Alana Leia Larsen is Here!!!

Our sweet little girl was born at 8:06am on Sept 2, 2008. She weighed 5lbs. 14.6oz. and measured 18.5 inches long. We are so happy to have her here, safe and healthy.


I had developed high blood pressure the last few weeks of the pregnancy and was monitoring it at home. On Monday, labor day, I called the on-call doctor at the hospital concerned because it had continued to stay high. The doctor called back and told me to "come in now!" I was diagnosed with preeclampsia and HELP syndrome and was put on magnesium to prevent seizures, and pitocin to induce labor. Mike and I labored through hypnobirthing for about 15 hours with little progress and only dialated to a 4. I decided that I couldn't continue to labor at that intensity for much longer and requested an epidural. Once I had the epidural, I dialated quickly to a 7, but my blood pressure had dropped so much that the baby was starting to have complications. My doctor soon decided that we needed to get her out quickly and that I need to have a cesarean delivery. Within 5 minutes they had wheeled me into the operating room and delivered our sweet little girl. Though we weren't able to follow our birth as we had planned, I know that everything happened the way it needed to keep us safe. Alana had more complications after birth and had to stay in the level 2 nursery for a few days. She was on IV, oxygen, and under a heat lamp while they had a monitor for her heart rate and oxygen level. Later in the week she was able to come off everything, but needed to have a feeding tube for a few days. It was such a happy day when they took everything off because she was doing well. She is so strong and has overcome all those things. Mom and baby are so lucky to have a dad that did so much to take care of us through all that happened. We have the best daddy in the whole world!

We are so blessed to have such a sweet baby.