February 15, 2007

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest under the shadow of the Almighty." Psalm 91:1

We reached another milestone today...my water broke one week ago, and statistically I had a 50% chance of delivering with-in the first week. We're taking it one day at at time, but the next hurdle is to go another week without delivering. We have a 75% chance of delivering in the next 7 days - although as mentioned before, statistics do not take into consideration the power of the Lord! The nurse was describing to me this morning what to expect and it is somewhat scary. We already knew when we deliver, it will be due to an infection of some sort. According to the nurse, it will come on almost instantly and be discovered while they are monitoring my vitals. She said that they can take someones vitals at noon and everything will be normal (temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, etc.), but by 2:00 a fever of 104 can be present. Whenever this occurs, the baby will be delivered immediately by Cesarean section.

The baby's heartbeat is monitored 4 times a day for an hour each time. The nurses are always able to find his heartbeat pretty easily, however to keep him on the monitor for an hour is another thing! The monitors are made for full-term babies and at only 24 weeks Kyle has a lot of room to move around. He is often "swimming"on and off the monitor. Last night during his time being monitored , he was cooperating and they were able to get a constant reading for most of the hour. The doctor and nurses were pleasantly surprised by what they found. Apparently he has "wonderful accelerations". The example they gave me of what "accelerations" means is that if someone comes into your room at 3:00 am and yells "BOO" your heart rate accelerates. By your heart rate accelerating, this shows the nuero connection between your brain and spine working together. The monitoring last night showed that Kyle has this nuero connection already, however, the doctors said that this is typically something they do not see in baby's until 28 weeks!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day yesterday. Joe and Madison sent me balloons and chocolates but by far the best Valetine's gift Joe got me was a laptop before he flew home. It definitely helps to pass the time!

I just want to acknowledge how wonderful my boss Denny and the office has been through all of this. I am so blessed that with everything going on, I do not have to worry about my job. My boss sent me a prayer that has been comforting, which is what I think I'll close with today:

"Heavenly Father, in my present need, help me to believe that You are aware of my anxiety and will do what is best for me. Give me the strength to trust You and put the present and future in Your Hands. Grant this through Christ,our Lord. Amen"

Stay warm in Ohio!!!

In Christ,

Jennifer, Joe and Madison