My Miracle Baby ♥

Its been too long!!!

2011-04-13T09:48:00.010-05:00

Wow....I know it has been a long time since I've updated but there has been so much craziness going on in our lives that it just was impossible to sit down and blog. But i do plan on getting back in the mix and updating often...Well Melani is officially a walker. She worked up enough confidence to let go and take off! This is huge for her considering her vision impairment but she is de finitely going to have it down soon. She weighs about 21 lbs now and her doctor switched her formula due to her lack of growth in the past year. She is doing so amazing! Things are changing around h ere. My husband joined the army and is in South Carolina right now. By the time he comes home, I hope Melani is a little butterball. We are hoping to put a little bit of fat on her tiny frame. =) She a lso tries to repeat words and she loves to play with her brother and sister. Cant believe that in 7 months I will have a 3 year old! It seems like just yesterday I was bringing her home fro m the hospital! Man how time flies! I'm g onna post a few pictures of my kiddos at the park a few days ago!

Quick Update

2010-09-23T22:17:00.002-05:00

So it has been so long since I've updated about Melani. Life has just been so crazy.
Melani is doing amazing! She is 22 months old and weighs 20 lbs. She gets into everything and we are working on walking but with her vision impairment it is going to take a little bit of time. She is the happiest baby ever. Uhm...she is off of all meds and all oxygen as of April of 2010. Not much to update but life is going great and i will post pictures of her soon! She'll be 2 in November and we are so excited that we are actually contemplating having a party for her...but we're not too sure since her birthday is in the middle of RSV season.

Happy 1st Birthday!

2009-11-15T23:22:00.003-06:00

November 16, 2008
This time last year we were told our baby didn't have a great chance at surviving 2 days of life....now one year later we are celebrating the birth of our miracle girl and she is here to celebrate it with us! God is so good.

2009-09-16T08:02:00.001-05:00

Melani is 10 months today! She is doing amazing. She is laughing with her brother and sister all the time! She is just the happiest baby ever!

Swallow Study

2009-08-28T20:12:00.003-05:00

Melani had a swallow study done this morning and she did great!!! She did way better than they thought she was going to do considering how premature she was and how long it's been since she ate with a bottle. She also got up to date with her shots. =( It was my first time seeing her get them and i wanted to cry ...but she got over it really fast...but boy did she get ticked. LOL

Quick Update

2009-08-23T15:10:00.002-05:00

Sorry that I haven't really been updating you all who are trying to keep up with Melani's progress. She is doing amazing. She is now 10 lbs 12 ozs. She is starting to coo alot and i love to hear her in her crib talking to herself. Its so cute. She is working on rolling over...and she is almost there. She seems to always have a smile on her face these days. Her recent trip to the pulmonologist went well...he "officially" lowered her down to 1/2 of a liter of o2. She was on 1/4 in the hospital but went home on half...but since no official orders were written...they are now. =) Anyways, i will update again later as new things come. Thank you for all of your prayers!

Long, Long Road

2009-08-02T02:54:00.003-05:00

So as you all know, Melani came home from the NICU on 7.16.09...exactly 8 months after she was born. Woohoo! =) But we had a small set back on 7.24.09...she was really gasy and was just so uncomfortable and had a low fever so we took her to the children's er. Welllll, turned out she had a blockage somewhere in her intestines and everything that should have been coming out of her body "naturally" was being backed up and going out of her g-tube. Not a pretty thing. But she ended up having surgery again on July 27, 2009 and it went great. Her intestines slid into her colon and that was the obstruction...luckily there was no dead intestine and it was a quick and easy surgery. We were so scared about her getting reintubated because we thought her lungs were just so bad that it was going to take a while to get her off of the ventilator but she was off as soon as surgery was over and was back to her normal self the next day. She was in a little pain but not like the previous surgeries she's had. She came home 8.1.09...her daddys birthday!!! Best present out there! =) She is a little fighter and the strongest person i know. She was been through more in her 8 1/2 months of life than most people go through in their entire lives. I'm so thankful my family is finally under one roof and I hope it stays like this for a very LONG LONG while!!!

