Caroline Cayenne Baarz

I figure it's about time to tell the birth story of my baby girl Caroline. The story starts on Thursday the 17th. I had my routine doctor's appointment. One of the first things they always do at the appointments is take my blood pressure. It was quite high. They waited a few minutes and tested it a couple more times and the numbers were still too high to be acceptable. They send me over to the lab for blood tests and send me home to do a 24 hours urine collection to be turned into the lab the next day. Later that afternoon I had a non-stress test and ultrasound to make sure the baby was doing okay in spite of the high blood pressure. Everything with the baby looked fine there but I got another appointment scheduled for the next day to go over the test results and take more blood pressure readings. The next morning my blood pressure was even higher than the day before and I had gained 3 pounds in 24 hours. The blood tests came back normal but I was put on bed rest until the baby was born and was to have 2 doctor visits weekly for the rest of the pregnancy. Since I had just turned in my urine sample, they wouldn't have those test results until later that day. They said they would call when the results came in. At this point I'm gearing my brain for 5 weeks of bed rest though I figured it was starting to sound like the baby would need to be delivered early. Therefore I was mentally thinking about 3 weeks of bed rest.

At 5:30pm - about 5 hours after being put on bed rest - I got the call from the doctor with the lab results. Basically, there was mass amounts of protein in my urine. 300mg of protein is too much. Guess how many mg of protein was in my sample? 21000mg!!! It was off the charts! I was told that I needed to pack a bag a get over to the hospital because things were bad enough that the baby would need to be induced as soon as possible. I called Ryan right away and told him to come home right away (he was already on his way home from work when I called)

At 6:00pm - we have a few things packed and left for the hospital. We only packed the essentials because obviously we hadn't thought yet about packing our hospital bag. I made sure to eat a little something because the nurses at our prenatal class suggested eating a little before since you get starved once you are there.

By 7:00 - in the labor room all dressed in my hospital gown. The took my blood pressure again and it was even higher than before - 165/117!!!! We were just waiting on my doctor to come and officially approve the induction of labor.

By 8:00 - the doctor comes in explains that I'm pretty sick and we can't wait for medicine to induce labor and then wait the approximate 12 hours of labor before the baby is born. A C-section was pretty much our only option. Leaving the baby in would put me (and therefore the baby) at risk of seizures and strokes and potentially death. I had surpassed pre-eclampsia and gone to eclampsia.

I had enough time to call my mom and tell her we were at the hospital and would be having the baby that night before the anesthesiologist came in to give me an epidural.

At around 8:30 I was wheeled into the operating room and Caroline Cayenne was born at 9:07pm.

Caroline was not breathing when she was born and was rushed to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU). At this point I had no idea what was going on. I couldn't see what the doctors were doing. All I knew was that the baby had been born. I didn't even get to see her before Ryan followed the doctors and nurses with Caroline off to the NICU. Once they got a CPAP machine on Caroline she was able to breathe just fine.

Until about 10:00 I was pretty out of it and back in my labor room recovering from the epidural. I was finally able to call my mom and dad and let them know that Caroline had been born. (Imagine if I hadn't even had time to call early to give them the tiny bit of information that I was able to give them.

At 11ish I was ready to move to my mother/baby room to stay until I left the hospital. I was able to make a quick stop at the NICU to see my baby for the first time. I couldn't see her really well cuz I was still lying in my hospital bed and she had her little CPAP machine covering most of her face.

By midnight Caroline was off the CPAP and breathing on her own and Ryan and I were settled in to our room for some sleep.

Three hours after arriving at the hospital, my little daughter Caroline Cayenne Baarz was born weighing in at 3 pounds 15 ounces and 17 1/4 inches long.

Now Caroline is a week old and is starting to figure out breatfeeding. She's still in the NICU but is very stable. She just really tiny. Her biggest hurdle to jump before she can come home is being able to eat enough without needing a feeding tube. She's got a ways to go, but she's progressing nicely. Being so tiny, she doesn't have the stamina to eat for very long. And if she is asleep when I come to feed her, we often can't get her awake enough to even start eating. But we are very optimistic and very happy to be parents!!