Announcing the Arrival. Please Pray.

God blessed my wife and me with a baby boy this morning by emergency c-section. My wife developed Preeclampsia and it resulted in her blood pressure shooting up to 180/130 yesterday, so the doctors decided to induce later today. Then, about 4:00 this morning, the baby's heart rate dropped dangerously low and the emergency part came into the situation.
My wife is doing very well. She's sore and exhausted, but OK.

Because of the Preeclampsia, our son weighs only 3lbs, 10oz, but has a normal skeletal frame at 16.5" long. Furthermore, it appears that his aorta may be underdeveloped, and they may have to perform surgery to correct the problem. We are still awaiting further tests. Please lift our son up in prayer, as well as the doctors who are treating him.

UPDATE (5:52 PM):
The doctor's best guess at present is that the two main arteries that carry blood away from his heart may have each grown to the wrong chamber of the heart, and they may have to perform surgery to switch them. We are still awaiting further tests.

UPDATE (Friday Dec 2, 2005 10:40 AM):
Mom: They have removed the blood pressure controlling medicine and the IV. She's able to walk around and take showers. The wound is healing perfectly.
Baby: He's on a respirator to help expand his lungs fully, but they were able to take him off oxygen. They have determined that he has "transposition of the great vessels." I am about to go meet with the doctor at St. Francis. I'll post an update then.

UPDATE (Friday Dec 2, 2005 5:20 PM):
I was unable to meet with the doctor today because he was, and still is, performing emergency heart surgery on another infant. (Be praying for that poor family.) Our son is stable, so now we just wait for him to gain some weight. I'll have more details tomorrow morning.





UPDATE (Saturday Dec 3, 2005 7:45 PM):
Mom: My wife was released from the hospital ahead of schedule this afternoon. She is healing very well. Even more than her physical health, though, she finally got to spend some time with her baby this afternoon. Before today, she had only seen him twice, and for less than ten minutes combined. Mom was glowing so beautifully as she looked at her precious son. Praise the Lord!
Baby: Is still off oxygen, but they have him on a ventilator to help his lungs completely expand. He has been very stable, and the doctors are encouraged by the fact that he has had, "No significant events." The plan is to Life Flight him to Oklahoma City this coming weekend for the surgery. We'll be there for at least ten days...maybe more. It apparently is a relatively common surgery with an over 90% success rate, although open heart surgery on your premature son is never a soothing concept. However, we are very encouraged by his stable condition.

Thank you all for your prayers, and please continue to lift our son up. We can definitely feel God's peace through all of this.

Originally posted at: http://meanderingaphorisms.blogspot.com/