The beginning

At last week's ob/gyn visit, my doctor noticed that I was showing signs of preeclampsia. Lee and I decided to monitor my blood pressure every night to make sure that the preeclampsia wouldn't set in because the condition can be harmful to the baby and me. During after-school tutoring on Thursday, I developed a slight headache, and I went home shortly after and laid down hoping the headache would go away. When Lee came home, I told him that I had a headache. He immediately grabbed the blood pressure cuff, and my blood pressure was 140/88, which is normally 110/70. Lee and I decided to go over to the UK Ob triage at the hospital to get checked out. When I got there, my blood pressure rose to 173/110, and after all of the labs came back, I developed a severe case of preeclampsia, which only 2-3% of women get (lucky me). The only cure is to induce me into labor.

My induction began at 1 am the morning of Friday, April 27th. I had to take magnesium sulfate for 48 hours to prevent me from having seizures, which also means that I was bed ridden. The medication also was counteracting the medication for my induction, so my labor process was extremely long. At 10:20 in the evening, my doctor checked to see if I was dilated to 10 cm. She told me that if I wasn't, then I would have to have a C-section. Luckily, I was. After 21 and a half hours of being in labor, she asked, "could you push?" I said, "I am going to try." Finally after 25 minutes of pushing, Aryana arrived.

Unfortuately when she arrived, she wasn't crying and laid limp in the doctor's arms. My thought was, "do something." The pediatrician resident took her in the back room, and after the longest 2 minutes of our lives, Lee and I heard a cry. Lee went in to see her while I finished the delivery.

Aryana's First Picture

The nurse brought her out to show me. Aryana looked at me, and then five seconds later, she was wisked away to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).


Aryana Sees Mom For The First Time

Cute Sign Made By the NICU Nurses (1655 grams = 3 lbs 9 oz!)