Monday, August 31, 2009

Ruptured at 21 weeks, 4 days on August 30th, 2007

written Aug 31st

This is not good news so it's easier for me to write this to inform
everyone of what's going on rather than calling you all individually
and repeating the same story and answering the same questions over and over. I went to the ER yesterday because I was leaking amniotic fluid. I was admitted to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola and have been here since. I will be 22 weeks on Sunday so this is not good but it's not hopeless. All we know is that I'm ruptured (my water broke) and they don't expect the hole to heal itself. I have had no contractions
and am not in labor so that is good. Usually, once your membranes
rupture, you go into labor within 10-14 days. If that were to happen,
Autumn would most likely be too young to survive. The doctor is
hoping for me to keep the baby in for 4 more weeks. At 24 weeks, babies
have a chance of survival. Autumn's heartrate is perfect and I feel
her kick and move. They say she is fine as long as she stays inside.
I guess babies can live on a low amount of amniotic fluid as long as
it doesn't get too low. I am on strict bedrest at the hospital and
will be here a while. When I do go into labor, which is hopefully
later than sooner, I will be transferred to Sacred Heart where they
have a fantastic NICU.

Of course this is very emotional for K.J. and I but we put our trust
in the Lord. There isn't anything we can do or even that the doctors
and nurses can do at this point, it's just a waiting game. Even
though we don't know, God knows whether Autumn will survive or not so
we're just leaving it up to Him and doing all we can to be strong
while we wait.

Philippians 4:7
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Please pray for Autumn's health and development and for K.J. and I to
be strong as this is a very trying time.

Email is welcome, I expect to have lots of time to read it being stuck
in bed at the hospital.

Thanks, April

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Baby guessing game.

If you know me personally, you may also know my friend Keli. She is due October 23rd with her 3rd child, FIRST Boy! His name is Ryker Adair. I set up a little online baby pool to guess the details of Ryker's birth. Come join in the fun and make your best guess.

Good luck :) Ryker's guessing game

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Autumn's story

Many of you who know me know my second child, my first and only (so far) daughter, was born 11 weeks premature at 29 weeks gestation. There's also some who know me who didn't know that. There's also some who know Autumn was a preemie but really don't know the details of what happened. And then there's those of you who only know me by acquaintance or even only through the internet as a reader of my blog. I feel Autumn's story is worth sharing on my blog, something I didn't have two years ago, though I wish I had. I am also reproducing it here so I can have it here to save for future reference. Over the next few months I'm going to re-post communications I sent out 2 years ago while I was on hospital bedrest pregnant with Autumn and while she was in the NICU. Please join me over the next few months as I post Autumn's story. I'm going to make each post match up to the date I wrote it but 2 years earlier. Maybe I'll add additional details and feelings here and there but for the most part I think it will just be copy and paste from what I was sending out in emails at that time.

Thursday, August 13, 2009