Casey had a decent night sleep last night until about 2 am when she started having pretty intense contractions. At that point, she had to have pain medication regularly to keep things under control. However, her labs came back this morning and everything looked good. As long as her contractions do not progress to "real" labor, we will not be having any babies today!
God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net
1.12.2009
1.11.2009
Update on Casey #2
We saw Dr. Berry a couple of hours ago and got some good info from him. He did a quick sonogram to check on the babies' heart rates and all was good there. He also did a measurement on the fluid level in each sack and again all was good. Checking the fluid in the sacks is an indication of how much room the babies have left to grow inside Casey's belly.
He didn't change anything with Casey's meds, but they are going to scale back the pain med because little Miss Casey has been pretty loopy this afternoon...funny! The good thing though is that her contractions have spaced out a good bit.
The big news is that they are going to run Casey's labs again in the morning and if her platelet count has dropped, the delivery will be scheduled. If it has not, they will likely run the labs again on Tuesday. Dr. Berry gave us 33% odds of delivery tomorrow and 50% odds of delivering by Thursday. So the waiting game continues...
God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net
He didn't change anything with Casey's meds, but they are going to scale back the pain med because little Miss Casey has been pretty loopy this afternoon...funny! The good thing though is that her contractions have spaced out a good bit.
The big news is that they are going to run Casey's labs again in the morning and if her platelet count has dropped, the delivery will be scheduled. If it has not, they will likely run the labs again on Tuesday. Dr. Berry gave us 33% odds of delivery tomorrow and 50% odds of delivering by Thursday. So the waiting game continues...
God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net
Very Cool Timing...The Birth of Molly Joy McKinney
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Friday night I slept at a friend's garage apartment that is a few minutes from the hospital while Casey's mom pulled the night shift with Casey - thank you, Quentin and Jaymie! As I was getting ready to come back over to the hospital around 6:30 am, I got an email from a good friend and fellow Riverbend Marriage Builder, William McKinney, that updated us on the status of his very pregnant wife. She was due to deliver their first baby on New Year's Day and here we were on January 10th with no baby yet. The update was great however - Haley was in the hospital and half way home on bringing their little girl into the world.
I sent Will a quick text to find out where he was and to see if I could stop by. The answer: he was two door down from us! So I stopped in, gave Haley my love, and talked a little while with the dazed-daddy-to-be. Just a few hours later, Haley's mom knocked on our door and invited us to come see the new addition. Another friend and Marriage Builder had just stopped by to bring us some food so she and I went down to check in. We got there just in time to see little Molly Joy get placed in her mama's arms for the first time after being bundled up. What a site to see! As grandma and grandpa worked the room with a video camera, a small digital camera, and a bigger camera on a tripod, Payton, William, and I just looked on and enjoyed the scene. Later, Will snuck Molly into our room and let Casey hold her for a quick second before the nurse came and smacked Will around for breaking the law!
I've never been so close to a birth other than Eliot's. It was really incredible to be in the room and share in the experience with the current two happiest people in the world! Very cool timing is all I can say about the experience!
Our prayers are with Will, Haley, and Molly Joy as they begin their new life together!
God Bless,
Ethan
Update on Casey
Casey had a rough time last night as her contractions started to come more frequently and increased in severity. At one point they were happening every few minutes. As such, she didn't get much sleep and was really struggling this morning. One of the doctors on call for Dr. Reich came in and checked her cervix which turned out to be a really painful experience for Casey. The good news from that check, however, is that she is not dilating yet.
Dr. Berry called in around the same time to check on things and between the two doctors, they got Casey on a mix of Morphine and Phenergan (Morphine for the pain and Phenergan to counter act any nausea the Morphine may cause). They also are planning on giving her a dose of Procardia which is a blood pressure medicine, but is intended to slow Casey's contractions down. The Morphine seems to have taken the edge off of Casey's nerves which has resulted in the contractions spacing out to about every eight minutes. It hasn't helped the pain much, however.
The intent now is to maintain Casey's labor at the point to which it has progressed. By doing that, they are not forced to deliver the babies because her labor is progressing too quickly. They would rather the Pre-eclampsia be the driving force behind the decision to deliver rather than allow her labor to force their hand.
We are supposed to see Dr. Berry this afternoon so I'll update again once we visit with him. At this point, my feeling is that Casey will not be able to hold out more than a couple of days.
Thank you to all for your well wishes, support, and offers to help! We have been well taken care of by both the hospital staff and our friends and family through this exciting, scary, crazy time!!
