Emery Update

We are going home on Monday!

Emery has been off of all oxygen, antibiotics and I.V. for 48 hours. They are just monitoring her until tomorrow and then we are headed home! Since she was on I.V. fluids and antibiotics she did not get to start feeding until late Friday afternoon. She was taking formula because they wanted to make sure her sugar levels were good. Today (Sunday) we will begin breastfeeding.

It's been a long week, but we are so thankful for all the prayers and concern.

We are also so thankful for Baptist East and for Women's First. My Dr's intuition along with the providence of God saved Emery's life.

For those of you who haven't heard, I went in on Wednesday for my weekly visit. I mentioned to the Nurse Practitioner that I "just didn't feel well" that day. She decided that since I was so far along that it would be best to do a NST, (non stress test) on Emery to see if everything was okay.

The NST came back "inconclusive" meaning that they didn't see anything that was alarming, but they did not see the things they like to see that would be reassuring that everything was alright.

They decided that it would be best if they did an ultrasound to look at some specific things. They looked at Emery's heart rate, her reflexes, practice breathing and her reaction to sound, they also looked at the placenta. Everything by ultrasound standards looked good, but my doctor still thought I should go to labor and delivery to have a stronger NST test done.

The NST test measures the amount of variability in Emery's heart rate. Her heart rate was normal, but it was not responding to stress by going up or down, which is what healthy babies do. Her heart rate was just staying at a normal rate. So she decided that the best thing to do would be to induce labor since I was so close to my due date. She felt very uncomfortable sending me home, even though everything could be okay she didn't want to risk it not being.

We started with a medicine that would dilate my cervix so that they could then give me the medicine to start contractions. The cervix dilation takes 12 hours so we were ready to hang out for the night and expected for labor to start in the morning.

After 4 hours on the medication my Dr. decided that Emery's heart rate was still not fluctuating enough for her to be comfortable with me going through labor. So about 1 a.m she told us we would be delivering by C-section within the hour. At 2:39 Emery was here.

Every thing seemed normal when she was born. She had a lot of fluid in her lungs, which is common in C- section babies. They took her to the nursery with Benji trailing behind. My mom and sister had arrived and were there to watch her through the window. Apparently while they were watching them do standard testing Emery went into respiratory distress. They rushed her into the back to the special care unit. They put her on oxygen and began to try and find out what was wrong. Throughout the testing we found that she was anemic, had a slight heart murmur and low oxygen levels.

They ran a number of blood test to see why her red blood cell count was so low and found out that my placenta had partially abrupted at some point which led to Emery loosing her blood for an unknown amount of time while still in the womb.

This loss of blood is what resulted in her anemia. We were relieved in a sense to know that since this was the problem her red blood cell count would not continue to drop. But it was scary to know that all this took place without us knowing.

She would have not survived a vaginal delivery. We are trying hard not to think about all the "what ifs". God is so good! Emery is going to be completely fine and have no lasting problems from the anemia and low oxygen levels. The low oxygen levels were a result of fluid in her lungs, and from the low red blood cells. The fluid was a result of the c- section, because vaginal births usually help push out the fluid during delivery. The heart murmur was also something that occurs occasionally in c-sec. babies. All babies in the womb have a slight murmur that closes with birth. They tested Emery again the next couple of days and the murmur had disappeared. She was on antibiotics as just a precaution but all the test came back normal showing no infection.

I am doing great. I am just so thankful that my precious baby is healthy. She is perfect of course and the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. We have many more pictures that will be showing up soon.

Thanks again for all the prayers. Please continue to lift us up as we start the process of heading home. We can't wait for everyone to meet her!

Benji, Kristi and Emery.