Arizona roll call

[jillmushet]

Hi Anne: Thank you for posting! Sorry to hear about the red flags waving their unwelcome heads. Please take care and let us know how you are doing. Hear's hoping for a long pregnancy through the lovely Flagstaff summer!

Jill
Claire, 34wks, 3lbs 3ozs
3/3/00, PE & HELLP

[little_maries_mom]

lovely? LOL right now it seems like hmmmmmmm the under world? It is not that hot but I feel like I am dying:). Thanks for welcoming me, and if anyone wants to know anything (hint hint lol) I have a thred on Pregnant again. I will take as good as care as I can, be good and you take care of yourself to young lady;).

Mom to
Leslye Marie 12-16-1998
James Augusta Piper V 1-13-2004
and Jazmine Nichole due in September 2005

[raetay]

Hi,
I've been asked to introduce myself to our local AZ group. My name is Rachel and I live in Gilbert. I have the craziest baby stories ever! For 10 years I struggled to get pregnant and the three times I did ended in miscarriage. So, we ended up adopting two beautiful, miraculous little souls. Suddenly, after moving here from Minnesota in 2001, I became unexpectedly pregnant. We were so surprised and so thrilled. Initially, I had horrible morning sickness - requiring hospitalizations, IV therapy, and Zofran. At about 20 weeks, I was finally starting to feel better, thrilled that I'd made it through my first trimester and began to actually hope for a baby. Just before my doctors appt at 23 weeks, I woke up at midnight with a headache so severe that I could hardly lift my head to wake my husband. (I have suffered from cluster headaches for years, so to say that it is the worst headache of my life speaks volumes for the intensity of the pain). I took some Tylenol, finally fell asleep about 3 hours later, and called my doctor in the morning. Because the Tylenol had taken care of it and my history of severe headaches, my doctor decided to wait for my scheduled appointment two days later to see me. At that appointment, I was spilling protein and my blood pressure was at 140/100. He sent me immediately to the hospital, where I spent the remainder of my prengnacy - a dark and lonely time. Because we live more than an hour from the hospital, I only got to see my older two kids on the weekends. Thankfully I did get to see my husband every day over his lunch hour. Although I continued to worsen, it was gradual and I made it another five weeks before my son showed too much distress and he was born via emergency c-section. At 28 weeks, he had severe IUGR and weighed just 1.6 pounds at birth. He spent three months in the NICU and came home on his due date weighing 5 pounds and requiring O2 and a feeding tube. He was rehospitalized - and re-intubated - six weeks later because of fluid overload (common with lung disease). He stopped eating after that and we have fought weight gain/feeding issues ever since. Today, however, he is a happy and mostly healthy three y.o. boy. He just started the preschool program, which we're thrilled about.
When he was almost two, we found out that I was pregnant again - while using birth control (which had seemed so unnecessary considering my history)! My pregnancy followed much the same, but symptoms of PE came later. My blood pressure started rising at about 29 weeks, I went on bed rest and kept it stable until 34 weeks when I started spilling protein. I was again sent immediately to the hospital for the duration of the pregnancy, this time only lasting another two days before my blood pressure climbed to 180/110 and proteins doubled in a matter of hours. Our daughter was born at 34 weeks, 2 days by emergency c-section weighing 4.5 pounds. She probably could have come home with me if my milk had come in. But since it hadn't, and they needed to make sure she could eat, they gave her formula. We later discovered that she had severe allergies to formula, but at the time they suspected NEC. So she was in the NICU for another two and a half weeks. Surprisingly, her hospital stay was harder on me than my son's. I got to the NICU doors and started bawling and didn't stop until I left, even though she was nowhere as sick as he was. When she finally came home, she had no problems with breast milk and did great. But whenever we tried to supplement with formula, she had the same reaction she did in the hospital - vomiting, blood in the stool, refusal to eat. Three and a half months later, she began to breastfed solely and is still going today at 11 months. She is also small, weighing just 13 pounds (not on the charts). But because she eats well and is continuing to grow consistently, there is no concern. Whew!
It's been a rocky road for our family, but I'm so grateful for each one of my children and I consider them each miracles in their own way.


[Hospital names edited]

[jillmushet]

Hi Rachel: Thank you for sharing your story and congratulations on 4 wonderful children! I'm glad you found us and hope that you find this site helpful.

I live in Chandler, so we're neighbors. Please let me know if there is anything I can personally do for you.

Thanks!

