Hey everyone,I wanted to update everyone to explain the events from the last couple of days. Katrina and I thank you so much for your prayers! Some of you are not yet aware of what has transpired, and this will fill you in and catch you up. First, a little background. Most of you know, but I know a couple do not, that our first child, Kylee, was born in Oct. 2009 at 22 weeks (4 months premature). She only lived a couple hours. There were many unanswered questions about why this occurred, and we knew very little. We know that when we got to labor and delivery that evening, Katrina was already dilated to 4cm. From doing an amniocentesis, we know the amniotic fluid was heavily infected, and therefor the infection was heavily absorbed into Kylee's body. The actually bacteria causing the infection was never revealed. This made determining the source of the bacteria nearly impossible to establish. One major mystery remained - did the infection cause the opening of the cervix, or did the opening of the cervix introduce the bacteria that caused the infection. For those that need a biology lesson, the cervix acts as the barrier between the baby and the outside world. It's a muscle, and it is to remain tightly closed until the baby is ready to be born. That's the family friendly definition for our context :)Fast forward to Monday morning. We had our scheduled 18 week ultrasound with the high-risk specialist. We were able to confirm that our expected baby is a little girl (Yaye!), and all measurements came back fine, as well as visual confirmation of all major organs and appendages. Then the doctor focused on Katrina's cervix. They watched it for a couple minutes, and then we saw it ever so slightly begin to open, just a hair, then close again. It opened again, this time a little longer. This was enough for the doctor to become concerned, especially with what happened with Kylee. This could be the very early stages of pre-term labor. So, we were immediately sent to labor and delivery, where the doctor followed and immediately did an amniocentesis and sent a sample of the amniotic fluid to the lab to look for any infection. Results came back an hour or so later showing none! First hurdle cleared. The next step was to keep Katrina overnight for observation. They wanted to monitor her for any contractions. The plan now was to do a cerclage, which is a procedure where they sew the cervix shut. This reinforces the strength of the muscle to help hold the baby inside, and ensure that it stays closed. They scheduled this surgery for 7:30 Tuesday morning. I'm happy to report the surgery was very successful. They monitored Katrina and our daughter the remainder of the day, and released her about 4:30 yesterday afternoon. She's now home, on moderate bed rest for the next couple of weeks. Baby appears to have not even flinched during all of this. We learned some things. This early opening of the cervix is very possibly what occurred with Kylee - we were just too late in catching it. The leading theory now is that the cervix was too weak to stay closed and began to open, introducing the bacteria that caused the infection. Katrina was born 3 months premature herself. After her, her mother had a cerclage for Katrina's younger brother and sister. So there is now a well established history. More than likely, a cerclage will be scheduled for any future pregnancies. In the case of our new child, we hopefully caught this early enough, and treated it properly to keep our little girl safely in the oven for a much longer time. There's a possibility she may come early as well, but hopefully not for another 3-4 months. The bare minimum doctors like to see is about 25 or 26 weeks - which is about 8 weeks away. Continue praying for more baking time! We appreciate all the prayers you have given the last couple of days. We look forward to introducing all of you to daughter when she's born - hopefully later, than sooner (don't hear that flipped around too often, do you?). Thanks everyone. We love all of you.
Jared and Katrina
Jared and Katrina