2009-07-27T19:44:00.001-05:00

Melani did amazing in surgery. It was only a minor problem and it was fixed without cutting her intestines!! She's off of the vent and on 1 liter of oxygen! Yay

2009-07-27T15:38:00.001-05:00

Melani is back in surgery. Friday she started having lots of gas and went to the er....the said she has a intestinal blockage....i hope this surgery goes well.

2009-07-18T21:35:00.000-05:00

Melani is so amazing at home. She is smiling sooo much! Anytime someone talks to her she smiles from ear to ear! I finally have all of my babies under one roof!

2009-07-16T21:39:00.001-05:00

She's FINALLY home!!! After exactly 8 months of being in the NICU Melani is where she belongs!!! The last 246 days have been the hardest but its all over!! YAY!

2009-07-14T03:45:00.001-05:00

We are going to room in with Melani tonight and tomorrow night and she is finally coming home Thursday! Exactly 8 months to the day that she changed our lives!!

2009-07-12T04:16:00.001-05:00

Rooming in with melani and she has been asleep almost all day and all night. She loves being with mommy and daddy! Cant wait until she is home!

2009-07-11T04:35:00.001-05:00

First night rooming in with Melani is going okay. She has been fussy throughout the night and its only 430 am. Woohoo....lol. Hope the day goes smoothly.

2009-07-04T22:38:00.001-05:00

Yay!! They are going to extubate Melani in the morning!!! She is off of nitric and is on 34% oxygen!!!

2009-07-04T06:19:00.002-05:00

Sorry for taking so long to post. I just haven't been up for updates since there was nothing new. But I got good news today! Melani is almost off of the nitric and she is in the 40's on her oxygen! They are going to try and extubate her really soon! That means we are a step closer to going home! But I'm not going to get too excited until it's done and she is doing well on a nasal cannula. I talked to the eye doctor today and he said her right eye will have some vision but her focal point is off. Her left eye...the retina is folded near the center so he believes that she will have very little vision in her left eye, maybe only distortion...but we won't know until she is older. I'm just so thankful that she still has a chance to see period.

2009-07-02T20:43:00.001-05:00

Sorry i havent updated in a while...Melani is doing well. They are still working on getting her off of the vent but she is well.

Still hangin in there....

2009-06-28T02:48:00.006-05:00

Melani is doing well. She has been having ALOT of gas. Her tummy in so huge but the doctors are trying to make her feel better and get rid of it and it seems to be working. The last 3 to 4 days she has been so bloated and mad and full of gas...anyone who has had a c-section or any surgery knows how that feels! They've cut her feeds down to 10 cc's every hour for 2 hours and then the 3rd hour she is "air out" LOL. They connect an empty syringe to her g-tube and open it to air and the gas just escapes through the tube as it would the other end. =] Today Melani was so comfortable and didn't seem to be bothered by being on the ventilator. She was finally happy! Other than that...there is really nothing new. Oh and today was big sisters 4th birthday!

Happy birthday Mikaela! June 27th!

Looking Brighter

2009-06-24T03:15:00.003-05:00

Things are beginning to look a little brighter. When Melani couldn't get her sats above the 80's while on 100% O2 and 20 ppm of NO2...I honestly was beginning to worry. But, Melani's doctor came back after several weeks and worked his magic. He changed several things and Mel is doing alot better. All the other doctors tried to do what they could but they really don't "KNOW" her and how she works. She tends to be very touchy and doesn't like alot of change too fast so everything is being done very slowly. Things are definitely looking brighter this week. I'm just hoping getting her off of the ventilator is a simple task and i hope she tolerates it well. [[fingers crossed]]
Well that's about it for now. God willing in the updates to come I can fill you in on "homecoming" plans. I don't want to really talk about it yet because I don't want to jinx anything. =] The Lord has brought us this far...whats a little longer. =]

2009-06-22T06:18:00.001-05:00

6:16am-Melani's sats have been 94 and 95. Her nurse said she was briefly sating at 99. Woohoo!! Go mel! Looks a little brighter today! : )

2009-06-21T10:32:00.001-05:00

Melani is still sating at 91. Her doc is gonna switch her over to oral instead of iv sedation so she can start waking up and see if her sats go up.

