Chinese food and child birth.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 23rd
General Tso's chicken with lo mein and hot sauce.

I thought it was the death of me.

This was my dinner Tuesday night.

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 24th

I made it to lunch before throwing up everything but my brains.

I felt much better.

I even went to my Nana's Wednesday night for spaghetti.

Hello heart-burn from hell.

I drank 3 glasses of milk when I got home. I hate milk. I should have known something was wrong.

Fast-foward 4 hours... I start throwing up at about 12ish... every 20 minutes until 8:45 Thursday morning.

Ok here is where the story begins...

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 25th
I had a doctors appointment at 9 Thursday morning. I knew I couldn't make it there without getting sick so my Mom called for me and moved it back to 10:45. I peeled myself out of the bed, sent Caroline to my Nana's house, showered (I didn't even shave my legs... I wasn't concerned with it at the moment), and made it to the doctor right on time.

Of course they call 3 women back before me... even though they can clearly tell and know that I am extremely sick. ANYWAY! I get to the back and my blood pressure was like 161/108 or something extremely terrible like that. To make matters worse, I go to tinkle in the cup and I tinkle what looks like Bojangles sweet tea. (sorry for being graphic but you need to know that I was one sick puppy). When the nurse sees this, she makes a noise I have never heard before. That makes you feel good. ANYWAY... I knew something was wrong. She then calmly comes and tells me to follow her to a room. She makes me lay down (on my left side... I'm use to this... lowers your pressure) and she turns the lights out.

As I laid there, I still thought I was just extremely dehydrated and had a stomach bug. I laid in the dark praying that if God would just make me feel better, I would NEVER eat General Tso's chicken again.

Fast-forward 5 minutes... the doctor walks in... with terrible news... "I'm sending you over to the hospital. Your blood pressure is everywhere, you've gained 10 pounds in two weeks(I blamed the Kit-Kat bars), and you have +4 protein in your urine." Ok... maybe the kit-kats aren't the cause of the weight gain. Sweet. I now begin to break down. You can't do this to a pregnant woman. Breaking news like that needs to be done gently. ANYWAY... my wonderful doctor called my Mom at the hospital and sent her over to get me.

By the time we get to the hospital (which is really within walking distance) my head is hurting so bad I didn't want to keep my eyes open. My favorite doctor was on-call so I was happy to know he would be there. I was so glad to finally lay down... then I hear those words... magnesium sulfate. Oh, how much do I hate this stuff. I was on it when I was in the hospital at 28 weeks. It makes you hot, it makes you see funny, it makes ME CRAZY.

Much of being at the hospital is a blur to me. This is probably a good thing. I remember them telling me they were going to have to ship me to another hospital because Baby Lafone would probably have to be delivered. They wanted me to be with the baby and the baby would have to go to NICU. After finding this out... I went blind. You heard me. I went blind. I could open my eyes and I couldn't see a thing. This was about the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. After going blind, I made myself go to sleep. I couldn't focus on being blind. I was beginning to freak out.

My labs came back and they were everywhere. My platelets were down to 90,000 and dropping. After doing a little research a normal platelet count is anywhere from 150,000-400,000. Mine kept dropping. My liver enzymes were all out of whack too. They told me I was severely pre-eclamptic and had HELLP syndrome. Go ahead... click the link(s). HELLP is rather scary.

Back to the story. An ambulance comes to get me. When I make it to the hospital, I could see again. But barely. People had already told me that my body was rejecting my baby. They told me that the only way for me to get better was to have the baby. The doctors decided to go ahead and induce labor with a pitocin drip when my labs came back and my platelets were down to 26,000. I was induce with Caroline and I knew that pitocin was a terrible medicine. I hate it. My contractions were coming what felt like every 45 seconds. I would breathe for 15 seconds and have another one. It was just awful.

Like I said before, magnesium sulfate makes you VERY hot. My head and feet were on fire the whole time I was having contractions. My Mom, Nana, and aunt Lesley took turns wetting towels and putting them on my head and feet. Ryan was somewhere in the room. I think he just tried to stay out of the way. They had the air on 65 in my room and I was still on fire. Everyone else had on jackets and were shivering.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 26th

Sometime after 12 am, in a matter of seconds, my water broke and I knew the baby was on her way. I knew I had to push and told them. They all yelled for me to wait. Question: How do you wait to have a baby? Do you know how difficult it is to suck a baby back inside? I don't think you have any idea.

They wheeled my bed to a different room and made me crawl on a hard black table. (SIDE NOTE: Upon entering the room, they slammed my bed against the door frame... HELLO baby about popped out.)

After about 3 pushes, I gave birth to a beautiful 2 pound 15 ounce baby girl at 12:45 am on September 26, 2008.

She was tiny. Her cord was wrapped around her neck twice which scared me to death. Her doctors were wonderful. She got a 5 and 7 on her APGAR. She went on CPAP for a short time and was off and breathing on her own by the time everyone was able to see her.

As most of you know, Ryan and I were having a difficult time choosing a name for our sweet baby. I was still on mag after I had her and don't remember much of anything. Thank goodness I was able to make a good decision.

We talked about names. We decided we liked Cameryn. Well, Ryan went to go see her and as soon as he came back he said she wasn't a Cameryn. So he sat down and we made a list of names. We decided on Emma. He agreed that she was an Emma. We both liked the name Raegan. I just didn't want to use it as a first name. So we decided to use it as her middle name. And that my friends, is how Miss. Emma Raegan got her name... FINALLY! It fits her well.
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I am finally feeling normal again. I am not 100% and they still have me on blood pressure medicine but I am getting there. I go back to the doctor Thursday for a blood pressure check and hopefully they will take me off this medicine.

Emma is still doing great. We are just so ready for her to come home. We are ready for things to get back to normal. It is difficult to be a Mommy to a wildchild two-year-old that needs me and to be with a baby that I feel like needs me too.

Caroline is doing great. She helps me pump and make "Baby Seester EEEmma" bottles. She loves visiting Emma. She wants to hold her but we told her that Emma was too little right now but when Emma gets home, she can hold her as much as she wants. She enjoys pulling a string on an elephant that sings and laying it beside Emma.

As of last night (October 5th) Emma was 9 days old and weighed 3 pounds 3 ounces. She is doing well. I can't see how much she weighs when they weigh her tonight.

Thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers you have sent our way. We appreciate them more than you will ever know. We are so thankful for all that we have. Continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Here are a few new pictures of Caroline and Emma. (PS- Caroline still won't look at the camera! Sorry!)