FROM: Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
ABOUT ME: Living the highs and lows of life in the adventurous pursuit of God Himself and of who I'm meant to be as the Bride of Christ.
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Saturday, May 03, 2008,10:17 p.m.
AUNTIE AGAIN (AND AGAIN)
I am an auntie again! Twice over this time. My brother, Greg, and sister-in-law, Stephanie, had their babies early this morning after Steph being induced - a boy and a girl (of which we were already aware). There have been lots of complications for both Steph and baby girl. Steph has been in hospital for the last two weeks with a fairly serious risk of stroke (high blood pressure and low platelet count), and baby girl has had some very serious growth and development issues.
My apologies for announcing this way, and most especially to those who had no idea! Every time I talk about the babies it seems I find someone that I hadn't told yet that Greg and Steph were expecting again. For those of you who knew and have been praying, thank-you. Please continue.
I am reproducing Greg's e-mail of this evening to update on our girl's condition. Baby names are also below!
Hi everyone,
Zachary James Baker (4 lbs, 5 oz) was born at 6:45 am on Saturday, followed at 7am by his little sister Zoey (middle name still TBD). She weighed in at 2 lbs, 3 oz. Everyone is alive and stable (including mom and dad!).
What feels like a month ago (but was really Thursday evening), Steph's blood pressure spiked way up again and the doctor's decided that we couldn't wait any more and they decided to induce her. Things progressed slowly at first as Steph's body wasn't really ready to deliver (she was 32 weeks), but once things got going early Saturday morning, they moved along pretty fast. We were able to deliver both babies naturally, without an emergency C section. Both Zach and Zoey were immediately whisked away to the Neo-natal ICU to be stabilized and examined.
Zach is doing pretty well. He needs a little bit of help with his breathing right now, but is otherwise pretty healthy. He should start to eat tomorrow and will probably be in the ICU for a month or 2.
Zoey's abnormality in her abdomen is a little bit more serious than originally thought. It looks to involve the bowel as well as the bladder and reproductive organs. She is also missing her anus. Since the bowel/anus are not connected, she will have to have surgery tomorrow (Sunday around 11) to connect her bowel to the outside, so there is somewhere for the waste to go. She cannot eat anything until after the surgery is complete. Surgery on a 2 pound baby is not ideal, but the surgeons expect a good outcome tomorrow. They will decide during surgery whether to try to repair the bladder at the same time, but they may wait and do a second surgery in the coming weeks after she gets a bit bigger. At this time, she is stable and even kicks and moves a bit. She should probably consider redirecting her mail to the hospital, because that will be her home far into the foreseeable future.
Steph's blood pressure is up and down, sometimes too high, sometimes too low. She is still on medication for it and hopefully it stabilizes in the next few days, so that she can come home soon. She is still on medication to prevent a seizure and once she comes off that (hopefully Sunday morning) she may be moved from the delivery area to a regular room upstairs.
And because she is no less special, here's a recent picture of our first "baby" at Maplewood farm! I'm so impressed with her boldness - when I was little a goat tried to eat me at Maplewood farm, and I'm still getting over it. (Apparently not well.....) Eliana called the goats "puppies". But then, I think almost everything is "puppy" these days.
My apologies for announcing this way, and most especially to those who had no idea! Every time I talk about the babies it seems I find someone that I hadn't told yet that Greg and Steph were expecting again. For those of you who knew and have been praying, thank-you. Please continue.
I am reproducing Greg's e-mail of this evening to update on our girl's condition. Baby names are also below!
Hi everyone,
Zachary James Baker (4 lbs, 5 oz) was born at 6:45 am on Saturday, followed at 7am by his little sister Zoey (middle name still TBD). She weighed in at 2 lbs, 3 oz. Everyone is alive and stable (including mom and dad!).
What feels like a month ago (but was really Thursday evening), Steph's blood pressure spiked way up again and the doctor's decided that we couldn't wait any more and they decided to induce her. Things progressed slowly at first as Steph's body wasn't really ready to deliver (she was 32 weeks), but once things got going early Saturday morning, they moved along pretty fast. We were able to deliver both babies naturally, without an emergency C section. Both Zach and Zoey were immediately whisked away to the Neo-natal ICU to be stabilized and examined.
Zach is doing pretty well. He needs a little bit of help with his breathing right now, but is otherwise pretty healthy. He should start to eat tomorrow and will probably be in the ICU for a month or 2.
Zoey's abnormality in her abdomen is a little bit more serious than originally thought. It looks to involve the bowel as well as the bladder and reproductive organs. She is also missing her anus. Since the bowel/anus are not connected, she will have to have surgery tomorrow (Sunday around 11) to connect her bowel to the outside, so there is somewhere for the waste to go. She cannot eat anything until after the surgery is complete. Surgery on a 2 pound baby is not ideal, but the surgeons expect a good outcome tomorrow. They will decide during surgery whether to try to repair the bladder at the same time, but they may wait and do a second surgery in the coming weeks after she gets a bit bigger. At this time, she is stable and even kicks and moves a bit. She should probably consider redirecting her mail to the hospital, because that will be her home far into the foreseeable future.
Steph's blood pressure is up and down, sometimes too high, sometimes too low. She is still on medication for it and hopefully it stabilizes in the next few days, so that she can come home soon. She is still on medication to prevent a seizure and once she comes off that (hopefully Sunday morning) she may be moved from the delivery area to a regular room upstairs.
And because she is no less special, here's a recent picture of our first "baby" at Maplewood farm! I'm so impressed with her boldness - when I was little a goat tried to eat me at Maplewood farm, and I'm still getting over it. (Apparently not well.....) Eliana called the goats "puppies". But then, I think almost everything is "puppy" these days.
