Elisabeth Grace

When Ava and I arrived for our daily visit yesterday evening, Sarah was having contractions that were getting closer and more intense. Ava spent a little time with mommy and then Sarah's sister came to get Ava for the night. She did her very best to carry the baby as long as possible, and the few extra days we got were crucial. The doctors were all in agreement that Sarah's body was going into labor as a result of the infection they had been suspecting and felt it was in her best interest not to intervene. We were moved shortly after that to a labor and delivery room to prepare for the birth. To give the baby the best chances we were moved to the operating room for the delivery because it is adjacent to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Sarah gave birth to a precious little baby girl named Elisabeth Grace at 2:03 am. Elisabeth weighed 1 lb 3 oz and measured 10 inches long. She was immediately taken to the NICU for treatment. She got a breathing tube installed to assist her lungs and started to get her oxygen levels up just before we would have had to face some hard decisions. She had a strong pulse. With her oxygen levels up, our next worry was her CO2 levels which were too high. Those soon worked their way back to normal levels. I watched in the treatment room for a few hours as the medical staff installed lines, ran tests, took measurements. We also had her baptized by the hospital chaplain during this time. Elisabeth has been relatively stable since then. She is constantly being monitored and tended to. All things considered, she is in good shape. After most of the work on her was done the neonatologist told me that every procedure she needed to do went smoothly, which was nothing short of miraculous in her opinion. Her first 24 hours should be fairly good. The staff calls this the honeymoon period. The next 48 to 72 hours after the honeymoon period will be very important.

Sarah is still recovering. We didn't get a chance to rest today until about 6, so as you can imagine we're both pretty spent right now. Sarah looks to be recovering as she should. We're happy that Elisabeth is doing well, but understandably anxious. We have a long road ahead. Elisabeth will be on a ventilator for at least a month and faces a lot of challenges as she works to finish developing. She's a fighter. She's done quite a lot of kicking and squirming, and we're hopeful she'll be continue being feisty.

Please keep us in your prayers