Friday, April 11, 2008

A few more details and a few more prayers needed!

Hi All! Well I thought I'd just update you a little more on all the activities of the last couple days. Yesterday actually did go pretty well. She was very anxious to make her entrance. We came in to be induced around 7:30 a.m. but they didn't start anything until 9:30 a.m. Well about 3 hours later (after being on pitocin for that whole time) they said I was dilated to a 4 and they were going to break my water. Well around 2:40 the contractions were so hard that I thought I was going to have her and they said oh, no that's not too likely but we'll have the doctor check you. Well I was dilated to a 9 and they got their butts in gear saying...call the pediatric docs we gotta get her to delivery. Well the next contraction was even worse and I said I was going to push and they said no! So they got me down to the delivery room and told me still I couldn't push 'cause the other docs weren't there yet. Ha! Emmalee was ready to come out. Well they did let me push the next contraction....and during the contraction after that she was out. Pushed for less than 5 minutes...I thought I was pretty lucky! But she came out screaming! They took her right away. We thought we'd have 15 min to hold her but they needed to start working on her right away. Anyway they got her all hooked up and then they brought her by in the transport unit before they took us to St. Mary's. I can't say it enough...she's so beautiful! Anyways...they got her over there and started doing all the testing. Well they called us that night and told us they found another little bump in the road for Emma. Her esophagus is not connected to her stomach. They tried to put a feeding tube down her throat and then realized it had not gone down and so they ran a few tests and discovered the problem. So...she will first need a surgery to fix that problem and then the heart surgery will probably be next Wednesday or Thursday. I guess the plan of action is to do a surgery tomorrow or Monday to bring the esophagus sack (it's a sack 'cause it doesn't go down to her stomach) to the side of her chest or throat so they can easily empty any fluid that goes down there like saliva...and then they will just insert a feeding tube directly into her stomach. This way they can do the heart surgery pretty quickly after that. If they would have done the esophagus surgery to fix the whole problem then it would be about 14 days before they could do the heart surgery and that's too long to wait. So...she's got a few hurdles to get through but God is faithful and He has big plans for her and we just have to fully rely on Him. Thank you all for your prayers and for checking in on us. We will keep you posted on all the latest developments!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

She IS beautiful - I love her name too, you did good. Although I had to explain Pearl. I believe things will go well - you are at the best place!!! I love you!
-mary (g)
Got snow???

Anonymous said...

She is beauttiful! Congrats!
Jen Schwab

Anonymous said...

Wow! I knew it would be a girl!!! So pretty. Made me tear up! And I love the name (I think that you secretly named her after me...my middle name is Ann) But really I LOVE the name! Congrats you two. We will keep praying.

Anonymous said...

Ali,

I just wanted you to know that my cousin's baby had the very same esophagus situation and it was easily and fully corrected, just as Emma's will be.

I love Pearl too, it's my grandmother's middle name.

Your faith is an inspiration.


Carrie