More details this evening, but just wanted to let everyone know that we might be having babies tomorrow! They confirmed this morning that Casey has pre-eclampsia and if it is not under control by tomorrow morning, then we’re headed to the operating room! Prayers, please!!
Tag archive for "update"
A Mixed Bag – Update from Last Night
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
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Calm Down Casey, It’s Not Time Yet!!
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
Baby and Casey Update – 26.5 Weeks
First, a little perspective for you from a picture that was taken five minutes ago. The other glowing blonde with Casey is Payton Merriman, one of our good friends from Riverbend Church. She and her husband, Mark, are two of our everyday heroes and angels who have been helping with frequent meals and frequent play dates for Eliot with their daughter, Harper. The reason for the picture is this: Payton and Casey have the exact same due date (if we were only having one baby), March 27th. That’s right, she is 26.5 weeks pregnant just like Casey. What a difference four more babies makes!
We went to see Casey’s Ob/Gyn today, Dr. Stephanie Reich, for our regular visit to check in on the babies and Casey’s health. Dr. Reich delivered Eliot and Casey always felt very comfortable with her so we were thrilled early on when we found out she would keep working with us through the quint pregnancy. She and our perinatologist, Dr. Berry, have worked together every step of the way and both of them will be in the delivery room with Dr. Reich taking the lead.
As has been the case with every visit to date, the babies and Casey are both doing very well! The babies seem to be running out of room though – we could really tell this time just how crammed they are on top of each other. Casey has baby parts up against both kidneys, pressed down against the bottom of her cervix, just below her sternum, and all points in between. There are literally three babies stacked on top of each other from her waist to her chest and one baby on each side of this stack. Later today, Casey had her hands on her hips and could feel the babies on the sides moving at the same time…crazy!
Though she is having a real hard time moving around, breathing, eating, sleeping, and just about every other activity necessary for survival, both doctors are astounded at how well Casey is handling this pregnancy. Dr. Reich told us today that she is really surprised that she’s not in the hospital yet. Her blood pressure was very healthy when they checked it today, her cervix is still completely closed, her symptoms are stable, and she is growing as she needs to be. Her belly grew 2.5 centimeters in the last two weeks!
As the babies are starting to require more calories to complete their development, Casey was given orders to eat more calories. Normally, that’d be great news, but it’s really hard for her to eat much at one time because her stomach is being smashed down by all those babies. She is also having an aversion to sweets so I can’t even tempt her with bowls of ice cream and holiday candy!
So, for now we continue the waiting game. And though the wait is always the hardest part, we love the fact that Christmas will be at our home this year and not at the hospital. We love it that Casey and the babies are doing so well. And we love it that we are almost to week 28 and the pregnancy is almost over! We love more than anything that God has blessed us so richly with this pregnancy and that we have been able to share these blessings with so many wonderful people. It’s going to be a wild January (and hopefully early February), but we are more excited with each passing day about finally getting to see these little ones who have garnered so much attention. And when the time is finally right for this guy and these gals to meet the world, bring on the CHAOS…the good chaos that is!!
God Bless,
Ethan
It Comes in Waves…
After a fairly quiet week, we had a lot of activity today which seems to be the way things go these days…really quiet for a few days, then a wave of activity before things quiet down again. So, here is a quick recap of the daily happenings in the Jones Life:
– Today, we passed another milestone – week 26!! The next two weeks are the most critical two weeks we’ve had to date…statistically, the survival rate skyrockets and the defect rate plummets during these next two weeks…say your prayers, please!
– The producer for A Baby Story called today and said that it looked like they were going to get the green light and that she was planning on flying in on Monday with a film crew to do two days of interviews and filming for “Act 1” of the story they were going to do on us. Very exciting!! However, at the end of the day, she called back and said that a last minute legal glitch has put everything on hold for about a week. She still thinks everything will work out fine, but can’t risk spending the money on flights, etc. until she knows for sure. Bummer, big time, but we think it will happen. Hopefully they’ll get it worked out and get a crew down here before Casey goes to the hospital!!
– We were surprised today by a friend of ours who has been collecting baby stuff for us through her work, the good folks at Humana! She brought tons of diapers, wipes, and other cool stuff! Not only has she been collecting from her co-workers, but she also sent out an email to one of their vendors who were hosting an office party at Humana’s headquarters, Austin Radiological Association, and asked them to donate. Apparently, someone at Austin Radiological knows Casey and rallied up three huge baskets of clothes, blankets, bibs, burp rags, etc…so awesome! Unfortunately, however we do not know who it is so if you happen to be reading this and you know who this incredible person is, please let them know how grateful we are! Thank you also, Ginger, for organizing this and bringing everything out to the house!!
