Here We Go

Well, Karsie seems to be ready to go.  Our doctor has been ordering pretty heavy drugs to stop contractions and while they have slowed down a bit, they have definitely not stopped.  He came in on his rounds and told us that Karsie is trying to tell us that she's ready.  With the heavy dose of drugs Michelle is getting there should not be many contractions if at all, but Michelle is still regularly having them.  So here's the plan:

They will continue to monitor Michelle throughout the night.  The doctor will come in tomorrow to evaluate.  If she continues contracting, they will deliver Karsie tomorrow.  He said he is pretty sure that will be the case.  The other good part about doing this tomorrow is that we have a higher likelyhood of having our surgeon whereas if they wait and she comes during the weekend, the rush is much worse than having a planned date with planned teams ready to go.  

Therefore, unless something drastic happens tonight, we will have a daughter tomorrow. There's still a real outside shot that Michelle stops contracting and they push it a bit, but until that happens, we're making our plans now.  Thank you all for the continuous prayers sent our way.  It got us to about 35 weeks!  Now comes the scarier part!  Please continue to pray for good outcomes and recoveries during surgery and everything else.  We are being spoiled already, but that's what we do with prayer.

Finally, this will most likely be the last big information blog for a while.  Michelle will be recovering from surgery and Kevin will be following Karsie around until after surgery.  Kevin will have his blackberry with him, so we will be posting (hopefully) many shorter status updates right here as things unfold.  Much like twitter, but much better since it's a play-by-play birth.  Obviously Kevin can't do his fatherly duties while typing on the blackberry, so whenever the blackberry gets in the way of that, you may have to wait.  We will do our best to keep you up to date.  

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A special note to the love of my life - I have been so blessed to be your partner for 6 wonderful years.  I continue to be amazed at how much of a wonderful woman and a mother you have been are are now.  As we spend our last night together as a couple without children, I want to let you know how much I love you.  I know we are going to be great parents because of how great we are together.  I cannot wait to meet our little Karsie and start a new adventure with you.  You always have been and always will be the love of my life.      -Kevin 

Trying to Prolong Pregnancy

There's a reason we have not posted in a while.  Short story is that we're in the hospital again....most likely to stay this time.  

Long story:  Michelle started to show some signs of real labor a day or two ago.  We'll spare some of the gory details.  She also started to have contractions move from just tightening to mildly uncomfortable to fairly painful in a very short amount of time.  We waited it our for a while to see if they went away, and they did not.  

At 3:30 this morning we called it and came into the hospital.  Michelle was in actual labor and so they gave her a sonogram, upped her dose of medicine, and did some other invasive tests.  We found out that her cervix is still closed but much thinner than she was just a short while ago.  We want that to stay the same because Karsie is doing just fine.  She has an excellent heart rate, her movements are still plentiful, and she responds well to all the contractions.  It's Michelle's uterus that's causing all the problems.  

The on call doctor put her on a blitz of medicine to stop the contractions, but they don't seem to be stopping completely.  They still have somewhere to go as far as increasing her medicine and giving her multiple kinds of medicines, but while they haven't stopped they have slowed down greatly and she is contracting within the minimum guidelines.  

We have an ultimate goal of 38 weeks (which may be a small miracle at this point), a closer goal of 36 weeks, but our first goal is to get to Monday.  First of all that would make her 35 weeks, but that's also when our doctor comes back from vacation.  He should have been more considerate of our situation.  He can take his vacation any time after we give birth.  Also, we're pretty sure that our surgeon is mostly available at the beginning of the week.  

While we are at a good place now at almost 35 weeks, we still ask for prayer that Karsie stays put for a while longer.  We really want to get to 38 weeks now because we just heard back from an acquaintance in New York also w/ an omphalocele, and they just had their little baby at 38 weeks, and she got to go home in just over a week.  While we don't expect that to be our case, we are sure, and they are sure, that her being born at 38 weeks had a lot to do with her recovery.  News will follow when we know more...