Three Days later

This hasn't been an easy week, but we still consider ourselves fortunate. Sarah is stable, has made it to 23 weeks pregnant, and is in the skilled and caring hands of an excellent medical staff. Her bleeding continues and Thursday brought quite a scare for us. We were about an hour away from an emergency C section with serious concerns about the baby's chances. Thank God, she got better and has been relatively stable since. Sarah also developed an intermittent fever yesterday. It could just be a virus but there is concern about a possible uterine infection. If that's the case, the only option is to take the baby. To test for it they did an amniocentesis today. The most important result was a bacteria test which came back negative. However, the white cell count came back high and the glucose level was low, both of which can be signs of infection. The doctor was concerned by this so he had them re-run the bacteria test, but still it came back clean. He cleared Sarah to eat dinner which was her first meal since Thursday morning and the highlight of her day.
Passing the bacteria test means we are ok for tonight, but there are still cultures being checked. We get one result tomorrow afternoon and a second result Sunday afternoon. If either is positive we're back to needing a C section. If they are both negative we continue to sit and wait. Waiting is good. Every day we wait the baby's lungs will grow and she will have a better chance for survival. Sarah also has a better chance of healing and taking the baby closer towards full term. In the best case scenario Sarah has a virus and will get over it in the next day or so. That will take care of her fever. After that she can get some steroids to help the baby's lungs develop and make it until 24 weeks old where survival rates really start to improve.
Ava has been spending lots of time with Grandma and her aunts. She's doing great and is having all kinds of fun. She visits mommy every day in the hospital and will do a craft, color or watch a movie while we're there. She also enjoys going out to look for nurses and see the 3 story water fountain in the lobby.

Thank you all for all of the support we've gotten, especially the prayers. Keep them coming. Every time a scare comes up I picture us surrounded by the people who are praying for us and it helps me.

-- Matt