– I had my paint crews start today on the nursery. They got the first coat of paint on everything and will be back on Monday to finish up.
– Another friend of ours called today to say she was headed our way with a high chair for us. That makes four high chairs…only one more to go!
– This weekend, my honey-do list includes cleaning and organizing the garage and a trip to Babies’R’Us to buy the cribs and bedding so we can start putting them together…yippy ;-)
– Eliot has had a great week topped off by two sleepovers at her friend Maddy Brown’s. Our friends, Stacy and Mike Brown have been so incredible and have taken care of Eliot several nights in the last month when I had class. They picked her up Thursday after school and will be bringing her back tomorrow morning. Lots of fun with the little girls, but I’m guessing the Brown family is worn out!!
I hope everyone had a great week and is looking forward to a relaxing weekend!!
God Bless,
Ethan
Waiting for the Call – Update on Casey, 25-1/2 Weeks
I get asked every day several times a day how Casey is feeling and my typical answer is that “she’s hanging in there.” Lately though, I’ve had to hesitate before I can say that. It’s becoming more and more difficult for Casey to hang in there as her body just continues to grow and change so rapidly and the babies run out of room in her womb. She has been experiencing near constant Braxton-Hicks contractions and sleep is very difficult to come by these days (thank God for the Ambien she gets to take every other day!). Despite all of this, her spirit does remain strong and she continues to amaze me with her positive attitude!!
We went to see Dr. Berry today and check in on the quints and as usual, all went very well. The babies are all growing as they should be and Casey’s body is doing as well as can be expected. However, Dr. Berry put me on notice that I am officially waiting for the call, probably an anxious one from an anxious wife (and hopefully not a panicked or hysterical wife) telling me that it’s time to go to the hospital. Don’t get me wrong, delivery is not imminent, but a hospital visit is expected soon.
Let me explain. Dr. Berry fully expects that Casey will go into active labor in the next 2-1/2 weeks. We will know this because she will start having serious contractions, she may start bleeding, her water may break, or any of the other normal signs of active labor will appear. The only problem with this is that we are by no means ready for her to deliver. So, when I get the call, I’ll drop whatever it is I’m doing, I’ll head home to pick her up (assuming I’m at work), and we’ll be headed to the hospital for what will hopefully be an extended stay.
Assuming her water hasn’t broken (we really do not want that to happen), we do not expect the visit to the hospital to qualify as an emergency per se, but it will be a very tense time as we wait for the drugs that are administered to stop her labor from progressing to take effect and quiet her body back down. Because it is so critical to get the babies to at least 28 weeks, we will all be tied up in knots until things settle down and labor is stopped. Dr. Berry said that once labor has been stopped, it is typical for the body to relax for about two weeks before it tries to labor again. From that point on, Casey will reside at Seton on 34th until her body decides it will be put on hold no longer and the babies are evicted.
So, the good news is this: we expect that making it to 28 weeks will not be a problem at all. 28 weeks is the second major goal we’ve had (the first coming at 24 weeks) and it means that the babies likelihood of survival is very high and the risk of defects is very low. Week 28 arrives on New Year’s Eve!!
And here is the challenge: we really don’t want the babies born before 32 weeks and the time Casey spends in the hospital will be incredibly difficult for her. Every day that the babies stay in her womb removes three days of time they will have to spend in the NICU. However, the drugs that they will administer to prevent the progression of labor will exact a painful toll on Casey’s short term health. On top of all of that, being away from home will make it much more difficult for Eliot and me to be with Casey to love on her as she is going to need through this incredible battle.
So as I wait for the call, I also ask for you to pray for Casey and the babies and the rest of the people involved with the big event. We are excited, we are anxious, we are a little scared of what lies ahead. No matter how you slice it, this is a tough hill to climb, but we’re not alone in the fight and we are confident of the good life that awaits us when we get to the other side. Please pray for Casey’s body to remain calm and for her spirit to remain strong as we enter the final phase of the pregnancy! Please also pray that we can stay out of the hospital until after Christmas – this has also been one of our major goals!! Thank you all so much for your love and support throughout everything we’ve been through!!
God bless,
Ethan
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