Yes, He Was Seven Weeks Early!!!!

So many of our friends have been praying for me and for our little baby, and several of you have been asking for details on the past couple of weeks, so I thought I’d write a little update to go along with the pictures I posted on Facebook yesterday. 🙂

God has been so good to us and answered so many prayers! It has been a crazy few weeks. I was put on bedrest almost a month ago when I had contractions 5 min apart for about 12 hours. At that point, I was only dilated 1 cm, so it was hard to tell whether or not the contractions were “labor-producing” contractions or not. . . About 10 days later, I was back in the hospital w contractions 2 minutes apart for several hours (one Sunday night), and they immediately gave me procardia to stop the contractions and gave me steroid shots to help the baby’s lungs develop, in case they couldn’t stop the labor. By that time, I had progressed to 3 cm and 70% effaced. By morning with the medication, the contractions had slowed to 4 minutes apart, and by mid-afternoon on Monday, the contractions were irregular and much weaker, but they kept me in the hospital Sun – Thurs that week. I then came home Thursday – Tuesday on strict bedrest and taking procardia until week 36 (june 26). It was a hard week for our family, because Mara got roseola, and had a fever of 103 – 105 for 3 days. Daniel was doing a great job caring for Mara before & after work, I could do NOTHING but lay there, and we had so many friends from church and family members pitching in to help care for Mara while Daniel was working!! We couldn’t have made it through without them!!! Thank the Lord for the Body of believers He has given us to carry us through the times we can’t survive alone!!!
My friends Donna Grout and Stephanie Kuchle were great testimonies to me through this time, sharing their own preemie/bedrest/c-section experiences, and how God gave them grace through the challenges!! Donna specifically reminded me that I can be thankful to God for this time, because He knows me completely, loves me infinitely and designed this time, specifically to make me more like His Son! Those words really carried me through this time. I am seeing God changing me and trying to submit to His plan each day!
Mara struggled a lot last week with being sick and being w lots of different people (and no mommy). This week, she has done SOOO much better!!!!
On Tuesday June 3, (which was my next drs appt) they discovered I was 4 cm and >70% effaced. I went back in the hospital that day. Wednesday morning I was taking procardia every 3-1/2 hours (originally every 6 hours, then 5 hours, then 4 hours. . . they couldn’t increase the amount because I reacted badly to higher doses, so they were trying to use a smaller dosage, closer together) But the contractions wouldn’t stop.
On Wednesday morning I was feeling really terrible–very nauseous, really crampy, I lost my mucous plug. . . it seemed to me that it was time. But with all the medications, you can’t be sure. Well, the nurse had the doctor check me again and I was > 5 cm at that point. For the past couple of weeks the baby had NOT been head-down–he was “oblique” a form of breeched, with his head on my left hip, his feet down in the birth canal and his rear end on my other hip. The doctors had told me that in that position, they have to do a C-section–it’s too risky for a preemie to be born vaginally from that position.
So, at that point on Wednesday around lunch, they called for an emergency C-section. Thankfully I called Daniel at work, and he was able to make it to the hospital, just minutes before the surgery began.
Micah Kenyon was born at 32 weeks, 6 days, but he weighed 4 lbs. 12 ozs!!!! I was still being operated on, when I heard his first cry and heard the doctor call out his weight. . . That was amazing. What is also amazing, is that Micah is breathing on his own–has not had to be on oxygen at all. He has had some apnea/bradycardia episodes, which is to be expected, for his age. Of course, we’re waiting for him to be able to maintain his body temperature in an open crib, and he will need to be able to suck/eat without a feeding tube before he can go home.
So while there are a lot of developmental immaturities, overall, there is nothing serious that they can tell, nothing that won’t just take time to get through.
We are soo thankful to God for His answering soo many prayers.
My brother Jon got married in Greenville on Saturday, and sadly we weren’t able to be there. 🙁 Ever since we found out I was pregnant, we knew it was possible that we might not be able to go–7 weeks before the baby was due–but it never occurred to me that the baby might be born before the wedding! One funny thing was that Daniel kept saying if we went to Jon’s wedding, the baby would be born in the mountains in Virginia. . . well, according to our original travel plans, Daniel was right! After my surgery, he said, “If we had gone to the wedding, guess where Micah would have been born?” I was like ‘i know, i know—in the mountains in Virginia!!!’ . . . oh the drama . . . 🙂
The name Micah means “Who is Like Jehovah” and we want our little guy to grow up always awestruck by God’s greatness and power and glory. Already, God has shown his awesome power in little Micah’s life, and we hope & pray that God’s work in his life will be a testimony to our little guy, drawing Micah to Himself. . . Kenyon is a family name, and Daniel’s middle name.
So, there’s the long version of the story.
I got home Saturday, but I’m still recovering, and we will probably be making daily trips up to Abington Memorial Hospital, as often as we are able to drop off “mother’s milk” and talk w his doctors & nurses, and visit w our little guy.
The doctors say to expect him to be in NICU at least until (what would have been) 35 weeks or up until full-term. . . so that’s really vague . . . 2 – 7 weeks?? Who knows? He is doing really well! but I know there are definitely ways he needs to develop and mature before we can care for him at home. So we appreciate your continued prayers for Micah!!!
Thank you all who have prayed!! It is exciting to see God’s working in our lives!