Tag archive for "the hospital"

The Pregnancy

No News is Good News

4 Comments 14 January 2009

I have very little to report this morning…yeah! Casey had another great night sleep and seems to be settling into some sort of pattern. Good night sleep, decent morning, awful afternoon, decent evening has been the course over the last couple of days so we’ll see if that continues today.

Contractions are her constant companion, but they vary in frequency which makes a huge difference in her condition. Both Monday and yesterday, starting in early afternoon and lasting until early evening, the spacing was every 2-3 minutes. These are the roughest patches she goes through and they get everyone’s senses up that maybe the time has come. Yet, so far at least, the time has not come and the contractions back off to every 12 or 15 minutes by early evening.

She is still Pre-eclamptic, but she is stable and they will not be checking labs again today. Therefore, the only thing that would force delivery is if she goes into full out labor, the contractions never back down on their frequency, and her cervix begins to dilate. The exciting news about her cervix dilating: Casey’s was sewn shut at week 14 and if it begins to dilate, the suture will hold, while her cervix will not. While this does not present a significant health risk, the hope is that her labor will not progress so rapidly that this happens as it is certain to be incredibly painful…fun times!

Please continue to pray for Casey’s health and the health of the babies. The mental aspect of this fight is going to take its toll eventually and Casey will need all of the strength she has to keep her sanity. She’s one tough mama, but everyone has their breaking point. Let’s pray that this does not happen before her body decides it has had enough!!

God Bless,
Ethan

The Pregnancy

A Rare Sight…And Many More to Come

3 Comments 13 January 2009

You’re not going to see this every day – two women, 10 babies (soon to be anyway). On the right is Rachelle Wilkinson, quintuplet success story who lives in Cedar Park. She gave birth to her babies 18 months ago and she still has all of her hair…can you believe it?? I’ve even heard rumors that she can be seen running around her neighborhood pushing a 20 foot long stroller with five little babies strapped in and enjoying the ride. Apparently, there is life after quints!

Rachelle reached out to us early on in the process and has been our advisor ever since. She stopped by Monday night to check in on Casey and offer her support from one of the few women who have been there, done that. Her and Jayson, her husband, have been very gracious in welcoming us to their home and allowing us to peek inside their very busy, very efficient, very loving lives. We can’t wait to get the 10 babies together for an incredible photo op!
God Bless,
Ethan

The Pregnancy

A Daily Dose of Amazement!

2 Comments 13 January 2009

As we continue through this process, I am continually amazed at the resiliency of the human body and the strength of Casey’s spirit…and the knowledge of the medical staff…and the power of prayer…and the rallying of support…and the unpredictability of life…and the calming presence of God in your life…and the…

Casey had a great night sleep, only waking up a couple of times…amazing after what she went through yesterday evening. There was a two hour time frame from about 5-7 where we were pretty certain things were progressing and everyone was on high alert. But everything calmed down and Casey slept better than she had in weeks (and so did I with the help of our friend, Ambien)!

So they are running labs as we speak – testing everything that they’ve checked before – protein in the urine, liver enzymes, blood pressure, platelet count, etc. If everything checks out ok, then we continue the waiting game.

It appears that no matter what happens with Casey’s body, the doctors will hold out for every last possible hour before delivering the babies. Even Casey’s water breaking will not mean that we make a mad dash for the operating room! Apparently, as long as the babies have a little bit of fluid in their sack, they can continue to survive and grow inside the womb. Even if Casey goes in to raging labor, we’ll still have about four hours before the operation begins.

This up/down/stop/start game we’ve been playing has been stressful on us all, no doubt, but we are glad to do it as long as Casey stays pregnant. Casey’s focus has continued to wow us all! Though she is in complete misery, she has not complained other than to say that she’s frustrated that she may have to deliver before she’s ready to give up the fight!

Please keep up the prayers for Casey’s strength and health and the health of the quints…the prayers are working!!

God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

The Pregnancy

No Babies Today!

7 Comments 12 January 2009

Casey had a decent night sleep last night until about 2 am when she started having pretty intense contractions. At that point, she had to have pain medication regularly to keep things under control. However, her labs came back this morning and everything looked good. As long as her contractions do not progress to “real” labor, we will not be having any babies today!

God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

The Pregnancy

Update on Casey #2

2 Comments 11 January 2009

We saw Dr. Berry a couple of hours ago and got some good info from him. He did a quick sonogram to check on the babies’ heart rates and all was good there. He also did a measurement on the fluid level in each sack and again all was good. Checking the fluid in the sacks is an indication of how much room the babies have left to grow inside Casey’s belly.

He didn’t change anything with Casey’s meds, but they are going to scale back the pain med because little Miss Casey has been pretty loopy this afternoon…funny! The good thing though is that her contractions have spaced out a good bit.

The big news is that they are going to run Casey’s labs again in the morning and if her platelet count has dropped, the delivery will be scheduled. If it has not, they will likely run the labs again on Tuesday. Dr. Berry gave us 33% odds of delivery tomorrow and 50% odds of delivering by Thursday. So the waiting game continues…

God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net

The Pregnancy

Very Cool Timing…The Birth of Molly Joy McKinney

2 Comments 11 January 2009

Friday night I slept at a friend’s garage apartment that is a few minutes from the hospital while Casey’s mom pulled the night shift with Casey – thank you, Quentin and Jaymie! As I was getting ready to come back over to the hospital around 6:30 am, I got an email from a good friend and fellow Riverbend Marriage Builder, William McKinney, that updated us on the status of his very pregnant wife. She was due to deliver their first baby on New Year’s Day and here we were on January 10th with no baby yet. The update was great however – Haley was in the hospital and half way home on bringing their little girl into the world.

I sent Will a quick text to find out where he was and to see if I could stop by. The answer: he was two door down from us! So I stopped in, gave Haley my love, and talked a little while with the dazed-daddy-to-be. Just a few hours later, Haley’s mom knocked on our door and invited us to come see the new addition. Another friend and Marriage Builder had just stopped by to bring us some food so she and I went down to check in. We got there just in time to see little Molly Joy get placed in her mama’s arms for the first time after being bundled up. What a site to see! As grandma and grandpa worked the room with a video camera, a small digital camera, and a bigger camera on a tripod, Payton, William, and I just looked on and enjoyed the scene. Later, Will snuck Molly into our room and let Casey hold her for a quick second before the nurse came and smacked Will around for breaking the law!
I’ve never been so close to a birth other than Eliot’s. It was really incredible to be in the room and share in the experience with the current two happiest people in the world! Very cool timing is all I can say about the experience!
Our prayers are with Will, Haley, and Molly Joy as they begin their new life together!
God Bless,
Ethan

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