I honestly cannot believe that it has been an entire year since my sweet Eliana was born.  At 5:36 pm she will be exactly 1 year old.  I have been thinking a lot lately about how far she has come and how much she has overcome.  We knew that she would probably come early, but I don’t think we ever imagined that she would arrive a full two months before her due date.  I can’t even begin to describe the rush of emotions that you feel the moment your baby is born.  I am sure every mother holds her breath, waiting for that first cry to reassure that everything is all right.  It was probably only a few seconds, but I swear, it felt like a lifetime.  

That first night that she was with us was hard.  I was only able to touch her and see her for a few brief minutes before she had to be taken to Children’s Hospital.  It was not enough time.  There were so many things that I was feeling that night.  I was so in love with this tiny, precious child.  I did not know that I was capable of that amount of love.  I am still amazed at how much love you can feel.  And just when you think your heart can’t possibly hold anymore, you find that it can.  It has this amazing way of expanding.  There was also an empty feeling.  She wasn’t with us and I couldn’t be with her.  To go through childbirth and then be left alone in a room without a child is heartbreaking.  Along with that was a fear of the unknown.  I didn’t fully understand her condition, how sick she was, what would happen next, how long she would be there.  There was also a hurt.  Parents know that one of the hardest things in the world is to see your child suffering. . .especially when there is no way to comfort them.

BUT, that little 2 lb., 6 oz. girl was (and is) a fighter!  She is smart, determined, and I pity anyone that gets in her way!  She has come so far.  And, she has done it all with a smile.  She wakes up happy, she goes to bed happy and stays that way between the two.  She lets you know when you’ve made her mad, but she never stays mad.  She amazes me every single day.  I could not be more proud of her than I am.  She is my world and she has absolutely captured my heart.

This may have been the fastest years of my life and one of the hardest years of my life, but it was definitely and without a doubt the happiest year of my life!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SWEET, HAPPY, AMAZING, WONDERFUL ELIANA!

People have been expressing their frustration (mild, nothing major – well, I did get that one threat by mail…) over the lack of pictures as of late so I thought I might let you know where you can find some new ones. I’ve abandoned Flickr for now and have migrated over to Picasa. When I have the time, I’ll update the home page and the right column so that pictures in those areas will be pulling from up-to-date Picasa content.

For now, though, check out my public Gallery on Picasa.

As you can tell from Jason’s updates, we had a good night last night!  They took my blood pressure again at 3:15am and it is creeping closer and closer back to my normal range (125 / 69).  Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful night, which is a very good thing!

They have a monitor strapped around me so we are constantly able to hear (and they are able to monitor) her heartbeat.  It’s a wonderful sound and Jason has decided that he would like me to wear this all the time.  If it weren’t for the goo (gel) and the awkwardness of it all, I might consider it, but I think I am going to have to decline his request.

Eliana is not liking the monitor at all.  Every time I change positions it has to be readjusted and every time that is done she gets upset and starts kicking at the monitor.  It’s funny because really the belt that goes around me is no tighter than a normal pair of pants, which never bother her, but for some reason she does not like having this monitor on me.  I told Jason that she pitched her first temper tantrum at 3:15 when they moved it around.  She went crazy in there trying to kick it off of me. . .if I didn’t know better I would have sworn that she had at least 8 or 9 legs and arms!

We should know more this evening about staying or going home, but if things continue on like they have then I should be home soon!!  In the meantime, we have an excellent group of nurses here taking care of us.  They have been so very nice and just a pleasure to be around. . .even at 3:00 in the morning! – Heather

Update, 12:55pm: They moved us earlier this morning from the labor & delivery area to the “antepartum” section on the same floor. Still a nice and, thankfully, private room. (Pictures: http://yfrog.com/3lxmqgfj and http://yfrog.com/33ghryj)

Based on what I saw on the Fort Sanders site, this section is mainly for lengthy visits. Although, based on the reports we’ve been given thus far, that may not be the case for us… hopefully. We’re actually hoping to be out tomorrow and to continue on with our regular birthing plan. – Jason

Update, 6:10pm:

Finished my 24-hour urinalysis and should have the results back in the next hour to hour and a half.  We are praying that they don’t find any protein in the urine because that would mean pre-eclampsia.

Just had my second steroid shot, which helps mature the baby’s lungs a little faster.  That is just a precaution in case she needs to be delivered early for any reason, however, it certainly will not hurt her if she stays in to term.

Should know more in the next few hours!!

Update, 9:30 pm:

The nurse came in a few hours ago and said that the doctor should be in to go over the results of the urinalysis with us this evening, but that there was protein in there.  At first she said that the protein in the urine was “elevated” but then later mentioned that it was high.  Not really what we were wanting to hear, but we were waiting on the doctor to ask questions and find out a little more about it.

The nurse came back just a little while ago and we asked when the doctor would be in and she said that she spoke to him and he is just going to go over the results with us in the morning.  She mentioned that he did not seem too concerned about it, which I suppose is a good thing.  It would be nice to know a little more this evening, but I guess him not seeming concerned is what we will hold onto tonight!

We will update (or start a new post) as soon as we know something tomorrow.  We have no idea what time in the morning he will be in here to talk with us, so it could be early, could be later.

Again, we want to thank you all for the prayers, calls and support throughout this!

We had our 30 week appointment this morning. . .and it certainly changed our plans for the day!

Over the weekend I was concerned about my blood pressure.  No particular reason, but I wanted to get it checked.  We used the little chair thing there at Walmart and at Kroger and both were showing my blood pressure very high.  So, Karen and Harold brought me an at-home blood pressure cuff and I tried that.  It also showed me quite high.

First thing Monday morning I went by the doctor’s office to have them check it, just in case – and sure enough, it was high.  Normally I have been running about 110 / 70 and on Monday morning it was 150 / 90.  Everything else looked okay, so they put me on bed rest for the day.

Which brings us to today.  We went in for our ultrasound and dr’s appointment and everything took a bit of an unexpected turn.  Blood pressure was still elevated, but along with that there were issues on the ultrasound.  Eliana had appeared to fall a little further behind and the amount of amniotic fluid was too low.

We went in to talk with the doctor and I was expecting him to tell us that I would need to continue on bed rest this week.  I was not quite prepared to hear that we needed to go to the hospital.  I apparently did need to be on bed rest, but they felt it would be better for both me and the baby to be in an environment that we could be properly monitored.  Unfortunately, he couldn’t tell us whether we would be here a day or for the duration of the pregnancy. . .it all depends on how things look.

Once we got here at Fort Sanders we had another ultrasound (along with several other things) and things looked much better.  The fluid was good and so far all my labs have come back looking good.  Blood pressure is still on the high side, but everything else is looking good.  We should know more tomorrow as to how long we will be here, but it is looking good that we won’t be here very long!! -Heather

Update, 11:03pm: BP is at 133/65. Getting there! (They’ve been paying close attention to the 2nd number and it’s definitely down from close to 100.) -Jason

Update, 4:30am: We aren’t getting much sleep but, in the meantime, here was a picture from our room: http://yfrog.com/37xe6aj. Eliana and Heather are still doing very well. We’ll get some test results tomorrow and, perhaps, be out of here by Thursday if they’re both doing as good as they are now. -Jason