**This is the story of how Hailey Anne Borland was born 5 weeks premature after a month and a half on bedrest. This story was taken from an email that I had sent to someone, so it may be filled with typos and spelling errors,e tc**
The morning of October 22nd I had a regularly scheduled doctors appointment. While I was there my blood pressure was extremely high. Not good since they had me on medication for this as well as bedrest! They did some tests to make sure the baby was doing ok in the womb. I also had an ultrasound to check on my fluid levels (which were somewhat low, but ok) and her growth. From previous ultrasounds the weeks before it appeared that the baby had stopped growing for some reason (labeled IUGR - in-utero growth restriction) I also had more protein in my urine which meant that on top of my high blood pressure, I was also diagnosed with pre-eclampsia. Due to all of this my doctor suggested that I walk over to the hospital and be admitted and they would do an amnio to check and see if the babies lungs were fully developed. If the test results came back that the lungs were good to go, then we would start the induction process.
So...off to the hospital I went (again). The amnio was done at lunch time and we got the reults back at dinner time. The test showed that Hailey's lungs were in fact fully developed! Yikes...this meant that I would stay in the hospital and start the process to have my little girl. At about 7:00pm the doctor came in and checked me - I was already 3cm dilated and 80% effaced. She broke my water and started me on pitocin and then it was just the waiting game! They came in about every 30 minutes to up the dose of pitocin and check my blood pressure.Once I hit 5 cm. I decided I wasn't sure how I would handle the pain of labor, so I asked for the epidural. Such a weird feeling not to have control over your lower half. A couple times in the middle of the night my leg fell of the edge of the bed and I had to wake Brian up to help me get it back on the bed since I couldn't feel my legs. The epidural allowed me to sleep through most of my labor, which was nice. I woke up at 6:00am on October 23rd feeling like I was having some really bad gas. I woke Brian up to see what he thought I should do about it - he told me to call the nurse. I didn't want to do that and have it just be gas so I laid there trying to go back to sleep. About 15-20 minutes later I decided I had better call the nurse since the feeling wasn't going away. She came in and checked me and I was fully dilated and the head was right there!! She called for my doctor to get in there pretty quickly. I started pushing at about 6:30am and at 7:01am on
Ocotber 23rd, Hailey Anne Borland was born into this world. She weighed in at a tiny 3 pounds 13.4 ounces and was 16.5 inches long. Such a tiny little thing!!! They got her cleaned up while they were stitching me up from my 2nd degree tear, and then I got to hold her for maybe 2 minutes before they whisked her away to the NICU. Brian went with her while I stayed in my room - I couldn't leave my room for 24 hours since I was on magnesium during delivery for my blood pressure issues.
Hailey spent the first 2 weeks of her life in the NICU which was the hardest thing on Brian and I. We would go and visit her 2 times a day until she came home. Hailey was finally able to come home with us on November 8th! :-) She has been doing so well. Besides the tons of gas and having to strain to get it out, the only time she really is fussy is when she is hungry. She's a great baby! Her eyes are still a dark blue-gray. We're still waiting to see if they will go brown like mine, or stay blue like Brian's eyes. She has blonde hair and is getting more and more each day. Still not sure if that's the color her hair will stay or not. She has grown so much already. Right now she is about 7 pounds or so...so already double what she was at birth!!!
It has definitely been challenging getting used to having a preemie baby at home...but we are adjusting well I would say.
Here are some pictures from her birth.
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| First few ultrasounds |
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| Mommy and baby right after birth |
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| First family picture |
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| Being examined under the warmer |
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| in the NICU holding daddy's hand during examination-Mommy wasn't able to see her until the next day |
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| the isolette behind her would eventually become her new home |
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| breathing tube in inserted now-though only needed for the first few hours due to baby forgetting to breathe on her own |
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| Day2-Mommy finally gets to visit and hold baby though I was still pretty loopy from the magnesium drip |
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| After 16 days, Hailey finally gets to come home! |
