Update

Well, as of tomorrow I have been in the hospital for 2 weeks! Yuck! I'm so ready to get out of here. I am still a little bit weak, but I can now walk up and down the walls and down to see Zoey without having to have Ryan wheel me around in a wheelchair. We are planning on me getting out of the hospital tomorrow am!!!!!! I'm praying that is true. I've been taking so much medicine for my blood pressure and for my heart and they have been giving it to me all in the mornings and the last 3 days its made me feel so sick afterwards. They finally today decided to change it so that I don't take all of my meds all at once and we figured out the medicine that's making feel so sick and hoping to change meds so that it doesnt make me sick any more. The cardiologist has decided that I will have to wear a heart monitor vest thing for a little while that will shock my heart if the need arises. I'm not really looking forward to that one at all, but it sure beats the alternative. I've got a beautiful baby girl that needs her Mommy AND Daddy!
 Zoey has apparently decided that she too is ready to leave the hospital!!!! In just 12 short hours since we saw her last night she has gotten rid of her IV, gotten her feedings up from 20mL to 24mL, learned to suck on her pacifer and get upset when she looses it out of her mouth, and today they are going to start bottle feeding her. It is so exciting to see her doing so awesome!!!! The only other criteria that she needs in order to move down to the next level is keep tolerating her feedings, and get off of the billy light for her skin jaudice, and gain another pound. She can do it and her nurse today is saying that it looks positive to happen in the next couple of days. We are hoping so! We are all 3 so waiting and praying that we can all go home soon, okaye make that 4 because I know that Franklyn wants us home too. He has only seen me once in the last 2 weeks and that was only for a min. when I got to get wheeled down to the lobby in the wheelchair just to say hi. I know he feels like we have forgot about him since he is staying with some friends of ours, but he will soon know we didnt leave him and we will all be together as a family soon!!!!

Our First Family Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving this year we were suppose to be in Kansas City visiting family, eat too much and Zoey still all nice and cozy in my tummy. God had other plans for us. Instead Zoey was here in the hospital in NICU, I was in the hospital recovering from heart failure and Ryan was on his way back to Little Rock after having to go back home to tie up some loose ends. Our first family Thanksgiving turned out exactly how Ryan and I would have wanted it, we just didnt know that until it happen. Ryan got to the hospital at about 4pm and we went downstairs to the NICU so we could spend time as a family. When we got there she was finally put in some clothes and looked so adorable in a cute little elephant outfit.

So looks just co much bigger in clothes and even more adorable! We got there and Ryan was able to change her diaper for the first time and lucky for him it was a dirty one. He didnt care, he was just happy to be able to start being a dad. It was a great Thanksgiving Day present!

 Ryan changing Zoey for the first time. She was very squirmmy and made Dad get her outfit all messy. It's not so easy change a premie that is hooked to all kinds of wires, but he did really well. Then it was time for my Thanksgiving Present..........

 I got to hold my baby girl for the first time in my arms on Thanksgiving! Talk about being in heaven!

She is our everything and she's only been her for a week and we haven't even really gotten to be her parents yet! While we were there, she had her eyes open almost the entire time.Its like she needed it as much as we did to have that time together as a family for Thanksgiving.

 We just can't get over how cute the pandas are on her. Our little Panda Bear :)

Look at those pretty eyes. The first time we really got to see her with them open for longer than a couple of seconds. If you were to tell Ryan and I that for Thanksgiving we would have the best time ever and it would be all because of a some amount of time that we were just us, our family of 3. We still need to get a family picture as we have yet to be able to get one. Hopefully it will happen soon.