2009-06-21T05:34:00.008-05:00

5:40 am-I just found out how to blog by text! YAY! lol-now i can send more updates faster! So when there is anything new i will update it right away!

Little Fighter

2009-06-21T03:37:00.002-05:00

Well Melani is still about the same, no major changes have been made. She is on 100% oxygen and at 20 ppm on her INO and she can't seem to get her sats out of the 80's. But the good thing is that she is resting very comfortably and her blood gases have been good. They've started her on inhaled antibiotics just as a precaution but so far no change. I'm hoping that she is just really tired and will surprise us in the next few days and start coming up on her sats. She is also being really sedated just in case she is uncomfortable and also to keep her from fighting against the ventilator. I really do not want her to be put on the oscillator (which is a high frequency ventilator) because she absolutely hates it. It give lots of little breaths and it shakes her entire body. She has been on it 2 or 3 times already and I would really hate to see her put back on it BUT if it is necessary then so be it. =[ Anything to finally get her home with us.

Of course our other kiddos see how we go to the hospital everyday and they know (well our 4 year old) we are going to see their baby sister, but they have never brought up us leaving her at the hospital...well our daughter as we were driving away from the hospital said to us in a very concerned tone of voice "Wait, we forgot to bring Menali home with us". (She calls her Menali instead of Melani) I got a knot in my throat when she said it and then dad explained that we were going to bring her home but not yet. She just kept on saying "okay next time we come and see our angel baby she can come home with us?" So now we want her home even more because I know it is tiring for the kids to go sit there for hours at a time...and they don't come every time. Even at home when our 4 year old stands by the crib she kind of peers in and talks about how her baby sister is going to go "mimis" in her bed when she comes from the hospital. I cant wait until she finally does come home and the kids can actually see her!

7 months old♥

2009-06-16T23:23:00.002-05:00

My baby girl is 7 months old today. She was sleepy while i visited her today. She looked so comfortable and calm. A far cry from last night! She weighed 9 pounds-10.6 ounces today! She has her feedings going at 5 cc's an hour on a continuous feed. She is doing great! Sorry for the short post but there isn't alot to say. Thank you for all of your prayers.

Surgery went great!

2009-06-13T00:52:00.002-05:00

My baby girl did great with her surgery! She went to surgery about 8:15 and they were finally done at about 12:45. I didn't think it was going to take that long but I was just thankful that she did so well. My baby is a fighter! I will post any new updates later!

6.12.09 The Big Day!!

2009-06-09T12:53:00.002-05:00

Melani has come way down on her oxygen to just 3/4 liters and is doing great. Her surgery is scheduled for Friday! I can't wait for this to be over and I'm sure she can't either. She is ready to come home and get bigger and fatter and fight with her big brother and sister! The Lord has answered all of our prayers so far and he has been holding our hands every step of the way!!
Melani now weighs 9 pounds 5 ounces and is getting fatter by the minute. She measures 19 inches! YAY...I remember when she was 11 inches...she has come so far and fought so hard! I love her sooo much!

200 days in the NICU!!!

2009-06-03T20:16:00.002-05:00

Well June 3rd marks Melani's 200th day in the NICU! I can't believe it's been this long but the day is getting closer for her to come home with everyday that passes!

Another good day.

2009-05-31T13:52:00.005-05:00

Just talked to Melani's nurse and my baby is in a nice deep sleep. As soon as she wakes up she gets to do her baby aerobics that she loves so much. =)Well there were a few changes today. The doctor changed Melani's formula back to Elecare 22 calorie from NeoSure 24 because she was putting out too much watery stool and loosing weight. She seems to like that a bit more so lets hope she starts fattening up again. =) They also added ProPass to her formula as well as iron and a multivitamin. They've also gone up on her dose of Sildenafil (Viagra) because it wasn't adjusted to her current weight. Her morphine was also stopped and she seems to be fine and isn't showing any withdraw symptoms...Thank God! I guess that's it for now....

