Miracle Baby

***Long and uncensored***

As many of you know Rachel delivered our second daughter Wednesday July 28, 2010 at 12:50 A.M. It was an emergency C-section, her water broke around 5:15 pm Tuesday so we gathered everything dropped Avery off with a friend until Rachels mom could make it here, and then headed to the hospital. We were in our own room being monitored by 9:00 pm. Everything was going fine, with the exception of meconium (baby's first stools) in the womb, and potentially a little in the babys lungs, so they notified the on-site pediatricians to be on hand. Then Rachel got up to use the bathroom and passed a rather large blood clot. The doctors were a little worried about the clot and Rachels bleeding, however they said that we would go forward and just monitor the bleeding. Then a little while later the baby's heart rate dropped drastically and over 10 nurses doctors, residents, students etc. were in the room working on Rachel, they were able to get the heart rate back up in a very short period of time, so they said they would monitor her closely and if it happend again we would have to go in for an emergency C-section. In the mean time Rachel was able to go ahead and get her epidural. However her heart rate did drop again, and the same thing happend, a ton of people came running in and the main doctor started barking orders to get the OR ready etc. That all started happening at 12:40am, they came and told he that Rachels epidural was not taking correctly and that they would have to put her completely under to hurry and get the baby here, and then I heard someone yelling about the heart rate dropping to a very low number, and so there was a lot of running etc. they were able to switch Rachels anesthesia and have the baby out by 12:50am.

When Ansley was delivered she tried to take her first breath on her own but there was too much blood and meconium in her lungs so it was just a gargle. What had happend was the placenta separated from the uterus and ruptured. This caused Ansley to loose lots of blood, and was also the reason for all the blood that got into her lungs. The loss of blood deprived her of oxygen, and most importantly to the brain, it also caused the heart to stop beating because there was not much for the heart to pump. The doctors were able to suction a lot of the blood and fluid from her lungs, and get some fluids in her and do chest compressions and dose her with epinephrin to get her heart beating, until they could get some blood from the blood bank which only took a few minutes. While they were working on her they came and got me and brought me back so i could see and they could explain to me what was going on (also i think so i could see her while she was still alive in case they couldn't save her). There was again 8-10 doctors, nurses, residents etc in the room actively working on Ansley, 3 of which were directly working on her, others helping with supplies, monitoring her, etc. They worked on her for a solid 2-2.5 hours, they were able to stabilize her enough to transport her to Arkansas Children's Hospital which luckily is only about 5 miles down the street. It is one of the best children's hospitals in the country. I am convinced that the only reason that she is still alive is because the pediatricians were on site waiting to take Ansley as soon as she was born. The doctors also told me that the OB/GYN know how to deliver the baby, but after that they are very limited in what they can/will do.

After transporting her to Children's they have put her on something called a cooling cap that is supposed to help tremendously with any potential brain damage. That does not mean that she will be brain damage free. We are really not sure to what extent her brain has been damaged. However these cooling caps are supposed to be amazing, and in research studies the children that used the cooling cap in similar situations had vast improvements over children that did not, and that is with no side effects. Another miracle/blessing is Arkansas Children's Hospital is the best and most experienced hospital in the country with this treatment, they have treated more babies with this than any other hospitals in the country.

Her current condition, she still has the respirator breathing for her, the cooling cap has to stay on for 72 hrs, after which they will perform EEG, CT scan and MRI to try to determine any damage etc. That will not be conclusive at all, the only real indicators will be within the first 6 months of development, and how she develops. She has had 2 blood transfusions, but seems to be ok with that and should not need another. Her blood gas levels are still being monitored and manually maintained. She is still in critical condition, but her outlook is positive.

Lets not forget about mom, what happend is what kills some mothers during birth, sometimes the doctors are not able to stop the bleeding and the mom bleeds out. Fortunately Rachel is a fighter just like her daughter and is recovering from the surgery well, and cannot wait to be able to go see her beautiful daughter!

Rachel, Avery, Ansley and myself are so grateful for all of our wonderful friends and family we have, and for all the thoughts, prayers, comments etc. We cannot make it through this without all of you. We love you, and will try to keep you updated.

Here are a few phone pictures, I will try to get some better ones, they are also in reverse order, oh well.

This is a close up of Ansley with the cooling cap on and all the machines hooked up to her

This is a shot of her in NICU, she was 8 lbs 4 oz, and 20 in

They draped these blankets over the incubator to try to keep her body temperature up, but brain temp down with the cap

This was as she was being transported from the UAMS hospital to Children's

She even briefly opened her eyes to tell us goodbye and that everything is going to be OK!

(this is Rachel now)

Today they are going to do an ultrasound on her head to check for bleeding and pockets of fluid, so please continue to keep her in your prayers. We will continue to keep everyone posted and thanks again for all the love, support and prayers that are being sent her/our way! We feel so blessed for every bit of progress we continue to watch her make. Joey has been more than AMAZING running back and forth between hospitals. Yesterday he went over there 5 times to check on her and was able to give her a priesthood blessing with another brother in our ward. He also took Avery to see her and she keeps telling us that she will help take care of Baby Ansley and wants her to come share her room with her. This whole process will take time and I am definitely learning patience as each new step and hurdle our new baby girl gets through is such a miracle! I hope to be out of here (hospital) some time this afternoon; it has been so hard to sit in this room and here babies crying in the rooms next to mine... I can't wait to hear our baby cry!