In this corner…weighing in at…

2 pounds 2 ounces is K. Rose Austin…

We had been wondering how the doctors when it would be time for Rose to enter our world. Apparently if a baby’s foot enters the birth canal it is time for her to come out. At around 7p on Thursday evening Rose decided to try and make a break for it. By 745p she was out and starting her fight.

What we know…
S is doing well. She is tired and will have some pain as she tries to get mobile again. Two weeks of bed rest and a c-section will present a bit of a challenge on this end, but she is doing well. Today she will begin to walk…

Rose is doing ok. The next three days will be a series of ups and downs as they learn more about how much she is developed. Right now they describe her numbers as “ok” they aren’t the best, but they aren’t the worst either. She is probably on slight negative side of “middle of the road.” The biggest concern now is her low blood pressure. They are working to help this come up and stay up.

We will post a picture soon and keep this updated as much as we can…probably at least every other day.

Praising God for two extra weeks and asking Him to help Rose fight.

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She’s gettin upset

The “she” is S…
S had contractions all night last night, Wednesday August 29th…she’s not a big fan of those, imagine that…

S was hoping to avoid long bouts of contractions due to the fact that she will be having a c-section…no such luck!

Basically, it looks like Rose will be making her world debut here in the next day or so. They, the doctors, aren’t doing anything to slow down labor, but they want S to stay pregnant as long as she can so there have been no times set, as of yet, for a c-setion.

We will keep this posted as we can.

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Does this girl have a name?

This has been the question on many people’s minds and as of yet we have had not come to a consensus. We narrowed it down to a couple of choices, but had been unable to make a decision. The last couple of days have been a bit of a wake up call as to the fact that our baby girl is coming soon and she needs a name.

So here it is…drum roll (or whatever anticipation growing noise you prefer)…
G’s vote – Lucy
S’s vote – Lexi
Kait’s vote – Hello Kitty

Put it all together you get…
K. Rose

How to pray for Rose with what has gone down the last couple of days…
S has had some bleeding and had a few, irregular, contractions that have concerned doctors. They are beginning to talk more about when they would do a c-section. S had an ultrasound today and everything looks about the same, which is good. Rose is on the monitor all the time now, and has been for a week, and her heart rate looks great. We are still praying for 28 weeks, that would be September 1st.

We are asking God to give the doctors wisdom. What they are doing is watching Rose and S very closely for signs of infection. Signs of infection equals c-section. They are watching S’s temperature, S’s “belly comfort” (they push on it and ask if it hurts), S’s white blood cell count, and Rose’s heart rate. Changes in these indicate possible infection. If there is infection or a possibility of it they will do a c-section as it would be safe for Rose in the NICU than inside momma. The doctors need wisdom as it is really hard to determine infection without seeing inside S or seeing Rose.

Praying for wisdom and 28 weeks!

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Longwood Gardens

That is the name of the piece of art on the wall of S’s room off the foot of her bed. She can tell you EVERYTHING about this beautiful “poster.” We have included a picture of it here on the blog so you too can enjoy the “gardens.” The other picture is of the view S gets of the outside world from her bed. Beautiful, is it not?

Well God got us into week 27. There really is no news to report, which is great. S continues to feel well. Hospital food is getting old, and she is beginning to feel a bit restless, but she is thankful to still be in the same room she entered back on August 16. The baby is still looking good on the monitor and is showing no news signs of leaving the womb. The doctors are basically saying the same things…the baby could come any day, they don’t see any signs of that happening anytime soon, no promises on how long they think baby will stay inside, and they are hoping for at least 28 weeks.

The only new developments are these…They have started to do more regular ultrasounds, which usually don’t look great but don’t look too awful either. Sara has also had some mild “Braxton Hicks” contractions which have caused some anxiety for us but none for the doctors.

Some exciting news on the “entertainment front.” S is allowed one wheelchair ride per day outside of her room. The only problem is deciding where we will go. Do we go outside in the courtyard? Do we go up the family lounge on the 8th floor to check email? Do we just cruise the hallways? Decisions, decisions…She is glad to just be able to get out of the now VERY familiar walls of room F4145…

We continue to pray and hope for 28 weeks…

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Seven days…no baby…

That is the good news. We have now been here at the hospital, in the same bed, for seven days and our little girl is holding out. This is truly awesome. The doctors still are seeming at least somewhat optimistic.

The past couple of days have been a little bit unnerving as S has had several ultrasounds all of which highlight the precarious nature of our situation. Our little girl really doesn’t have any fluid to swim in and at some of the ultrasounds she became a bit camera shy and wasn’t really moving. These results leave the doctors more on the concerned end of the spectrum, but are glad that S is showing no signs of labor. The baby really, for her situation, really is still doing well. Her heart rate is good, she is breathing pretty good for her age, and despite what she does during the ultrasounds is moving quite a bit. This is all good news…

Here is where things stand as of now…
Our girl is now breach. This isn’t too big of a deal as she could switch around again and S already had a decent chance of a c-section. The “breachness” would insure a c-section. She is also really small. She was measured today and they believe she weighs about one pound ten ounces. That is pretty small even for an Austin. This has caused the doctors some concern, but we are still in waiting mode, this is good. We are still really praying and hoping for S to reach 28 weeks. that would be on Saturday, September first. We appreciate your prayers and concerns….keep praying, God is the only one who can help us!