The Unexpected

It has been a crazy roller coaster for our family in the last 2 weeks! Ryan, Zoey, and I have been through unexpected hospital stays, an ambulance ride to Little Rock, Zoey's grand entrance, ICU and NICU visits and heart failure all in the last 2 weeks. The craziness all started on Monday November 14th when I woke up with what I thought was cyst pains, thinking it had burst or something was wrong with it. Ryan went to work and by about 5:30am I was in tears because the pain was that bad. When he got home at 6am when headed to my Dr.'s office to get it all checked out. They ended up sending us to the hospital because my feet were swelling worse, and I had other symptoms that were signs of preclampsia. We got admitted to Labor and Deliver and had lab work done and Dr. ordered a 24 hr urine test because my first test came back crazy high with protein and my blood pressure was crazy high. I pretty much hard core failed the 24hr test big time and the decision was made to transfer me and Zoey to Baptist Health in Little Rock by ambulance because she would most likely have to be delivered and Harrison didnt have a NICU for her. The Dr. in Little Rock did an ultrasound and checked her out and she was doing great. Just her Momma was getting very very sick and fast. We decided to do another 24 hr urine test to test my kidney and liver functions and took steroids incase Baby Girl did come and her lungs would be stronger. But all we could do is wait and give her another day in my tummy. After the 2nd failed test, we decided that Zoey had to come out and booked a c-section Thursday morning at 11:30am. ZOEY MARIE KAYE made her appearance into this world on November 17th, 2011 at 12:10pm weighing 3 lbs. 15oz.

Ryan watched the whole c-section and removal of my cyst and left ovary. I was so surprised on how calm he was and how he watched everything happen. I was told that I might have to be on magnesium sulfate for my blood pressure and as long as I was on that I couldn't go and see Zoey. Ryan had to bring me back pictures see I could see how pretty our little girl was. My worse fear since I found out I had a cyst that would have to come out was that I'd have to have her by c-section and then not get to see her for a day or days. Well, that's exactly what happen!!!! I couldnt see my baby girl for 2 days in person. Talk about something hard for a new momma, knowing you gave birth to a beautiful little girl and not getting to even see her. The first 2 nights I just sat up in the middle of the night just staring at my computer with the pictures I had of her.

These were the first pics I got of my baby girl and starred at for hours. Finally at 4:30pm on Friday, 1 day after she was born I got to see her face to face. She looked so perfect, even with tubes on her. I could finally rest that night knowing she was in good care and just getting to see her. Luckily, her Daddy kept a close eye on her while I couldn't. She also had other family members there to watch her and tell her how pretty she is. Spoiled already, yes she very much is!!!!! Ryan left to go back to Mountain Home on Saturday afternoon in order to get some clothes and stuff for us since we were now going to be living in Little Rock for atleast a month with our baby girl in the NICU. She came out pretty healthy for being 7 weeks early. She has had to go on a ventilator the day after she was born, but came right ofIf of that 2 days later. Her lungs were just still so not matured. By Saturday night I was feeling really very well and even got up and took a shower and just hung out with my Dad and Kelly and were able to just relax. At 2am I got up to pump for Zoey and I had a really heavy feeling on my chest. I thought it was just my milk coming in and that it was normal. I decided that I just couldnt pump at that time and would do so in the AM. I told my nurse and decided to go back to sleep. At about 3pm I had a hard time breathing and my nurse put me in some oxygen, but again I tried to go back to sleep. At about 4:30am when the nurse came to check on me I went to the bathroom and came back to bed and couldnt breathe at all. The nurse was there and called the Dr. and that's when all hell broke loose. I seriously thought I was going to die in that room. My chest hurt, I couldn't breathe and by now the oxygen mask was the only way I was able to breathe at all. Nurses, and Drs came in, an xray machine was rolled into  my room and I was terrified to be left be myself. My nurse called my dad who was in town still in a hotel, so I had someone there with me. Ryan was 3 hrs away and knew he couldnt be there and needed to not be alone and knew how freaked out he was going to be since he was 3 hrs away from me. My dad came up to the hospital and finally I felt a little more calm, still worried how everything was going to turn out. Being 26 years old and not being able to breathe was the worst thing I've ever felt in my entire live. Knowing my husband was 3 hrs away and my baby girl was downstairs fighting for her own life and I was helpless. Ryan rushed to Little Rock as soon as he could and ended up getting a state trooper police escort to Little Rock from Mountain Home. Seeing his face as soon as I could was both the best and worst feeling that day. I was so happy to see him, but I also knew it was killing him, because now his wife was in the ICU and his daughter in the NICU and there was nothing he could do for either of us. We found out that I had basically congestive heart failure and fluid on my lungs!!! At 26 years old I had pregnancy related heart failure! It came out if no where, I had no previous symptoms or heart problems my entire life. But as soon as they figured out what it was and I started getting heart medicine, the extreme high blood pressure that I've had all week, went down. I was in the ICU for just over 24 hrs before being transferred back to another normal room.
Ryan has been the most amazing husband through all of this. He has taken care of me in every way possible. He has been a better nurse to me then any other nurse at the hospital, nothing has been too much for him to handle to take care of his wife and he has been the one to talk the nurses into taken me to see Zoey every chance that he can. I absolutely couldnt have asked for a better husband through all of this. He has paid attention and knows exactly what mine and Zoey's stats and number are and what they mean. He has known what was going on with me and Zoey and its been nice still I havent been in the state of mind to do so.
 Zoey has being great, she got off of the ventilitor that she was put on for a couple of days. She got moved to a better bed and got moved to the step down unit in the NICU yesterday. She is handling her feedings really good and they keep moving her up in feedings every day. This adventure has put Ryan and I through a lot and we have come out with a stronger relationship and marriage because of all of it. We definately are looking at life a whole like differently than we both did 2 weeks ago.

