Update on Clara and mom!

I am doing good, I finally have my blood pressure under control and I go once a week to get it checked because they keep lowering my dose of medication every week and they want to make sure it stays good after they lower my dose.

Clara is officially 1 month old today!!

Clara has had a long month, overall she is doing very well for her tiny self, but she definitely still has her moments.

She has needed more blood transfusions because she still isn't able to make up her own blood while trying to grow everything else all at once. She started and finished a 10 day steroid medicine that is to help her lungs open up more and that worked very well for her although she might need another round of them. The doctors said they will look at that Monday and see how she's doing. They took her breathing tube out and gave her a face mask to try, but unfortunately it didn't work very well for her, so they gave her another breathing tube. That is working well for her. They switched Clara's breathing machine from a jet to another one and she liked that up until 2 days ago, and they had to put her back on the jet machine to help her breath better. Clara got her pickline out of her arm, so that means she gets any meds she needs now orally and she has 2 free arms again from all her IVs! Yay!

She finally opened her eyes late January 4th while I was holding her. It was just her left eye and then later in the night she opened her right eye. She also started out with lots of blonde hair and now it's changing to strawberry blonde hair

Dad has finally got to hold her, and now mom and dad are able to hold her about once a day if Clara is having a good day and can handle being moved around that day, she is the boss after all being born early and stuck in the tiny box.

Thank you again for all your support and for reading our update we truly appreciate any help you guys are willing to give even if it is just sharing our story. Thanks again for everything!

On December 13th, I got admitted to the emergency room for having extremely high blood pressure while being 24 weeks pregnant. My blood pressure was so high I could've had a stroke. I was told it was the start of severe preeclampsia and I would be staying at the hospital until I was 34 weeks pregnant with our daughter because they didn't want me to leave with the medical problems I was having.

On Monday, December 15th, the doctors said we will be having an emergency c-section for our daughter to be born because our condition was getting worse and it wasn't safe for us to stay pregnant any longer. The umbilical cord for blood going to and from the baby changed directions, so more blood was leaving the baby instead of going in, and if she wasn't born soon, she could've been stillborn.

Clara JoAnn Bailey was born at 24 weeks and 3 days at 1lb 2oz and 12 inches long. I had to stay at the hospital for a week because my blood pressure was having trouble getting under control. Clara has her moments where she needs extra care for blood transfusions and had a heart murmur they gave medicine for, which is currently closed. She will also need steroids for her lungs to grow big and stronger. Clara is a fighter; the doctors and nurses say she is very feisty and loves to fight her nurses on everything, but they are okay with that because she is doing great for the tiny baby she is. We are told we won't be able to go home until her due date on April 3rd or maybe later, which means I won't be working until she gets to come home, and even then it depends on how things look when we get to come home. We are an hour and a half from home, so my husband is only able to come down and visit us on the weekends along with our 9-year-old son because of work and school. Clara has good days and bad days, but her bad days aren't horrible, just needs more rest and quiet. She has a long, rough road before she gets to come home.

A lot of people have been asking how they can help, so I started this page. We appreciate any help we can get, thank you for your help and time to reading this.