The Pregnancy

A Mixed Bag – Update from Last Night

5 Comments 08 January 2009

We got a mixed bag of news this morning from the new round of testing they did on Casey. One of the indicators for pre-eclampsia is now back to normal and one is still being tested. Here’s where the mix comes in – a new indicator for pre-eclampsia has popped up. The short story is that we will not be having babies today…YEAH!!

Here’s the slightly longer story. They have decided to keep Casey here until the babies are born, but we are still hoping to hold out another 2 or 3 weeks before that happens. The new indicator of pre-eclampsia is that her blood platelet count is low (this is what causes your blood to clot). If it continues to drop, this will be very problematic – it’s kind of hard to cut someone open if their blood doesn’t clot, right? I don’t know yet what they intend to do if this level continues to drop, but Dr. Reich told us that Casey would be getting a lot of attention if this did not normalize.

Casey had a good night (for her) and is doing pretty well at the moment. We are actually happy that we will be staying here for the remainder as it was getting pretty difficult to manage her care at the house and she was just miserable all the time. Apparently, my bedside manner isn’t as gentle and patient as it could be…who would’ve guessed?? Eliot in the meantime is well taken care of by a small army of good friends!

I’ll update as often as I can. Please continue to pray for Casey’s health and the health of the babies!!

God bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

The Pregnancy

Calm Down Casey, It’s Not Time Yet!!

Comments Off on Calm Down Casey, It’s Not Time Yet!! 07 January 2009

Well, I’m writing this blog from a hospital room where Casey and I are settled in for the night. Casey’s blood pressure acted up again today at a regular ob/gyn visit and she had Casey admitted to the hospital so further tests could be run and her blood pressure could be monitored. So far, the blood pressure has calmed down, but while she was here, the contractions she’s been having for a couple of months decided to intensify. Finally, two of the tests that they ran showed an early indicator of pre-eclampsia which, according to Wikipedia is, “a medical condition where hypertension arises in pregnancy (pregnancy-induced hypertension) in association with significant amounts of protein in the urine.” Problem is, pre-eclampsia is a very dangerous condition for Casey and the babies and can only be cured by delivery of the babies.

We don’t know much more than that at the moment. They are monitoring Casey’s contractions as well as her blood pressure and will run another round of tests tomorrow to determine if her pre-eclampsia has progressed beyond where it is now. Our doctor really can’t give us any expectation of what the tests results will be as she has seen the condition run in both directions. And so we wait…and we pray…

We are not ready for these babies to come into the world. Reaching the big milestone of 28 weeks was a huge relief, but our goal all along has been to make it into February to give the babies the best chance of a great start in life. Please pray for Casey’s body to quiet down, at least for a couple of more weeks. Please pray for the health of the babies if they do make their debut sooner than we would like. Please pray for God’s hands at work in the lives of our doctors and nurses who will be faced with so many difficult decisions over the next few days and weeks!

God Bless,
Ethan

The Pregnancy

Quick Update

Comments Off on Quick Update 06 January 2009

We’ve had a couple of busy days and I’m running a little behind, but I wanted to post a quick update so everyone knows that all is pretty quiet on the Quint Front for the moment. We have two doctor visits this week – one tomorrow with Dr. Reich and one Thursday with Dr. Berry – but so far not much has changed in the last few days. Casey is certifiably miserable right now, but isn’t begging for the babies to be pulled out just yet. It’s safe to say she hasn’t lost her sanity…yet!

We had a great Sunday kickoff at our church, Riverbend, this week and we were on TV again this morning, but I’ll have to blog more on those topics later. Go to the media page of the website for the link to the TV interview!

Thanks so much to all of you for your continued prayers and support!

God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

The Pregnancy

The Nursery Takes Shape

3 Comments 03 January 2009

Over the Christmas break, the nursery really started to come together. My mom and I went out to buy curtains for the room (an activity that proved to be much more difficult than I imagined!) and my dad put them up. Then on New Year’s Day, Payton, Mark, and their daughter, Harper, came over to bring us lunch and hang out for a while. Before heading our way, they stopped by Babies ‘R Us to pick up two of our cribs that had been delivered and they helped us put them together while the girls played and Casey held down the couch (Thank you, Merriman’s – y’all ROCK!). With that, the last thing needed to complete the nursery will be the three cribs that haven’t been delivered yet. I think the babies will like it…even Jack!
God Bless,
Ethan

The Pregnancy

The New Normal

4 Comments 02 January 2009

Throughout the pregnancy, the way Casey feels on a day-to-day basis has changed quite a bit. Unfortunately for her, the change has not usually been positive. The first couple of months, she was nauseous…a lot. After that, she had major food aversions, but was hungry all the time. I’m not talking just hungry, I mean famished, like she hadn’t had sustenance in days. She was also growing very fast and had a lot of swelling and other aches and pains during this phase. And oh yeah, by the way, she had two surgeries during this phase – one planned, one unplanned. Ok, she’s going to correct me on this one – the unplanned surgery wasn’t technically surgery, but whatever, she had to be rushed to the ER, drugged up, stuck with a really long needle to drain a huge cyst on her ovary, then spent the rest of the night in the hospital…I can call that surgery if I want!

Next came the pressure down low and the acid reflux. After that, sleepless nights were the norm, along with just about everything else mentioned above except for the nausea. Back pain came along shortly after that and difficulty moving around. Shortness of breath, major baby movement, a freak sharp shooting pain up her spine, bleeding gums, stuffy nasal pressure, false labor, one more night in the hospital, and bed rest all came along in November. December has brought more of the same as well as a sore throat, just more intense than before. Now that January has arrived, the intensity has ratcheted up a bit more.