No Surgery for a while...

2009-05-30T14:18:00.004-05:00

Well it looks like plans for surgery are on hold for a while longer now. The surgeon really does not want to perform surgery on Melani until her oxygen is lower. Right now she is on 6 liters and their attempts to drop to 5 aren't working as of now...so she needs more time for her lungs to get stronger after the pneumonia. She was on 1 liter before she got pneumonia and she was on 1/8 liters while we were in Houston so she has really gone up since then. I just hope it doesn't take too long because everyone says that the babies always do better once they're home. They think that if she is still requiring this amount of oxygen before she gets intubated that she will have trouble being extubated...which we don't want, so whatever they think is best works for me. And as i suspected...the nurses really think Melani is teething. She has been a little drool tank these last few days and its only getting worse. LOL. While I was trying to put her to sleep last night she left a drool spot on my shirt. I had to put a blanket in between her face and me so that i wouldn't get soaked. =) She had no problem falling asleep and I was so happy that she was sleeping when we left. I hate leaving while she's awake! Her sleeping makes it so much easier. Melani weighed in at 8 pounds-10.5 ounces. A big drop from the last i heard which was 9 pounds-1.5 ounces...but she is only being weighed every other day and she is still on diuretics so that could be the reason for the big drop. I guess that's it for the update right now...I'm going to get ready to go see her now! So please pray that her oxygen level goes down and she is able to go to this final surgery!!!

Teething???

2009-05-28T01:09:00.003-05:00

It's been a few days since I've posted but my love had a few rough days and I didn't feel like posting anything. =( So in this last few days Melani managed to pull out her NJ tube...but not before it got clogged and she wasn't getting her food or meds. The morning she pulled out her NJ tube was the beginning of 2 bad days. Another NJ was placed successfully the next morning at 10 am. They started Mel back on her feedings and she is doing fine now. The doctor is going to talk to the surgeon tomorrow morning to see about her surgery! Hope something finally gets scheduled. Today Melani was drooling bad. LOL. She had her clothes all wet and her chin was just glistening in drool. Hmmm...i wonder if she is going to start teething soon??? Her corrected age is only about 2 months but i don't know how this whole corrected/chronological age thing works. My other 2 kids started teething pretty early too...my oldest daughter at 4 months and my son at 5 months. Who knows....we'll see? =)

Good Day!

2009-05-23T18:00:00.005-05:00

Melani had a good night last night and slept alost the entire night shift after we left. They switched her formula again from the Elecare 24 cal to NeoSure 22 cal. NeoSure is what she was on before they switched her to Elecare and she did fine with that. So she is back on NS and doing fine! They are trying to go down on her flow from 6 liters to 5 liters and it appears that she is working a little bit harder and breathing a bit faster so they wil probably go back up to 6 liters. She has also ben taken off of Lasix (which is a diuretic to help her pee off the extra fluid) to a combination of 2 other diuretics that are more suitable for babies with chronic lung disease. The doctor wants to talk to the surgeon over this holiday weekend and maybe see about surgery next week!!! We'll see how everything goes!

I ♥LOVE♥ this face. LOL. This is her Melani being nosey face. =)

Big Girl Crib!!

2009-05-22T03:03:00.009-05:00

So apparently the surgeon wants to wait until Melani puts on a little bit more weight before he does her surgery. She weighed in at 8 pounds-11.8 ounces today!!! She's turning into a little butterball! They changed her formula from 22 calorie Elecare to 24 calorie Elecare. She's now getting 22 cc's every hour on a continuous feed! And some good news is Melani is now in a big girl crib! She looks so tiny in her huge crib but now she has more room to move....not that she does alot of that on her own...but it's a big change..and she seems to like it. Nothing much else has changed. So..that's it for updates...I pray that The Lord continues to answer all of our prayers!

