Baby Girl has Arrived...a LITTLE early

I guess this is a good time for me to break into the blogging scene with my first official post. We had a baby girl at 12:16 am on July 17, 2009 (at 29 weeks and 5 days). She weighed 2lbs 11 oz (1205 grams in case you were wondering) and 16 inches long. It all happened very quickly and still feels a little bit surreal. She is doing well, basically breathing on her own. All of the nurses tell us how well she is doing and how feisty she is. She has a pretty good scream for a girl her age but it is so quiet, precious, and sweet to us.

How it all Happened

After a couple of days of not noticing the baby move very much, Dani decided to go to the doctor on Thursday just to make sure everything was ok. She checked in around 2 or 3 and they monitored the baby's heart rate. The Drs didn't like what they were seeing so they did additional tests (ultrasounds, more heart rate, and stuff). At about 6pm, while I was driving home from work thinking Dani would be following soon after, she called to tell me they were checking her into the hospital and there was a chance of C-section that night...I got the kids situated, a bag packed, and headed down to the hospital. I arrived at about 9pm (yeah I'm a little slow).

When I got there, Dani had high blood pressure and a bad headache, in her words she said "her head felt like it was going to explode." They did a CT scan on her head to make sure nothing had ruptured...everything looked ok. Around 11:30 they determined that she had pre-clampsia (sp?) or toxemia which is a pregnancy related disease of high blood pressure which can result in the symptoms Dani was having: high blood pressure, abnormal kidney function, and severe headaches with blurred vision. If left untreated, it can progress to seizures and other problems to the brain and loss of the baby. At this point they decided to do a c-section and we started getting ready. Dani did amazing! As soon as the baby was out, her blood pressure returned to normal levels, the headache went away, and she started feeling better.

Baby Girl came out very active and doing well, the Drs. were pleased to see her breathing on her own and looking pretty healthy (good color and all that stuff). We got to hold her for a few minutes before they took her away to run tests and get her all hooked up to the monitoring devices in the NICU wing. She has an IV, a tube to her stomach to feed her, and CPAP (providing air) to her nose. They gave her one dose of surfactant (or servanta) to help the lungs to be more elastic (usually happens naturally towards the end of pregnancy) and since then she has progressed very well. She is currently getting air at normal O2 atmospheric concentrations (but doesn't seem to even need the help).

Dani got to hold her today for about 1.5 hours...it was so nice to see them together, she is a precious little girl. She moves a lot especially when the nurses are moving her and poking her and has the cutest little cry. She was very comfortable with mom holding her. Now that Dani has been able to see her, we are hoping to name her soon.

I apologize for the lack of pictures, I am still here in the hospital using the Ronald McDonald House computer. She is a cute little girl with lots of hair (it appears to be brownish-blond but is still hard to tell). Her head is about the size of an orange or an apple. Her wrists and ankles are about the diameter of a quarter. Her prognosis is good, we expect to have her in NICU for a few months until around the initial due date (Sept. 26)

Mom and Baby are doing well, we have felt the tender mercies of The Lord and have felt the prayers of all of you. We are especially grateful for loving family members and friends who have provided support for us these last few days. We know we ask for a lot sometimes and appreciate you accommodating our needs in your lives.

We will try to keep you all updated and post pictures as soon as we can.