God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net
Dr. Berry called in around the same time to check on things and between the two doctors, they got Casey on a mix of Morphine and Phenergan (Morphine for the pain and Phenergan to counter act any nausea the Morphine may cause). They also are planning on giving her a dose of Procardia which is a blood pressure medicine, but is intended to slow Casey's contractions down. The Morphine seems to have taken the edge off of Casey's nerves which has resulted in the contractions spacing out to about every eight minutes. It hasn't helped the pain much, however.
The intent now is to maintain Casey's labor at the point to which it has progressed. By doing that, they are not forced to deliver the babies because her labor is progressing too quickly. They would rather the Pre-eclampsia be the driving force behind the decision to deliver rather than allow her labor to force their hand.
We are supposed to see Dr. Berry this afternoon so I'll update again once we visit with him. At this point, my feeling is that Casey will not be able to hold out more than a couple of days.
Thank you to all for your well wishes, support, and offers to help! We have been well taken care of by both the hospital staff and our friends and family through this exciting, scary, crazy time!!
God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net
1.10.2009
No Babies Today!
The title says it all, no babies today! Casey's platelet count was exactly the same as last time they checked and all else is stable so we live to fight another day...yeah!!
God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net
God Bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net
1.09.2009
Eliot and The River
I thought y'all might enjoy these two quick, little notes...
I was on the radio this morning to talk about our story which was really cool. The River 102.3, a local Christian radio station, had me in studio with their morning show for about 30 minutes. They really gave me a great opportunity to talk about Casey and the quints and also to give props to all of the wonderful people who have been helping us prepare for the Quint Invasion. We'll have the audio files on the website soon, but you can check it out here: http://www.theriver1023.com/cc-common/podcast.html. Thank you to Roxanne at The River for inviting me on the show!
We may never get to see our daughter, Eliot, again after this weekend. She went with a friend of her's, Maddy Brown, to Maddy's grandma's farm. I can honestly think of no more fitting place for our crazy, little monkey than a farm! She is going to have the time of her life riding horses, chasing chickens, and running through the fields with wild abandon! We wish we could be there to witness the wildness, but her stories will just have to do. Please come back to us, Elle!
God bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net
I was on the radio this morning to talk about our story which was really cool. The River 102.3, a local Christian radio station, had me in studio with their morning show for about 30 minutes. They really gave me a great opportunity to talk about Casey and the quints and also to give props to all of the wonderful people who have been helping us prepare for the Quint Invasion. We'll have the audio files on the website soon, but you can check it out here: http://www.theriver1023.com/cc-common/podcast.html. Thank you to Roxanne at The River for inviting me on the show!
We may never get to see our daughter, Eliot, again after this weekend. She went with a friend of her's, Maddy Brown, to Maddy's grandma's farm. I can honestly think of no more fitting place for our crazy, little monkey than a farm! She is going to have the time of her life riding horses, chasing chickens, and running through the fields with wild abandon! We wish we could be there to witness the wildness, but her stories will just have to do. Please come back to us, Elle!
God bless,
Ethan
www.JonesLife.net
Is it Time...The Rest of the Story
Quick addition: Dr. Berry stopped by after I posted this blog. He does not expect that Casey will deliver tomorrow, but definitely believes the babies will be born in 5-7 days...here we go!!
Ok, so here is the deal. Casey has pre-eclampsia...not good. Her blood platelet count was low, then it went up and down a couple of times, but the last time it was checked it was down...not good. She has high levels of protein in her urine...not good. If her labs do not stabilize by tomorrow morning, it is go time for delivery! As a matter of fact, we were told that if this were a singleton pregnancy, we would have delivered the baby today. The lab work will be taken early in the morning so by the time most of you wake up and catch your first cup of coffee, we will know one way or another if we are bringing 5 babies into the world or not.
If her levels have stabilized or improved, there will be no more labs done until Tuesday which means no babies until Tuesday for sure unless Casey's physical symptoms take a turn for the worse. I'm not sure exactly why we wait three days to take the labs again - it was a nurse who explained all of this to me, not our doctor, and she wasn't clear on the reason. Trust me, I'll get to the bottom of this!
Yes, we have passed a major milestone by getting to now 29 weeks with this pregnancy, but I guess we're getting greedy. We really want 3 more weeks for these babies to develop better in Casey's belly! I was in the NICU today and saw a baby that was 28 weeks and just over two pounds...TINY! His arm was the size of my pinky!
At this point, Casey and I are content with the fact that we have done everything in our power to ensure the babies health. We have controlled what we could have controlled and whatever happens next is entirely in God's hands. We would love for the babies to stay in her belly longer, but we are confident in our faith and know that we are walking the path laid out for us. So my request tonight is that you pray for the babies' health, pray for the doctors' clarity in their decision making, pray for Casey's health, and pray for our peace with whatever comes our way.
God bless,
Ethan
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