Here are a few pictures of Melani the last few days since i haven't posted in 2 days!

Melani in her bouncy!

Looking to see who is back there. LOL

In her muscle tee. =)

Miss N♥vember

2009-05-19T02:41:00.006-05:00

Melani had a good day! She got to lounge in her bouncy chair, sat in her bumbo chair and got tummy time! All in one day! =) And she has her favorite nurse tonight!! YAY. She is gaining weight everyday now. She is at 8 pounds-6 ounces!! She is so adorable in her little "miss november" onesie. Thank you Gina! =) Nothing has really changed..we are still just waiting to see if the doctor is willing to do surgery on her. We thought she was going to have it once all of her cultures came back negative but the surgeon wanted to wait a while to give her little body some time to recover from everything that went on this last month and a half!! Let's hope it's sometime this month or early next month! We'll see.

♥♥♥

The Waiting Game

2009-05-18T01:22:00.006-05:00

Melani had a good day today! She weighed in at 8 pounds-4 ounces!! When I got to the NICU her doctor was there and we talked for a while. He is only going to be there until Wednesday and then he goes on vacation. =( But all of the doctors are great. I am just most comfortable with her doctor because he really knows Melani. She slept the entire time I was there. Even through her breathing treatments pretty much. She cried a little because she was being bothered but once they were over with she was back to dreaming. Hopefully we will not be playing this waiting game for a spot on the surgery schedule long. I'm hoping that it happens in the next 2 weeks. [[Fingers crossed]]

Loving Her Bouncy Chair!

2009-05-17T17:35:00.005-05:00

I just called to check on Melani and she is sitting in her bouncy chair and loving it. She is on 40% oxygen and sleeping quietly. We are just playing the waiting game to see when her surgery is going to be. She is going to have her intestines reconnected, the nissen wrap for her reflux and the g-tube. This surgery has been rescheduled so many times I've lost count. Lets pray that once it is scheduled this time...it actually happens! They aren't going to schedule the surgery until she has had her NJ tube for 2 weeks. So this coming Friday will make that 2 week mark. Her feeds have gone up in the week that she has had her NJ from 4 cc's and hour to 20 cc's an hour. She is tolerating it well and getting fat. She has finally hit 8 pounds!

I ♥ Her So!!!

2009-05-17T00:12:00.005-05:00

Just got back from visiting my Love and she is cute! As soon as i picked her up she decided it was her time to be nosey and look all around the NICU at what was going on. LOL. She fell asleep in my arms! I held her for an hour. It feels like I've been waiting forever to hold her again. I'm not going to like it when she goes back to surgery and I can't hold her! =( But it's all going to be worth it because she is on the road home. I don't know how much longer it's going to take but I'm just going to be patiently waiting and praying for everything to turn out the way it does.. We've been in this for 6 months...whats a few more. And with out the Lord this would be impossible! Only He knows what the future holds. It IS in His hands!

We also got some good news today!! Her eye exams have shown a regression! We thought her eyes were getting worse but they aren't. And now the eye doctor is going to see her every 2 weeks instead of every week. I am so glad too because she does not love her eye exams!

