With an original due date of 11/27/2017, we were praying he'd show up 1 week early. Turned out my OB/Gyn's clinic was closing shortly after my due date and they were trying to induce everyone around my due date to ensure we wouldn't have to find another physician. We were happy they wanted to induce 1 week early.

We went in for my 37 week appointment on a Thursday and were told immediately to prepare to be induced the following Sunday (2 weeks early) due to preeclampsia. Again, we were excited to see our baby boy sooner than expected.

We went in on a Sunday night and was put on Cervidil to soften my cervix as I wasn't dialated any. After 12 hours of that and only dialated to 1 cm, they put me on another medication to soften the cervix. They did 2, 3 hour rounds of that and with no luck decided to put me on pitocin. With 12 hours of horrible contractions, they checked me again and unfortunately I still hadn't dialated. We felt so defeated as we were sent home after 2 1/2 days. The following day I felt like I was leaking (as I had been feeling for a week already but was tested negative for amniotic fluid) and was told to go into L&D.; My husband and I didn't think it was anything and was already planning to go watch Justice League. The nurse walked back in and checked my cervix, still only 1 cm. She tested me and we were positive for amniotic fluid. My water had broke!! After 10 hours of pitocin and again, very painful contractions I had finally dialated to 9cm! It was happening! On 11/16/17 at 1:28am our sweet baby boy made his arrival. We were so happy.

They moved us onto the 2nd floor into our PP room with our baby. At 6am the nurses came in to take him for a full check with the pediatrician. After not sleeping, my husband and I took the opportunity to sleep. After not returning with my son for over 2 hours I went to go check with a nurse to find out what was going on. The nurse stated that his bilirubin levels were high and they needed to keep him under a special blue light. His number was at a 7 within the first 24 hours of life. This was explained to us that he has a B O incompatibility which causes a severe case of jaundice. From his first day they had tested his levels every 12 hours. His levels continued to rise every time. They didn't allow him to stay in our room the first day and for the next 5 days they only let us hold him to feed for 30 minutes every 3 hours. It tore us to pieces that we couldn't hold our son when he cried under those blue lights. The highest his levels reached was

16.1. Finally on the 6th day of being in that hospital room they came in with good news. It was time to go home.

Our little fighter is tiny but mighty! His heels have the scars to prove it.Those 8 heel pricks we're no joke!

WELCOME HOME ZION ANTHONY PLACENCIA!!!!