From July 2008
How It Began
Erik wrote this in July 2008, in the first days after Brady was born.
On a seemingly random Tuesday in mid July Nikkie and Erik went to the doctor for what was supposed to be a regular pregnancy checkup. We were 28 weeks and 3 days along in this journey and thus far there had been no complications. A typical visit to this doctor involved a 30 to 45 minute wait in the waiting area and then another 30 minutes waiting on him in a patient room. On this Tuesday, however, he came in not 10 minutes after we got in our room.
My first thought was "Wow he must not be very busy today!" but I would soon learn that wasn't the case. He pointed out that Nikkie's blood pressure was 163/102, she had a high count of protein in her urine, and she also gained more weight than expected since the last visit (4 weeks prior). All of these are signs of a disease called pre-eclampsia. Due to the nature of the disease he wanted to send us to Candler Hospital for more extensive tests over 24 hours. This was not an official diagnosis - only a warning that the symptoms were all there.
We drive to Candler and checkin to our room. Note that this is the first time that Nikkie has been admitted to a hospital - ever! Not long after arrival the tests begin and a few monitors are attached for obvious reasons. One is simply for her blood pressure, one for her heart rate, and another for Brady's heart rate. The next morning Nikkie's doctor came by to check on her and look at the monitor results. He noticed some decelerations in Brady's heart-rate and decided that this was too risky to stay at Candler. We were then transferred to Memorial Hospital which is well known for it's Neonatal Intensive Care.
My assumption was that this was done just to be pre-cautious. With an infants life on the line you can't ever be too pre-cautious. That said we are transferred early in the morning and arrive to the new hospital. There we meet the doctors who will be assisting with the tests and diagnosis. It is there that they do an ultrasound to check on Brady a little closer. Unfortunately this ultrasound reveals that there is a big problem with our little girl. There is a reverse blood flow along the placenta causing Brady not to grow like she should. This is a big problem because this can be severely detrimental to an infant's chances of living. The doctors highly advised us to consider an emergency cesarean section.
Mid-day we enter into the operating room for the surgery. Everything goes well and Brady is born weighing in at a whopping 1lb 7oz and 11 3/4in long. Man that's tiny! She's cleaned up and quickly presented, all bundled up, to Nikkie and Erik in the operating room. We're officially parents! Wow!
We had an incredible amount of family and friends supporting and praying for us throughout these incredible 2 days (and beyond!). We couldn't have gotten this far without the strength and power of our Father in Heaven. The next couple of months will be hard with us living at home without our little Brady but we know she's in great care. Keep us lifted up during this process because I'm sure there will be ups and downs. We can't wait to bring her home and have our first restless night with her!
Thanks for taking the time to read this and other areas of this site. Let me stress how much we would appreciate your comments even if you just found this site and do not know us personally.