Five months ago, I posted about being back. I lied. haha. But since then, my life has been a whirlwind. In this post, I have no recipe or nutritional advice…just an update.
First, we bought a house! It’s across Lake Pontchartrain on what’s known as the northshore. I now have a commute across the world’s longest bridge over water to get to work. I think it’s about 24 miles over water. Although some many think the commute is a pain, I find it peaceful.
One problem…a week after we moved in, the transmission in my husband’s truck went out. Also, in a matter of a month, we had to buy 2 new tires for my vehicle. Yeah, talk about stress. Trying to figure out how we were both going to commute was a pain but we made it work.
In true “when it rains, it pours” fashion, my blood pressure would not stay under control. If you remember in my last post, I announced my pregnancy. I was due in January. After numerous small bed rest stints, I was put on bed rest for good in November. That only lasted one week before I had to be induced. My condition became true preeclampsia. This is when a pregnant woman develops a combination of high blood pressure and protein in the urine after the 20th week of pregnancy. Most women don’t feel any symptoms, and the cause is unknown. I actually have hypertension (high blood pressure) even without pregnancy, which already placed me as high risk. This was probably a good thing because I was followed very closely throughout the entire pregnancy.
After a 20 hour induction, Elliot was born at 32 weeks 6 days gestation. He was 4 pounds, 3 ounces and we were so happy to hear him screaming. One of the last things to mature in gestation is the lungs so when I was put on bed rest for good, my OB had me get steroid shots to help baby’s lungs develop. Seems they worked!
Elliot was in the NICU for 15 days and did so well! Although it was a tough two weeks, we were so happy to have him come home just in time for Christmas (on December 12). I am so happy to say that he has been successfully breastfeeding and gaining weight. In fact, at his 6 week checkup he doubled his birth weight: 8 pounds 5 ounces!
In the NICU with a feeding tube
8 weeks old
You can see how much he’s filled out since coming home!
Isaac is now 4 and is doing well…he loves being a big brother!
I’m now planning to go to work next week and although I don’t want to, I’m ready to get into a routine. Thank god we’ll have family help us out for a few weeks so that we can prolong placing him in daycare. Not the best option for a preemie during flu/RSV season.
I just renewed the hosting/domain for this website. A part of me wondered if I would be able to keep up, but I’m willing to try. I still have so much to share and now I have a baby at home…my life is full of so many more challenges that I can share with all of you. I’m going to do my best to keep this blog updated. It’s great to be back 
.
As always, thanks for reading! And hopefully, thanks for sticking around.