My Sweet Baby Girl ♥

2009-05-16T17:38:00.029-05:00

To get you up to date on Melani...
Well, her arrival was very unexpected. I had just found out 3 weeks prior that I was having a little girl and I was so excited but I knew this was too soon. When the doctor came to talk to my husband and I on Friday November 14, about the chances of survival for Melani at 23 weeks, it was not great. He said at that gestational age she had a less than 10% chance of survival. She was 23 weeks 3 days gestation. I needed to make it to 24 weeks for her chances for survival to go up to about 30%-40%. That sounds better than 10%, right. I told myself okay lets make it these last 4 days and we will be okay. We had to make the decision that if she was born before 24 week...did we want them to resuscitate her? Of course. Unfortunately we only made it 2 more days. My baby girl was born on November 16, 2008 at 1 pound-1 ounce and 11 1/2 inches long. I remember waking up after surgery in shock that I was in so much pain. The first few days are blurry but i remember vividly about how nobody would tell me how much she weighed or show me pictures. All the would say was that she was alive and okay. I didn't get to see my baby for the first 2 days of her life. They say that these severely premature babies have a 48 hour "honeymoon" period where they appear to be fine but after that 48 hours they slide downhill. Well that's where my Melani was when I first laid eyes on her. After the initial shock of just exactly how tiny she was set I felt my chest tighten up and was overwhelmed with guilt. Questions were coming at me a million miles an hour. Why couldn't i carry Melani to term like I had carried Mikaela and Jaylen? Why was this happening to me? To her? Too many questions all at once. I didn't know what was next. We were left with the decision to keep her on the ventilator or to let her go home to God. It was too much for me to handle and I had to go back to my room. My husband sat there with her all night until the NICU closed the next morning. My Melani must have felt her daddy's presence because she made an amazing turn around. We knew this was going to be a long road and if she was willing to fight to stay with us and be our miracle baby then we were going to be by her side every step of the way!
I was released from the hospital on November 24th..it was the hardest thing I'd ever had to do...walk into my front door without my baby girl. Every time the phone would ring my heart would stop.

November 27th-Melani's first Thanksgiving! We had ALOT to be thankful for!!

On December 2nd Melani had emergency intestinal surgery. The doctors had done an x-ray and had said it appeared as if Melani had several perforations in her intestines. The doctor talked to my husband and I before the surgery and explained the risks. It did not sound hopeful. But my beautiful Melani being the fighter that she is pulled through the surgery. The doctors didn't expect things to go so well. They only found one perforation and that was good news to us.

December 16th- Melani's one month birthday!

On December 19th Melani had surgery to fix her PDA. The surgery went great. They immediately noticed a change! Another surgery crossed off of the list!

December 25th-Melani's first Christmas! Christmas just wasn't the same this year.

January 1st-Welcome to 2009 Ms Melani! Finally reached that 2 pound mark!!! Brought in the new year with my loves! All 4 of them. =)

Melani entered the new year in style!

January 6th- Melani off the ventilator and on bubble CPAP!

January 9th- Held Melani for the first time!!

January 16th- Happy 2 month birthday Melani Rae!

January 19th- Melani weighed in at 3 pounds even!

January 21st- Melani has laser eye surgery for her ROP.

February 4th-Melani off bubble CPAP and on to a big girl cannula!!

February 10th-Gaining weight faster than the doctors would like but we are at 4 pounds now!!

February 14th-Melani was my special Valentine!!

February 15-Melani is in her little crib!! No more warmer!!

February 16th- Happy 3 month birthday!

February 23rd- 100 days in the NICU. Transported to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston for eye surgery!! First Jet ride!

February 26th- Right eye surgery!

March 2nd- Happy birthday big brother Jaylen!!

March 3rd- First bottle!! And she loved it!

March 10th-40 weeks...we finally reached Melani's due date!

March 13th-Left eye surgery...finally.

March 16- Happy 4 month birthday Melani!

March 17th- First St. Patty's Day!

March 19th-Finally back home in San Antonio with a less crowded NICU!

March 31st-Melani wasn't feeling so great today. She had a fever and was breathing very rapidly and couldn't get her sats out of the 70's. She was on 100% oxygen already and was using all of her energy to keep breathing. She gave us a nice little scare when she decided she was too tired to breathe. Got put on CPAP over night but ended up on the vent the next morning.

April 2nd- Well Mel had pneumonia and she wasn't doing so hot. She is on the loud oscillator. Man that machine is scary sounding and i hope i never have to see it again!

April 16th- Happy 5 month birthday Melani!

April 22nd-YES! Melani is off of the oscillator and back on the conventional ventilator!!!

April 24th- Mel's bronchoscopy!

