The Best Laid Plans...

If you know Paul, you know that he's a planner. He likes for things to be organized, and planned well in advance. Needless to say, this pregnancy didn't begin in a way that jives with how Paul functions. We kicked it into high gear getting things ready, but it's only been 7 weeks, so we started at the beginning but we haven't gotten that far. We essentially moved Ray into Damien's room and turned the nursery back into a bare bones nursery. As of last Friday, we had a mostly furnished but otherwise empty nursery.
So of course, that's when I got admitted to the hospital, my doctor rushing me in during a regular appointment. I was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia- genetic prenatal hypertension- that was well into the range where seizures and strokes are a risk.
The goal was to medicate, but at best, I would be hospitalized and in bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy. Ideally, the plan was  to keep me pregnant for as long as my body let me stay pregnant...
Which turned out to be three more days.

On Tuesday, we welcomed our third son, Theodore Brian, into this wacky family! 

We are both healthy, even though the situation wasn't ideal. Theo has been a champ- he is already off the CPAP (breathing, for lack of a better term) machine, and everyone in the NICU is hopeful that he will be able to come home around 35 weeks.  I was admitted early enough to get Theo some steroids in preparation for an emergency C section, so that's great news.


Besides the actual hospital stuff, we obviously ran into a crisis in terms of childcare, and let me just say THANK YOU to everyone that watched Damien and Ray for a few hours (or overnight- or with a call in the middle of the night!),  everyone that has brought food for Paul and the boys, and everyone that has sent pick-me-ups from afar.  We literally could not have made it through the last week without you all!

Sorry to everyone that we should have told and didn't- we didn't exactly have time to get organized and I've been doing not so hot in these meds, so people have fallen through the cracks. Some people knew about the hospital but not yet about Theo- yikes! Today has been the first day that I have been coherent enough to actually write something down, so it seemed like the wisest use of time to send this announcement out en masse.  But we love you all! There will definitely be a cuter announcement coming to everyone when things settle down, but probably not until Theo gets home.

Moving forward, we need for a lot of things to happen. First of all, today was the first day that my body reacted positively to the meds to manage my preeclampsia, which needs to continue in order for me to go home.
Secondly, we need Theo to continue to react positively to all of the love and help that the NICU doctors and nurses are giving him. He has done well with everything, but the next step is coming off the IV and moving to bottle feeding. Prayers and encouragements for his continued progress are appreciated. He's a warrior to be sure, and so far it looks like this will be just a matter of time, but there are inherent risks with being a preemie, obviously.
Thirdly, we need to get things ready much faster than we realized, and with less time. We will be spending a lot of time in the NICU, so even the time we have before Theo comes home is cut in half. Yikes! We are at a fabulous hospital with wonderful healthcare professionals (remember my last post?) and we have amazing support- but now we have the practical stuff to deal with. Double yikes!
Lastly, we eventually need to find a way to thank everyone for their support, because WHOA this has been a crazy week. That will come soon.

So... Surprise? It seems like our lives have turned into a soap opera... Let's hope for a little bit of calm, perhaps. I hope I didn't jinx it.

Thank you to everyone that has helped and encouraged through this! I will update more soon. Love you all!