Why Hello There!

Sorry for the lack of updates. It has been a bit insane over here and we just got the laptop today so we can post now.

Ella Grace arrived at 1:40 pm by emergency C-secton on July 10th. She is early as you all know but doing well. She weighed in at a whopping 2.5 lbs and was 14 inches long.

I just wanted to give a brief overview of the events leading to her birth. On Wednesday I did my nanny job and was feeling pregnant but fine. I came home and Shazam and I had dinner and watched our favorite show, So You think You Can Dance. During the show I started feeling sick. I first had heart burn then felt nauseous. At about 10 while getting ready for bed I started throwing up. I laid down for a few minutes and threw up again. I was just not feeling "right" so when Shazam asked if I wanted to go to the ER. I said yes. We drove the 10 minutes there thinking perhaps I had picked up a bug or had food poisoning. When we arrived I threw up some more and then started getting terrible upper stomach pain. I made S get someone and they took me up to maternity. There they tried to get my blood pressure. The first one was unreadable. They got another cuff and I don't remember what it was but it was really high. A Dr was in my room very quickly and I have never felt so much pain in my life. They started talking about transferring me to a hospital in Boston within minutes. In the moment I didn't really get how sick I was but now I know that it was very serious. They were throwing words like stroke and seizure. I was too unstable to transport at this point and was sent to ultrasound to make sure that I didn't have hematoma on my liver. We now know that the pain I was feeling was from my liver shutting down. After seeing that my liver did not have hematoma I was transported to The Brigham and Woman's Hospital in Boston by ambulance. Shazam followed in the car. I received a steroid shot to help the baby's lungs develop and given Magnesium to help with my blood pressure (along with other drugs but I don't remember what they were). The hope was to keep me pregnant for the next 48 hours so that they could give me another shot of steroids to help the baby. They call this beta complete. It was a balance between keeping the baby in me and how sick they could let me get. I made it through Thursday (which is big blur) but at 9 am on Friday morning the Drs decided that I was too sick to stay pregnant any longer as my kidneys then started to fail. I was put on the fast track for a c-section. I was however not the sickest person on the floor and got bumped by several emergencies (this is a very busy hospital). I was taken back at about 1 and had an uneventful c-section. Ella was born and made herself known by being quite loud about her arrival and refused to let them intubate her. I can not say enough about the fabulous medical team that has been helping me out and am happy to report that I had my surgery was done by my very own McSteamy and McDreamy. My surgeons were very cute, but since my mother in law reads the blog I will leave it at that!

So where are we now...

Super Sammy G: I am feeling much better. My kidney and liver function are headed back to normal which is great and I also don't have to get labs drawn every 4 hours. I am a bit of a pin cushion. My blood pressure is still not down and I am on several medications to try to get this sorted out. They started a new one today so we will see how this works. It could take several weeks to sort it all out. My normal blood pressure is very low 90s/60s and was still close to this at my last prenatal appointment. It is now in the 150s/80s and spikes before I take my meds. The Drs are not overly concerned but are also not talking about my discharge so I am not sure what that means. I will keep you updated on this. In addition I am dealing with normal post c-section healing. Not fun but I am getting better every day.

Shazam: Has been our rock. She is taking care of our whole family and keeping me sane and healthy. I love her more every minute. She has been by my side doing what every I need (which has been a lot). From helping me pee to setting up the breast pumps. I can't even imagine how she is doing this. I also know she must be so tired. She has also been there for Ella. She is in the nursery more than I can since I am still in the wheel chair for long trips and has taken all our guests in to see her. She is a great Mommy and is so tender and loving to our sweet girl. She has held me when I have broken down and I can't imagine going through this with anyone else. She is my soul mate, my puzzle piece, the love of my life. I am so lucky to have her. Ella is too! This I guess is what those wedding vows are about huh, in sickness and in health in good times and in bad. I must say that these past few days have been all of these things. I am so glad Shazam picked me to be her wife.

Ella: Ella is doing well. She only needed to be intubated briefly so this is impressive for the peanut. She is on c-pap to help with her expand her lungs and not get too tired while she is breathing but is on 100% room air (no oxygen so this is good). She had some trouble with her sugar levels yesterday but after a small change in her iv fluids she is doing really well. They detected a common heart murmur yesterday and got an echo cardiogram today to see what is going on. They are thinking it is a duct that needs to close and will either do that on its own in a few days or with the help of medication. We get the results tomorrow and will have a plan. I will keep you updated with this. She is a little jaundiced so she is under the lights getting a tan. Once her murmur is taken care of, she is no longer jaundiced and off c-pap she will be ready to start eating the breast milk I have been pumping. She is doing really well but we are living minute by minute at this point. Shazam and I are so in love and think she is quite cute. She has a picture of us hanging in her isolette and is looking quite cute in her funny eye shades. Highlights have been getting to hold her both this morning and yesterday morning and Shazam getting to change her diaper two times. The bigger and stronger that she gets the more we will be able to do. I know you all want some pictures so here is our pretty girl!