happy birthday, eden!

alright eden... here's your big debut...

i had a busy day planned saturday... and knew i was probably over-doing it... but it was nothing stressful, just a busy, fun saturday--work, a baby shower to go to and a birthday party... fun, right?

well, i met dad at his house before the birthday party... and just happened to take my blood pressure on the cuff he had at his house. uh oh. it was high. REALLY high.

...i wasn't too concerned... i was still on tap for another appointment monday to reevaluate everything. and i couldn't remember what the top & bottom numbers were at the doctors office anyway...

at the birthday party i wasn't feeling great... and i noticed my feet swelling... so, after the advice of everyone who knew what my blood pressure was, i called the on-call dr. to "just let him know what my bp was"... no emergency and i definitely wasn't in labor.

he said it sounded alarmingly high and if i'd come to the hospital, they'd have someone waiting for me to check my bp.

lee was just leaving work--so dad and i hopped in the car to come to rex and sure enough--they were waiting for me... lee met us at the hospital.

they had a loooovely gown and booties to put on and were waiting on me to get there--to check in...

TO CHECK IN?! ...uh, no... i'm just here to get my blood pressure taken...

it was nothing short of a LOOOOOOOOOONG night... they ran 39745927 tests on me and the baby... checking my blood pressure every 5-10 minutes and not letting me off of my left side*...

*there is a special place in my heart for any woman who has ever had to be on bedrest. i. was. miserable. (and my "bedrest" was for 2 days!)

the main test was a 24 hour urine screening to measure the protein in my urine... to test for preeclampsia. which meant i would be at the hospital for at least 24 hours to finish the test...

i already had an idea that things weren't looking great... they'd given me steriods for eden's lung development and had scheduled an ultrasound to check her out in great detail on monday morning... to see where she was developmentally in case they needed to get her out sooner rather than later...

monday morning:

well, my 24 hour screening tests came back... they diagnose you with preeclampsia at 3 grams of protein in your pee... SEVERE preeclampsia is considered 5 grams in your results...

mine? i had 12 grams of protein. uh oh. ...mind you, i found this particularly shocking since i had NONE in there thursday during my dr. appointment (the reason the doc wasn't too alarmed...just high blood pressure--no other symptoms)... talk about "rapid onset!"

the doctors had only seen one or two other women with those sort of numbers... wow.

the ultra sound was great... she was healthy and measuring shy of 4 lbs... but was low on fluids & placenta (fine for what she had right then... but an impossibility to make it to full term--thanks to the preeclampsia)

every test for both eden and i seemed to end in the same result--she was getting "a+"... and i was getting "d-" even though i really didn't feel that bad (or so i thought--i say that now because i'm really starting to feel GREAT again--like "pre-preggo" great!)

we really had no other choice. we had to get her out--given my condition, whether she was healthy or not...

all we could do was pray...

after a c-section, at 12:22pm on monday afternoon, march 1st, 2010...eden caroline was born... i held my breath laying on the table waiting what seemed like an ETERNITY to hear a big hearty cry... i knew if she did that, her lungs were ok (which seemed to be the only concern with the drs.)... well, she let 'er rip! a nice loud cry... ATTA GIRL!!

3lbs 12oz. 18 3/4" long... at 34 weeks gestation (6 weeks early).. and praise the Lord... she. is. HEALTHY!!!

the doctors, nurses, neonatologists...EVERYONE has been amazed that she's not had the first minute's trouble or shown any signs of being a preemie... no extra oxygen needed, lungs fully developed. what an answered prayer. she's just tiny... like a little doll...

happy birthday, sweet girl... we're so glad you're here!! we love you!

on a funny side note, i got a call on my cell phone late monday afternoon from my ob's office... they were wanting to know if i was ok--since i'd missed my appointment...

uhhh... thanks for calling, but i'm in the hospital and i've just had my baby..."OH! news travels slow here at the office apparently--congratulations, and i guess we won't charge you for a missed visit, huh?!"... HAHAHA...

tuesday, march 2nd:

i finally got to see here and have a little baby-mommy bonding time...

she continues to do fantastic and has been titled the "model citizen" of the special care unit at the hospital... she's latching on great to nurse & the doctors keep telling us "wow! most babies take a couple of tries to get that down pat at the beginning"

...which is funny, because monday they were going to be re-evaluating her due date... so who really knows exactly how far along i was... hmph. doesn't matter anymore! :)

i'm headed home friday, and eden will follow suit sometime next week hopefully!

and i'm really not sure the pictures do it justice... but she's a microscopic version of lee. you really wouldn't know that i had anything to do with the creation of this baby--she's his clone. and i wouldn't have it any other way!

thanks for being patient for the update--this is the first opportunity that i've had to really fill you in on everything i wanted to include.

billions of pictures to follow for years to come--i wanted to give you a few for now to hold you over until we get home and settled.

thanks to all of you who've called, prayed, sent notes, flowers, gifts, visits, etc... the encouragement has been felt! we will try to limit the number of visitors once we get home, until some sort of routine is established. i'll do my best to keep all of her eager fans at bay by being diligent about updating here and on facebook.