31 weeks/ 32 weeks

These are my feet and cankles today. I'm 31 weeks in this picture and this last week I feel like my body is falling apart! I first noticed these lovely things last Wednesday when I went to take off my socks to get into the bathtub and I couldn't believe my eyes. I've been tall and thin all my life. Yes I know, hate me all you want! So to see this was quite a shock and I still have 2 more months to go. I think I may turn into that girl in Willy Wonka that turns into a Blueberry and has to be rolled out the door. Pretty sure now that once I reach January, Ryan will have to roll me so I can get around. I had another Dr's appt for my cyst last week and yes it's getting bigger and so is the baby, so as you can imagine there is becoming less and less room in my belly for both of them. I had another ultrasound because my cyst was finally causing me problems, and we found out the Zoey's head is right up against the cyst and she is bouncing her head off of it like a bouncy ball. She is not liking having to share her space with something else and momma isn't liking the pain it's causing me from every time she hits the cyst with her head. The Dr. went ahead and booked me for a c-section for January 3rd because of the size of the cyst and how with everything dropping at the end, it won't be possible to have a natural birth. I'm kinda bummed because I was really wanting to have her naturally but after talking about the risks and what's best for Zoey is the c-section so that's what we are going to do. We've been trying to do what's best for her especially with this cyst getting bigger, because most Dr's would have already done surgery and taken the cyst out but we want to wait until she's a bit bigger because he'd have to take her out too. So for the next few weeks I will just be living with a heating pad to help me with the pain.
 I've now hit the 32 week mark and along with it stretch marks have finally appeared. :(  I asked Ryan this afternoon if we could take down the mirror in the bathroom and he told me no. I have decided that I've gotten to the point where just looking in the mirror just depresses me. From my face swelling up in the mornings, to my new found stretch marks, and my belly button that if I was a turkey, I'd let you know that I was done! LOL All the not so fun 3rd trimester things have hit. The only thing getting through it is knowing that in only 7 WEEKS we will have our little girl here and I can look back and laugh at all of this. Right now, not so much. I'm definately ready for Thanksgiving and hope the next 2 weeks go by fast! Ryan, Franklyn and I will be traveling to Kansas City to see the family for Thanksgiving and I can't wait! We haven't been to KC in just about a year and we haven't been there for Thanksgiving for about 5 years! Crazy, I know. We usually go home for Christmas, but with Zoey's arrival so close to Christmas we are going to go for Thanksgiving instead. Right now a holiday where all you do is eat, is like a pregnant woman's dream! Yes, I don't know if I'm more excited about the food or the family time. Well, I've been to depressed lately with getting fat all over to take a pic of me so I'll wait til Thanksgiving to get a pic of me and my growing belly!