[4wheelinmama]

I have jsut registered with the site; also my hubby and i have also decided it is time for another. with my first pregnancy i was on bed rest the entire time at first due to a bicorniate uterus and towards the end because of preeclampsia. I was then hospitalized for three weeks before my son was born by c section at 9:41 pm on 9/27/04, he was able to go home with me when i left( how lucky we were). Our son will be one this september and we have decided that we are ready to try again even though there is such a risk that i can get sick again. i would like to get some womens opinion on this, i just do not feel like i could be happy inside with myself if i did not have another child; a piece seems like it is missing. I thank god for me having such a supportive husband and for blessing us with a happy healthy baby boy. god bless all of you mothers and fathers that have experienced this terrible sickness.

[jillmushet]

Welcome Nevin! Thank you for posting! I hope that you find this site informative and supportive. The Trying To Conceive area on the forum may be especially helpful to you. Please let me know if I can do anything for you.

Thanks again for saying hello...

[jamilyn]

welcome - this is an amazing foundation, im glad you have found it.
Rachel i was like you with my second experience in the NICU. my first experience in the NICU was a very rocky one and my son ended up not making it. with my last pregnancy with my son just 4 months ago i had the hardest time in the NICU, i think its just that those old memories come back and you start to associate it with bad things.
Good luck to you all!

[little_maries_mom]

Just wanted to say hi to all the new AZ people and I hope your all doing great. Be good and come chat with us on the other boards sometime, it is really fun.

[mommy1st]

Hello Everyone! My name is Holly and am from Phoenix. Here is my story for you all. My husband and I got married on January 8th 2005 and before we got married we knew that we wanted to have children right away so we went to the Doctor and found out that I had PCOS(poly cystic ovarian syndrome). So, my doctor put us on Clomid to get pregnant well I took the first cycle of clomid and got pregnant right away. I used to tell people that my husband and I just said " I DO" and that's how we got pregnat, LOL. We were so thrilled to get pregnant and at that so easily. During my pregnancy everything was going pretty well I started swelling in my feet and hands at 4 months but other than that I was fine that was until I went to visit my parents in July and they saw legs, face and hands. My Dad and brother had to sauter off my wedding band!! That was when things started getting bad. My voice started changing, I couldn't wear my contacts anymore because my eyes swelled, I had SEVERE headaches, massive weight gain and I started getting blurred vision. It was really weird because at my doctor appointments my blood pressure was fine and urine was fine also. On August 20th( 33 weeks pregnant) I was on the phone with my friend who told me she had preeclampsia when she was pregnant with her daughter and she advised me to call my doctor right away and I did. He told me to go and get my blood pressure checked at my local walgreens and call him back. It came back as 192/120 he told me to go to the hospital right away. When I got there my blood pressure got worse it became 195/125 and my organs started shutting down. It basically came down to mine and my son's life or give birth soon. I chose giving birth early. My doctor gave me a steroid in my hip for 48 hours to help my son's lungs to matture. They also gave me magnesium sulfate so that I wouldn't get seizures or have a stroke. The doctor finally did an emergency c-section on August 22 and I gave birth to our son Braden Gregory Coolman at 9:20 that night weighing 3 IBS 11.5 oz and 18 1/2 inches long. Braden was rushed to the NICU and was there for 16 days. We were so happy the day the doctor and nurses told us we could bring him home!! When Braden was in the NICU he luckily had very little problems he had to learn how to suck and swollow and gain weight. Unfortantley I was not allowed to go home 3 days after I had him like most women do who have c-section births. My blood pressure would not go down very easily so I was in the hospital for 8 days and left with being on some high blood pressure medicine. Today I now have been off of the blood pressure medicine for almost 2 weeks now and doing well. Braden will be 8 weeks old on Monday and weighs 7 Ibs and 20.5 inches long and doing very well now!
Through all of this my husband and I never seemed to question God we jsut knew there was a reason for this to happen weather we know it now or later. We believe in our hearts that Braden is a miracle from God. We are so lucky for Braden to be alive and for my health:)

Holly
Braden, 33 wks, 3Ibs 11.5 ozs
8/22/05,PE

[jillmushet]

Hi Holly: Welcome! Thank you for telling your story. Very glad to hear that Braden is doing great. Wow, it's been some kind of year for you.....

Your story is very fortunate in that you sought medical help at the time you needed it most and your doctor took you seriously. I'm so happy for you.

Thank you for posting, and please stop by the other boards for more information and support....