Baby Harrison's Birth Story

Today I thought I would share Harrison's birth story. I know it is delayed, but taking care of a newborn seems to have taken up a lot of my time lately. :) Before I share the details of his debut, let me back up a bit to my last months of pregnancy. 

If y'all followed along on the blog during my pregnancy journey with monthly updates, you will notice that the last one was in September. Fall & Winter always have been a crazy time for me as I constantly feel like I am decorating the house for the holidays, hosting events, and going to holiday parties, so that leaves very little time for "me" time. On top of all of this I was still going to my monthly doctor's appointments to make sure Baby "P" was doing well. Well around Thanksgiving my health took a turn and my blood pressure started to rise and my feet and ankles were very swollen. I went to my doctor and I was put on blood pressure medicine and diagnosed with a possible risk to preeclampsia. I never had issues with high blood pressure before, but discovered that on my father's family side there is a history of women having preeclampsia while pregnant. As we were approaching January, Harrison's due date month, my blood pressure was constantly being monitored and it was getting higher and higher. I went in for a regular doctor's appointment the week after Christmas where they ran a few test on me and well long story short I was admitted early into the hospital, almost four weeks before my due date, with eclampsia. This was totally unexpected and I was a bit in shock. Baby was doing well, but because of my high blood pressure there was a risk of the baby no longer getting the proper nutrients if we waited until the due date, January 21st. Due to this being my first pregnancy and the estimated size of the baby was just under 5 pounds we opted to do a scheduled c-section. 
So on January 2, 2017 around noon I delivered my baby boy Harrison Emmanuel Pardo at 5 pounds and 6 ounces and 19-3/4 inches long. He spend the first 12 hours in NICU due to low blood sugars and his bilirubin levels were really low, but in all for a premie baby he was healthy and came out screaming with healthy lungs. We got to leave a few days later and couldn't have been happier. Life has been crazy, but I am slowly learning to embrace the bad days and adore and cherish the good days. 

Here are a few pictures of him at a month old and if you follow along on my instagram you can constantly see updates. :)