It’s a long story—if you’ve been reading my blog, it’s posted in a little more detail there. Still, here’s the short version:

On Monday, Nov. 27, I go for my normal growth & development ultrasound and doctor’s visit, and we discover that baby’s slipped into the 4th percentile. There’s also +2 protein in my urine and my blood pressure is still elevated—in other words, I’m now officially preeclamptic. They schedule me for induction that night.

Induction is horrible, and very painful – my first contractions are 2 minutes apart and 1 minute long and VERY intense – and they only get worse as the night goes on. I can’t stop shaking, I vomit, and can’t get relief no matter what position I’m laboring in. At 7:30 am, they tell me the baby’s heartbeat has soared to 180 and it won’t come down, so they’re going to deliver him by emergency c-section. At this point I’m in so much pain that I’ll agree to anything.

Richard O’Connor Ballantyne is born at 8:25 am Tuesday, Nov. 28th. He is 4 lbs, 3 oz at birth. We get a brief look at him, and then he is whisked away to the NICU. I get to see him in the NICU 3 hours later and get to touch him – he’s hooked up to an IV, heart monitor, and oximeter – but he’s breathing on his own.

After 48 hours, they move him to a less critical part of the NICU, where he’s in an open air crib instead of an isolette. He stays there until Saturday, when we find out they’re going to transfer him to the level 2 NICU in Ithaca. I am also discharged on Saturday, so we drive back to Ithaca to meet him at the hospital and breastfeed him. On Monday morning (Dec 4), they tell me that they want me to “room in” with him for a few days at the hospital so they can see how he does with me. It is terrifying having sensors go off every time you move or feed your baby. Finally, on Wednesday, they tell us we can take him home.

It wasn’t the outcome I had hoped and prayed for, but he arrived safely into this world, and for that I am most grateful. He is thriving here at home, though he is still so very small and fragile-looking. He is in the care of an excellent pediatrician, and seems to be settling in very well.

Thanks for your concern, 43Thingers. I’ll probably be around less often than before, but I’ll check in every now and again as things continue to calm down here around the house.