Hello, I would first like to introduce myself. My name is Julia, everyone calls me Heaven. I am the hppy mother of a preemie. My daughter was born June 18th, 2001. My due date was August 6th, 2001. She weighed 3lbs 4ozs. I had preeclampsia and had to be induced. Just in case you are wondering I will tell you what that is. Preeclampsia causes the blood pressure in mom to be extremely dangerously high, your kidneys spill out way too much protien, and you get really bad toxsemia. This cause the baby not to grow and get the proper nurishment she needs. Which is very dangerous for her too. If not properly detected the mommy and baby could both die. No one knows why this happens or what causes preeclampsia. Researchers are trying to figure it out. All they know are the effects and that it normally occurs in middle age, first time mothers; but it has been known to occur in older moms and very young moms. I am a young mom.(19)

I was so scared when I found out that I had preeclampsia. It all started June 15th. I went to my doctor for a normal check-up. They took my blood pressure and it was 140/120, so naturally the doctor was concerned. This is just not normal. He sent me to the hospital for a Non-Stress Test. I waited there for an hour getting the test done. My doctor came and veiwed the results. "I am sorry, but I have to admit you." He said. I was scared to death. He explained everything. I was transfered to a hospital that deals with pre-mature births, it was conveniently located next to All Childrens. They put me on a Magnesium drip and took blood evey hour. They started giving me lung developing shots to help mature the babys lungs. I went threw tons of testing. Finally June 17th they started the inducing pills. At 3am I started having contractions. At 10am they checked me and I was dilated to a 2. At 11, I was at 3 and they put in the epidural. At 11:10am Ariana was born. She was so small. They wouldn't let me see her. They told me she was fine except she only weighed 3lbs 4ozs, and that her temperature was really low. They put her in the nursery in an incubator. She was doing fine until she got jaundice. Then she stopped eating. Everything soon got better. When she was 2 1/2 weeks she finally got to come home. Ariana only weighed 4lbs then. Today she is a happy healthy(lactose-intolerant) baby. At three monthes she weighed 11lbs.