"So What Happened?"

Hi all...Elijah here. I am finally awake enough to let you all know a bit more about what happened over the last 5 days. Last mom updated you all, she and I were kickin' it on the couch, just doing the bedrest thing. Except that the bedrest thing wasn't doing it's thing. Instead, mom's blood pressure just kept going up and up. She was seen by her doctor last Wednesday and they told her to keep monitoring her pressures every 2 hours at home and to call in on Friday with the readings.

Friday rolls around and, wouldn't you know it, her pressures really decided to kick it up a notch. 162/112. Yikes. So she called Dr. Chang who told her she needed to come into Labor and Delivery to be checked out.

Mom and I knew this drill, having done it before. So we hitched a ride with Wawa and headed on over fully expecting to again be sent home (read: no, we hadn't packed a bag). We got to the hospital and, what do you know, turns out mom wasn't crazy and dad's blood pressure reading skills weren't really bad, she was sporting some seriously high blood pressure. Dr. Chang said, "It is time to have this baby, we're going to induce you tonight." The hope had been to let me cook until 36 weeks but mom was getting too sick.

Wawa headed out to pick up my brothers and mom called dad and told him to head home and grab a suitcase and throw stuff in it. They started the induction around 5:30 p.m., but mom didn't have any contractions until 7:30 p.m. Let me tell you, I wasn't a big fan of this whole labor thing and decided to let everyone know that by really, really slowing my heart rate down with every contraction. That, combined with mom's still rising blood pressure, added some tension to the night and the medical team worried that we might need to head towards a c-section.

At midnight, mom got her epidural and they broke her water, or as I call it, busted up my swimming pool, at 12:30. At that time they told mom she was a "5" and to get some rest, that it would be a long night. Well, I had different plans. By 1:00 a.m. mom was urgently yelling at dad to run to get a nurse cause I was coming now. I interrupted the doctor's dinner and he and my main nurse had to literally run to get there in time. WHOOO HOOOO! Nothing like making a grand entrance! The NICU team also hustled in to get set up. And suddenly I was here!

I gave everyone a good scare by being so little, not really crying, and not looking so great when I was first born, so they whisked me off to the NICU. Dad came and checked me out while they worked with mom. And by 4:30 a.m. we were all reunited in the NICU.

Mom was released from the hospital yesterday and rolled down the hallway to move in with me here in the NICU. She sleeps on the couch and I am in an isolette. My main challenges are my weight (mom says that is her main challenge these days, too, except that I need to go up and she needs hers to go down) and my temperature, I need to be better about keeping my body warm. As of today, I am down a few ounces weighing in at 4 pounds, 3 ounces. And we did find out how tall I am, 18 1/4 inches.

However, they are going to try to bust me outta this isolette box tonight and see how I do out in room air. If all goes well, I may come home on Thursday or Friday.

Biggest bummer of this whole deal is that I haven't met Caleb and Noah yet. The NICU doesn't allow kids to visit as they worry about the germs and the risk of RSV. But, according to mom and dad, my brothers are also pretty bummed that they haven't met me yet.

Thank you all for your warm welcome wishes. I look forward to meeting you all soon.

Much love,

Elijah