The newest Mars Raymond!

Bruce decided to come a bit early. He was due June 28, but came May 19 instead. A few weeks ago, my doc said I looked a little on the small side and ordered an ultrasound for me. The ultrasound confirmed that he was a runt, so I went in for a follow-up to see if he was still growing. That ultrasound said he was still growing, but not at the rate he was supposed to. My doc went through all the risk factors of having a low birthweight baby, but I don't smoke crack or drink alcohol and I wasn't a small baby myself, so I didn't fit any of those descriptors. The doctor did notice that my blood pressure was rising slightly over a few visits, then she put me in the hospital when I started getting headaches. She said I had preeclampsia and needed to be monitored. I went into the hospital on a Monday and got all kinds of tests every day. On Thursday, the full case of preeclampsia showed up complete with protein in the pee, headaches, swelling, and sky high blood pressure. That caused the blood flow in the placenta to reverse, so the doc induced me. I called Scott and told him to get to the hospital; he was giving his final presentation in one of his classes! After an hour and a half of contractions and little Bruce's heart beat decelerating and taking a long time to recover, the doctor said we'd have to do a C-section. So an hour later, Bruce was born. 3 lbs. 3 oz. at 34 weeks - small for gestational age. He is tiny, but he came out screaming and is doing well. He spent two weeks in the NICU gaining weight and came home with me yesterday at 3 lbs. 10 oz. He needs to gain more weight before I can take him out in my jogging stroller; I guess my belly has to do some healing before I can go running. Anyway, we're both doing well and happy to be home. I tried to put pictures up on this thing, but couldn't figure it out and got impatient. So if you want to see pictures, go to ohiomars.com. He's so cute!
-Emily Mars Raymond