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Published: April 13th 2006
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Selah, Jaeden, & Daddy
Selah, Jaeden, & Daddy in the hospital. Wow! It's been a long time since I have posted anything on this travel blog. Please excuse our silence. I'll post again soon to bring you all up to speed on the last several months and post some picture so stay tuned, but more importantly,
Selah Ryan Erskine made her dramatic enterance on
April 6, 2006 at 1754 (5:54pm for you civilians). She was 6 weeks premature, weighed 5 pounds 14 ounces, and was 19 inches long. That's the news in brief. For those of you who want the full story, read on.
By the way, everyone is havin a hard time pronouncing "Selah." It's pronounced, "
SAY' la"
The Prelude On Wednesday morning right before I left for work (April 5), Laura was having some abdominal pain totally unrelated to her pregnancy. She swore that she would be fine and told me to leave for work (stubborn Stafford women). I prevailed upon her to called the advice line, and she was told to go to the ER. By this time her condition had worsened, and whe was unable to walk, so I had to carry her to the car. At the hospital the nurses and techs were so
Selah Scrunch
"God Made Me Special" efficient and caring, that soon Laura was feeling much better.
Laura was hooked up to the "baby monitor" as a precaution; and after checking on Laura and seeing that she was doing well, one of the nurses asked, "Are you feeling these contractions?"
"No, not really," Laura replied, "It's probably Braxton-Hicks."
"Well, they're pretty regular. Maybe two and a half to three minutes apart," commented the nurse. "I'll ask the doctor to take a look." We didn't think anything of it because they had picked up contractions on the moniter the last time we had been at the doctor two weeks before.
I left Laura in the hospital, and took Jaeden home for her nap since it looked like it was going to take a while. At the time, we didn't think anything major was going on. Oh what a difference an hour makes.
The Crisis While I was at home Laura called to tell me that she was going into premature labor and the doctors were doing everything they could to stop it. Shortly after that Laura called again with the news that the doctors couldn't stop the contractions and that she was
Skinny Legs
Look at those tiny legs. She's still waiting for her baby fat to come in. going to be transfered to a larger hospital that had an NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). I got to our hospital in time to follow the ambulance that carried Laura to the civilian hospital.
By the time I parked and worked through the hospital beuracracy to find my wife, the contractions were getting really serious; and Laura was in a lot of pain. A new tech drew Laura's blood and forgot to take it to the lab which kept Laura from getting her pain medicine for and hour or more. Finally, the lab work was done and Laura got her medicine. And the contractions became managable. (Funny side note: we had just started watching the Lamaze videos the night before, but had only gotten through the first lesson.)
We spoke with the doctors about what to expect, and they said that they were not going to try to stop the contractions. They have the best NICU in the state, and they said that babies that are 6 weeks premature usually do really well. They told us that Selah would most likely spend two weeks in the NICU before she was ready to come home. They said her lungs wouldn't be fully developed and that she would have trouble breathing. She probably wouldn't feed well or at all and would likely need to be feed through an IV. Finally, she probably wouldn't be able to maintain a healthy body temperature, so we would have to keep her bundled up all the time. That was the bad news. The good news was that once she reached her original due date she be just like any other baby and we really didn't have to worry about any long term problems.
The Suspense For the next 18 hours, Laura made no more progress towards delivering. At one point on the morning of April 6th, her contractions spaced out and became less regular. We were praying hard that the contractions would stop altogether and that Selah would wait another week or two to be born. It doesn't seem like a long time; but to an unborn baby, a week or two can be the difference between smooth sailing and rough waters.
Laura couldn't sleep because of the contractions, but I took short naps. At one point, Laura tried to roll from one side to the other in bed and got stuck on her back. She was to weak to roll over and too weak to call out loud enough to wake me from my nap, so she had to push the nurse button. I didn't take any more naps.
The Climax Then, all the the sudden, the contractions became stronger, more frequent, and more regular. And Laura's body started moving towards delivery again. After a little while Laura asked to see the doctor, and after checking she said the baby was ready to come. Everything happen really quickly and quietly after that; and just like that, the baby was born. There was much less "too do" during the actual birth than there was for Jaeden's.
They put her in the little french fry warmer that they keep next to the bed, but they didn't clean her up much because a bath would have been too much of a shock to her system. She was having trouble breathing, and the NICU nurse showed me how she could tell and what to look for in the future. Miraculously, she was healthy enough that she didn't need to go straight to the NICU, but the nurse did hang out for a few hours to observe her. Finally, mommy got to hold her and (more good news) she ate!
The Resolution Laura was discharged on Saturday and Selah on Sunday, but they let Laura stay there in the room with Selah over night. Both are doing well. Selah faces some minor challenges because of her prematurity, but she'll be right as rain in no time. Laura, Jaeden, and I on the other hand are still getting used to being a family of four. We're still scrambling to get the house ready for the baby that's already here, and I'm getting ready to go away to train for a month, but Laura's saintly mother will be here during most of that time.
WE THANK ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN PRAYING FOR US. God has done something really awesome. Your prayers for the health of our child and my wife have been heard.
Please continue to pray. Things are really stressful right now. Especially pray for Laura while I'm gone from Apri 26-May 25.
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Amy-Beth Evans
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How Awesome is He!
Praise God for such awesome and amazing news! So very excited for you both and keeping you all in continual prayer. Love and prayers Amy-Beth , please forward some serious hugs and kisses to the girls!