Asa Update 2/1/214

Hey everyone! I apologize for the extreme lack of updates. As things have gotten crazier I have mostly just been doing quick updates on Facebook. I put so much emotion into my writing on the blog, and lately I have been so emotionally exhausted that I have postponed writing here. When I write here, I like for it to be of a certain quality, and that has kept me from just simply typing out a quick update. But no more! Standards are being thrown out the window because things are about to get really crazy, but I want to continue to have a place where people can come and be updated on how Asa is doing.

The most significant thing that has occurred since my last update here is that I experienced some bleeding, accompanied with lots of contractions on New Years Eve night. I laid down for bed around one in the morning and after 20 minutes of laying there I could no longer ignore the fact that I was feeling menstrual like cramps, and they were coming frequently. I started timing them and the contractions were about 5 to 7 minutes apart. When I went to the bathroom to discover blood tinged mucus, my heart went into panic. Minutes later we were on our way to the hospital. All I could pray was "please Jesus, don't let this happen again." (Seeing blood is a sign of placental abruption, which is what we experienced when we lost Ezra).

When we got to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, we saw the doctor and she quickly decided that we needed to go to Children's Mercy in Kansas City which is where we plan on Asa being born. So we rode in an ambulance to Children's Mercy. It was a very surreal experience.

We felt such a peace when we arrived at Children's Mercy, knowing that we were where we needed to be if Asa made his appearance early. The Children's Mercy staff was quick to assure us that they could handle a TGA baby that was born this early. They had done it before and they could do it again.

During all of this our sweet little Asa was still moving around like the crazy little man that he is, which gave me so much peace My bleeding eventually slowed down, but my contractions were still frequent and painful for the next few days. We ended up having a seven day stay in the hospital and I left with instructions for modified bed rest, or restricted activity.

We had a follow up appointment just a few days after being discharged from the hospital, and we learned at that appointment that the bleeding I had been experiencing had been coming from the placenta. My placenta separated from my uterus just enough to cause some bleeding. It's what the doctors called a zero grade version of what I experienced with Ezra.

I was in an emotionless shock for the next few hours. Many questions swirling around in my head. What did this mean for our future children? Will I always have placenta problems? Is this a genetic thing? Unfortunately, the doctors do not have a good answer for these questions. When it comes to the placenta, they really don't know much and they certainly cannot predict much.

Based on our one hour drive to Children's Mercy from Lawrence and my new problems with placental function combined with my history of placental abruption, the doctors decided that relocating us to Kansas City at 36 weeks was the best possible thing we could do for our baby. When a person suffers from an acute abruption like we experienced with Ezra, you only have a small (maybe 5-10 minutes) window in which you can try and save the baby if the abruption has already started.

So now we are at the Ronald McDonald house in Kansas City waiting for our little Asa to be born. The house is located right across the street from Children's Mercy, which is incredible for our peace of mind. We have been here since Monday, January 27th, and we have already made so many wonderful and encouraging connections with other families. We even had the chance to connect with a family who just had a baby with Asa's very same condition. Their child had just came out of the open heart surgery a few days earlier and was doing very well. They seemed excited to be able to tell us that everything was going to be okay and that the doctors do such a wonderful job taking care of these babies. We truly felt God's hand orchestrating that connection and we felt so encouraged after talking to them.

We are seeing the Doctor twice a week now and we have a sonogram each time. Our last few appointments have been very encouraging. They are able to look at the problem area of my placenta and so far it has been healing just as it should be, and at the last appointment it had healed to the point that they couldn't even see it anymore. Praise God! Asa continues to do very well! At our last appointment his head was nice and low and ready to go. We also scheduled an induction for Feburary 17th! It is all getting very real!

Another praise I have to share with you is that Asa no longer appears to be at risk for a lung condition! We had all of Asa's information sent to Boston Children's Hospital for a second opinion, and while we were in the hospital with the bleeding and contractions we heard back from them. The doctor we spoke with told us that he got several other opinions from his colleagues and they all agreed that the blood flow they were seeing in Asa's PDA didn't indicate a lung condition, but it actually made him lower risk for a lung condition. It was such wonderful news to receive while we were still in the hospital! At our appointment with cardiology this week they saw that the blood flow through Asa's PDA was normal and flowing in the right direction. Praise God!
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God has answered so many of our prayers in this journey! He has taught us much about it's power. Please join us in praying for these specific requests;

-Pray for my placenta. Please pray that God places his strong hands over it and gives it all the strength it needs to sustain Asa until he is born.

-Please continue to pray that Asa will be stable enough at birth for us to have time to hold him and bond with him, before he is taken away to receive the intensive care he will need.

-Please pray for his open heart surgery. Pray that God would give his surgeons skillful hands on the day, and grant great wisdom to the nurses who will be assisting them.

- Please pray that God would bless Asa's ability to nurse. My desire to nurse Ezra was fierce and unfulfilled. Now I feel as if I have waited a century to have the chance to nurse again and I am absolutely determined that with the Lord's help I will get to enjoy that beautiful connection with my Asa.

- Pray that God would give Asa strength beyond his baby years.

-Steven's leave time is going to run out while we will most likely still be in the hospital. Will you pray that God grants his request with KU for shared leave or that the Lord blesses us with an early discharge from the hospital?

- Please pray that God grants me with a supernatural peace in these last weeks of pregnancy. Already my brain is on hyper alert. Wondering at every strange feeling, and counting every contraction. My emotions wear very thin, and at times I have found myself sitting in stillness wondering if I can really make it through all of this when it feels like the journey has only just begun. I need peace, I need wisdom, I need to be in tune with my body, and I need to physically remain calm and not let anxiety get the best of me. All of this I know can only be accomplished with the Lord's gracious mercy. So please pray more mercy over me.

- Pray that God blesses us with Asa's life. We feel like we have been given of vision of our son. As he grows and lives life, he will be a constant reminder to us of God's love and mercy and grace. This vision just cuts our hearts to the core. Whenever we get a glimpse of that thin scare that will run down his chest, we will only see mercy. That deep, gut conviction you feel when you truly understand how undeserving you are of anything, and yet Christ has given us everything. Mercy. Everything we need for life and godliness. This vision of our own son being such a powerful reminder of those truths has struck us, but knowing that is a God who gives and takes away, we pray that vision will come to pass. We pray that God will bless us with the humbling reminder of His mercy in our son. If we can even lift our faces from the dust, we pray that this vision could be part of the purpose for Asa's congenital heart defect and the trail that we are in the midst of now.

- Praise God for all of the people he has appointed to pray for us and for Asa! He is bringing himself much glory as we demonstrate our trust in him through prayer. Praise God for all of the prayers he has answered! He enlarged on of Asa's openings in his heart which will help him be more stable at birth and up until surgery, He stopped my bleeding, He slowed my contractions, and He gave us great hope that Asa's lungs will be perfect and normal! And those are just the big ones that I can remember clearly right now! He is good and He is listening!

From the depths of me, thank you all for your prayers! I know they have strengthened me when i have had no strength left in my body. You all lift me up.

I will continue to keep you all updated as best I can!

Love
Emma

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