All of these symptoms have sort of come in phases which have lasted anywhere from 2-4 weeks before the next phase begins. Through it all, whenever I’ve asked her how she feels, she generally rattles off her list of current ailments which for the most part have been consistent with whatever phase she was in. So for us, the phase became “the new normal”. She’d run down a list of 5 or 6 issues that would be awful to deal with, but truthfully had become her norm and were therefore not much cause for concern. Basically, “the new normal” meant, “I’m miserable, but no more than what I’ve been and there is nothing to worry about at the moment.” Great way to go through life, huh?

Well, it seems lately that “the new normal” has only lasted a few days before a different new normal has taken its place. She has been feeling really rough since the day after Christmas and it has gotten a bit worse every 3 or 4 days since then. I think the new normal from here on out is that she is going to be beyond miserable and it’s going to take every bit of strength that she’s got to keep from losing her mind. She’s dealt with a lot up to this point, but we’re about to see just how much this girl can take. It’s tough to watch because there is so little that can be done to make her comfortable. She’s shown a toughness that I’ve never seen and hopefully she’ll never have a need for again once all this is over. She’ll need to match misery for grit every step of the way. That’s right, Casey Ann and grit go hand in hand these days!!

Pray for her as often as you will. Pray for her strength of spirit, pray for her relative comfort, pray for her patience, pray for her perseverence, pray for her health. Pray for her in anyway that you can think of, but please pray for her. We both know that God will see her through this last month in his way, but we also know how valuable everyone’s prayers have been up to this point and how valuable they’ll be as the pregnancy wages its final battle on her body. Please pray…

God bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

The Pregnancy

Happy 28 Weeks! Oops…I Mean, Happy New Year!!

4 Comments 31 December 2008

So here we are, New Year’s Eve 2008, ready to ring in the new year and wave a fond farewell to the year that saw everything in our lives change for good and change for the better! 2009 promises to bring just as much change along with 5 times the chaos, blessings, laughter, frustration, confusion, organization, reorganization, smiles, smiles, grey hairs, more smiles, and immeasurable times the love!

More important for us tonight than the New Year holiday is the fact that we have reached the most important milestone to date for this crazy journey – week 28! Achieving this milestone has dominated our focus from the beginning as it marks a point at which our chances of “intact survival” of all babies are very high (intact survival means survival with no major, lasting defects). Adding to our excitement over reaching this date is the fact that Casey is not in the hospital yet and we were able to spend Christmas at our house this year which was another one of our goals. That’s Eliot poking her head out of one of the windows in her new playhouse…Santa was very good to our little girl!

We had a crazy day today and Casey is paying the price, but she is relaxing now and looking forward to an easier day tomorrow after a good, Ambien-induced, full night’s sleep tonight. We started off our morning with an interview at our home with KXAN, the local NBC channel. They are doing a story on the new labor and delivery wing of the hospital that will be delivering the babies, Seton on 34th, and they wanted to include our story as part of the feature on Seton. After that, we met reporters from KVUE (ABC) at Dr. Berry’s office for another interview while we checked in on the babies. Finally, the KVUE team followed us back home to wrap up the interview. All of that activity really impacts Casey so she’s had a rough afternoon and won’t be moving around much for the next few days! Here is the link to the news story that ran today:

Everything went very well at Dr. Berry’s office. The babies are growing as expected with their weights ranging from 1 pound, 13 ounces to 2 pounds, 6 ounces. However, I’m a little disappointed in Jack for giving up the lead in weight gain to one of the girls. He came in a strong second, however, at 2 pounds, 3 ounces and I fully expect that he will regain the lead by the time we see him next! Actually, I have to cut him a little slack. It’s a little difficult to make out, but Jack is the middle circle in the sonogram picture attached. That’s his head being smushed by one of the girls heads on the left and one of the other girls’ belly on the right. The poor boy is just outnumbered!

Dr. Berry doesn’t want Casey in the hospital unless it is absolutely necessary for her to be there so we are continuing with the waiting game that we’ve been playing the last couple of weeks. Our next goal is to make it to 32 weeks and get the babies weights up to four pounds each. If you’re doing the math, that means doubling their weight in the next four weeks! I don’t know how it’s possible for Casey’s belly to keep growing, but it will have to do just that if the babies are going to reach their goals.
Though we can breathe a pretty big sigh of relief, let me add a little reality check before I wrap up this update. If the babies delivered today, they would be 3 months premature. Though the odds of intact survival are very good at this point, our doctors have made it very clear that they want the babies in Casey’s belly as long as is physically possible to avoid any possible complications. The babies still have a lot of growing to do and there is no better place to do that than in Casey’s belly. No matter when they are born, the babies will likely spend several weeks in the NICU to complete their development, but that time can be exponentially reduced by maintaining the pregnancy as many days as possible (1 day in the womb is equal to 3 days in the NICU).

Once again, we want to thank everyone for their prayers and support. We are continually reminded just how blessed we are to live this experience and to feel the prayers of so many. Today is a good day at the Jones house, thanks in large part to everyone out there who has loved on us through this entire process. Please continue to pray for Casey’s comfort and health and the continued growth of the Quints!

Oh, one more thing I almost forgot. Casey got a steroid shot today and I get to give her another one tomorrow. We did a round of steroids at week 24 and we’ll do another at week 32. The steroids help accelerate the babies brain, lung, and intestinal development and helps prevent brain bleeding (which is one of the causes of cerebral palsy). I’m not exactly sure how it works, but basically the drug is effective for a few weeks after the shots are given, but only if the babies are born during that time. This is also good news that we were able to get these shots done. It’s also good news that I get to give the next shot…ha, ha, ha!! ;-)

Many blessings to you all in 2009!!
God Bless,
Ethan

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