergency C-Section the next morning.

Our little baby Ben was born at 9:39 the next morning. I only got to see him for a half a second before they wisked him off to the Nicu. Cal was quite a trooper. He watched the whole thing from the spinal to the two grown men ripping my abdomen apart. About an hour later I got to meet my new little buddy. He weighed 3 lbs 3 oz and the doctor said he wouldn't have gotten any bigger because my placenta was dry with no more fluid to nurish him. Poor little guy. He is doing so awesome. He was never put on oxygen or had the need for extra medication. They already have taken the IV out of his head because he could maintain a healthy blood sugar level on his own. He can suck and swallow so he could be bottle fed, but in order to preserve energy he is usually fed through the tube in his nose. They don't want him to have to burn any extra calories.

Last night we came home from the hospital. It was not a pretty sight. I sobbed and sobbed. We went back around nine though and I held him for a couple of hours. I am doing much better now. It's so hard to come home without him. You always envision that ride home with your baby coming with you. It's not right to have to leave them there. It was very hard on both of us. We know that they will take good care of him there so we are grateful for that.

We took a picture from my hospital room to show how beautiful the weather was the day after he was born. NOT. I am so tired of snow, yet that day I was so euphoric that I couldn't care less. We love our baby Ben so much and can't wait for everyone to get to meet him.