How we got here

Hey guys, we wanted to start a blog about Sara to provide information to drive your prayers as well as provide space to praise our Great and Good God! Hope you enjoy reading as much as we enjoying having you all walk through this with us.

Jenny's pregnancy was progressing along fine through the first 27 weeks. She had the possibility of placenta previa (sp?) during the first trimester but God worked all of that out and it was ok. She was just beginning to get into the miserable, I don't like being big and pregnant, I have never been pregnant in the summer like this and I don't think I want to.. stage. Well, needless to say she would change all of that now. We just got back from a vacation in Gulf Shores last week, had a great time, Jenny did great, was tired, but was careful, and came back ok. She did not feel well Sunday at church, but we thought it was fatigue from the vacation and PVD (Post-Vacation Depression). Through the night she did not sleep well, very unsettled and again we thought -well your 27 weeks pregnant, your not going to sleep well.

Monday morning came, I went to the office to work around 6:15 and she called me about 7:30 telling me how bad she felt, was feeling a regular contraction and did I think they were braxton hicks. She couldn't get off the couch to go read about them, so she asked me to look it up and read it. I did and we thought - well she doesn't have other labor symptoms so for now we are ok. I walked back to the house (our church parsonage is on the church grounds) around 8 and we began to talk about what to do. I came home mainly to take care of the kids, I began to work on unpacking while she rested and our girls (Abigail 7 and Emma Grace 4) ate breakfast, made beds, etc.. We decided to call the dr's office, but they were closed for Memorial day and told us if we needed medical help we would have to go to emergency room.

Well, when do you make that call, we've never gone to the ER for anything - either for us or our kids. But, she was not feeling any better and we decided to begin moving that way. She took a shower, I began to pack, get arrangements made for my dad to get our girls, and off we went. As we got into the car and on the road, Jenny's pain and intensity of contractions was increasing. There was an interesting correlation between her pain and the heaviness of my right foot. Got to the hospital, hugged the girls, had to pull Emma Grace off Jenny (not fun), got into the examination room.

The dr saw her 30 minutes after we got in and within 10 seconds he said - "your fully dilated we have to take the baby now". How do you take that? Jenny's biggest concern was the baby, mine was her. As her contractions increased my fear was her getting past the point of C-section (she's had 2 previous ones). Maybe it wasn't grounded, maybe it was, but this was driving my prayers. I did the best of could to call our parents and let them know - hard phone call to make. Within the hour she was in surgery and Sara Rose was coming into the world, but it would not be a great start.

They worked hard to resucitate her and get her lungs open and going, but they would not cooperate. They moved from the operating room where things were not going well to NICU at Glenwood. They were pumping in so much O2 they were afraid the pressures were getting to great and the lungs could develop a leak. They moved to St. Francis NICU after about 1-2 hours at Glenwood. Strange thing seeing your baby wheeled in to you in a plastic aquarium and then out to an ambulance. But the dr's were kind enough to let Jenny and I see her, even touch her hand before they went.

We were overwhelmed by family, friends, current and prior church members who stopped by, hard to not be emotional. Their visits and encouragement meant the world to us. Jenny got moved to a room in the early evening and Sara was in the hands of a great team of dr's and nurses at St. Francis as well has the hands of our Father.