April 26th- Mel is not feeling well again. Looks like she has pneumonia again or never fully recovered from the last time.

May 8th- Melani is having large residuals and isn't tolerating the 4 cc's they are feeding her every hour on a continuous feed. They are placing an NJ tube to see if she will tolerate her feeds better and hopefully they can go up on her feeds!

May 13th- Melani is off the vent and back on bubble CPAP!

May 14th-Melani is now on a nasal cannula and doing great. Her NJ tube was kinda defeating the purpose of the CPAP and she moves too much to keep the pressure she needs for it to do exactly what it needs to do! Oh and Melani's broviac also came out this morning! Man this little girl! LOL. Always giving her nurses trouble!

My pregnancy & Melani Rae's arrival

2009-05-16T11:56:00.007-05:00

Just wanted to get anyone who was curious up to speed on the events that took place during my pregnancy...

I found out i was pregnant on July 1, 2008. My husband and i were so excited to be having another baby. We already had a little girl and a little boy so either a girl or boy would've been great! Deep down inside i wanted a girl. (lol) Well I didn't know this, but this was going to be the most difficult of my 3 pregnancies. At the beginning of August 08 i started to have cramping in my calves and I called my OB and they kept telling me "this is normal during pregnancy". Well i knew the pain I was having wasn't normal. I was only 8 weeks pregnant and I had never felt pain like this with my other two kiddos. For 4 days I was in so much pain and decided there was something else wrong. I could not even stand up without my calve feeling like it was tearing inside. I went to my Ob's office and he checked me and when he saw for himself how much pain I was in he decided that I should go to the hospital just to get my leg scanned for any blood clots. Well, it wasn't just leg cramps. It was a "pretty good size blood clot" in their words. I had lots of blood test done and found out that I had a blood clotting disorder called antiphospholipid antibody syndrome. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiphospholipid_antibody) Having this disorder and being pregnant DO NOT go together. It causes preterm labor and severe preeclampsia. Anyways I was sent home on a blood thinner called Lovenox that I had to inject myself with twice a day! Not fun! I thought everything would be okay after that but i was wrong. On November 9th I started feeling a pinching in between my shoulder blades so my husband took me to the hospital. I was sent home a few hours later on some pain killers. Again my gut instinct felt like something was not right. I couldn't get into a position that I was comfortable in. It hurt to breathe and I felt like crap! About 8 hours after I left the hospital I called my doctor in pain again and told him something was wrong and explained my symptoms. He was on call so he asked me to come in and he would keep me under observation. They thought maybe the blood clot had detached and made its way into my lungs and that would explain the pain. I had about 4 different kinds of tests done and they all came back negative for whatever it was they were looking for. While waiting for them to figure out why I was having this awful pain, my vision started to get blurry/spotty. I thought it was because I wasn't getting any sleep. Then I noticed that when I did start to get comfortable it felt like my heart was beating so hard and was going to pop out of my chest. i could feel my pulse in every part of my body. I mentioned it to my nurse and she came back a little while later and let me know they were going to collect 24 hours of urine because I was showing signs of preeclampsia. When the 24 hours was up they noticed that there was very little urine and that was another sign of preeclampsia. Well more bad news...I was now spilling proteins in my urine. I was 22 weeks and 6 days and I had mild PE. On November 12th I was transferred to another hospital where the NICU could accommodate babies born before 28 weeks. This was so unbelievable. I wasn't even 6 months pregnant and they were talking about my giving birth already. I thought to myself it's fine if I have to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Anniversary and Valentine's Day in the hospital as long as my baby is okay and I can carry her to term. Unfortunately that didn't happen. After I had a blood pressure of 190/110 and the protein levels in my urine were getting higher and the oxygen flow to Melani was being cut off I ended up having her on Sunday November 16, 2008 at 23 weeks and 5 days gestation. She was only 1 pound-1ounce and 11 1/2 inches long. her skin was translucent and looked very raw. Her limbs the size of my fingers and head could fit in my palm. She was here and ready for the fight of her life!