15+ weeks old...WOW

So I've been wanting to start a blog, however I either keep putting it off or something gets in the way. So much has happened to me, to us, to our new family over the past 2 years so I'd like to share some of our stories with all of you!! Since I'm SO far behind with this, you'll have to have a little patience, as my first couple of posts will most likely be of past events. What really made me realize that I needed to start this was when lil Henry was on his play mat today and started to roll over...I was like 'wait a minute lil man, you're growing far to fast!'

I'm not even quite sure where to begin, other than 15 or so weeks ago, my entire life changed and I couldn't be happier!! It all started on Friday, August 13th 2010. I had my regular 38 week appointment to check on the progress on this lil baby coming out (it was still a surprise at this point!). I was dilated 2-3cm and progressing quite nicely, blood pressure was 90s/60s, I had gained 20 lbs, so everything was looking good! I was scheduled to work the weekend at the hospital so I went into work on Saturday at 6:30am for my normal day. I started getting terrible back pain around 10am and luckily it was a pretty slow day on the floor I work on (which is quite rare since it is the PICU, pediatric intensive care unit). I called my doctor and she advised me to leave work and go home and rest. I went home around noon and took a nap. I was starting to feel some cramping, but nothing severe. Henry and I ordered in for dinner and just hung out. Sunday I woke up and the cramping was getting a little stronger, but it was like 10-12 minutes apart so we went along with our day. I didn't go into work (as advised by my doc) so we did our usual church in the morning, Asia's sister was here from Poland to baptize their son so we went to his christening and the lunch that followed. I wasn't feeling the greatest, but I didn't feel horrible either. A bunch of our family friends were over at Thomas and Asia's and we were discussing labor and delivery. It was a fun afternoon and the immediate family ended up staying over at their place for dinner as well. We got home fairly early that night and since the cramping was only getting worse, we ended up going to bed early. That night I didn't sleep much, the cramping grew closer together and I just couldn't get comfortable. We woke up early Monday morning and my cramping had turned into true contractions, however I could still talk through them. Around 11am the contractions had been coming every 5 minutes for 1 1/2 hours so we decided to go to the hospital to get checked out. When we arrived at the hospital, my blood pressure was 170-180s/100s which is dangerously high. They came in and told me that I was having this baby today :) They did an exam on me and I was dilated to 4cm. They then sent off a bunch of labs, and we patiently waited for the results. The results ended up showing that I had developed HELLP syndrome that day (I remember hearing about this in nursing school, hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelets). I had also developed pre-eclampsia that day which meant I was going to have to get induced. I remember always hearing that if you're induced get an epidural (my plan initially ,before knowing I was to get induced, was to do it naturally). Because I had developed HELLP syndrome and my platelets were severely low, I wasn't allowed to get an epidural, or any pain meds for that matter, I was given cold wash clothes to put on my forehead for pain and to cool me down (because I was on magnesium to stop any seizures from happening since my blood pressure was so high and magnesium makes you feel like it's 400+ degrees in the room and we had the room as cool as it gets.). Intense contractions can't even describe what it felt like to be induced, but 5 hours later (I only pushed 3 times) Mr. Henry Lyons Charlton was born!