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Can we go home?

The question of the past day or so has been, “Can S continue her bed rest from home?” Since nothing has really changed in the situation since S was admitted to the hospital in regards to her going into labor or the baby being in distress, the doctors had begun to discuss this possibility. There were many criteria that needed to be met in order for this to occur, and we had been having those discussions that last day or so. One of the major issues that needed to resolved was knowing the amount of amniotic fluid still left in the uterus. If there was still a safe amount, they would be more likely to consider having her go home for awhile. This afternoon the doctor came in and S had an ultrasound to determine this fluid amount. It turns out that there isn’t enough in the uterus and the answer to our question is that S will remain in the hospital.

What does this mean? They aren’t really sure. If there were more fluid they would say that S is less likely to go into labor, but babies, if they are in a good position, can stay in the womb for quite awhile longer with low fluid levels. Our little girl is in a good position, head down and cord up, so that is good.

Where to from here? Fluid levels can increase as baby continues to make more by peeing. We are praying for this. S remains on bed rest here at the hospital, and we pray labor doesn’t come for at least two more weeks. Two more weeks would put her at 28 weeks, and the baby will be more ready for our world than she is now.

So what do we do all day? Pretty much lay/sit in this nice room. The highlight of S’s day is a close race between getting out of bed to shower or ordering the “amazing” chocolate cake from room service. That is correct we said room service…who would have thunk that this hospital would be like a fine hotel in an exotic local. S also enjoys Kait’s daily visits. Where she gets to color and read books with Kait or go for a “ride” up and down on her bed. You may be surprised to learn the bed almost reaches the ceiling. Kait has discovered the rooftop playground here at the hospital which is a real drawing point to her visiting. Overall boredom isn’t too bad as of yet and visitors are always welcome.

We would ask you to pray for the fluid levels to go up and that our little girl would stay inside until she is at least 28 weeks along. We thank you all for your prayers and support.

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Long time no update…

Our time in Kenya was really great. We were once again confronted with the great need and feel assured that adoption is God’s plan for our family. One of the things we learned while we were in Kenya was that we would probably be adopting a girl between the ages of one to three, and that would mean that she is alive now. We pray for her everyday that God will protect her until we can bring her home.

Since being home we dove right into finishing our dossier to be able to put that in the hands of the Kenyan government to get a referral to our little girl. This basically means gathering a ton of official information, getting things notarized and authenticated, and getting background checks done. We have been able to get started on some immigration forms as well. This has proven to be very time consuming, but we are coming nearer to completing the dossier.

We have applied for many grants to help in the funding of the adoption, and last week we learned we were granted a $2,500 matching grant. That means if God’s Grace Adoption
Ministries receives $2,500 of financial gifts on our behalf, they will give us up to $2,500 for a total of $5,000. We are really excited to see God providing. We have a couple of questions about making the grant work in our situation because of the way the money is distributed. They give the money after the child is placed in your home in America. There is a slim possibility that it may not work for us because of the extended time we are required to be in Kenya, and most of our adoption costs will come before we are home in the States with our little girl. We are working with the grant agency and our adoption agency to see if we can work this out. Nonetheless, we are very excited for God’s provision, and we are praying daily that He will provide the additional $2,500 for us to be able to take full advantage of this grant.

We press on with our adoption…looking forward to see what God has for us in this area….

On another note…
As you know, S is pregnant. Things with her pregnancy have gone ok up until now. It certainly hasn’t been a “no worries” pregnancy, but things have been ok. That changed dramatically this week on Thursday, August 16th. S thought that her water broke while she was watching Kait at gymnastics. She was only 25½ weeks pregnant, or a little over six months along. Her doctor sent her straight to the birth center at the hospital. After some testing we found out that in fact S’s water had broken, and she was being admitted to the “high risk” birthing unit. We have been told they baby could come at any time. Some mothers in this situation will give birth within a day or two while others can go another month or so. There is no way to predict what will happen as each situation is different. S was given, and will still get for another five days, antibiotics to fight a potential infection that can come when a woman’s water breaks. She was also given two steroid shots to help our baby girl’s lungs develop more quickly. She is on complete bed rest at the hospital, and will be there for awhile.

So for now…S is doing well. She is doing a great job of doing nothing.  Kait is also doing pretty well. We have a lot of people offering help, and G’s sister has been able to come here to help out for several days. G has been able to get home at night, so he is there when Kait wakes up in the morning. Kait has been able to come up to the hospital to visit. The baby is being monitored closely, and so far is doing well. S has had no real signs of labor, and that is really good. S is now in week 26 of her pregnancy which is still really early to deliver. The baby is really small, about the size of your hand. The doctors are hoping that she could last until week 28, but they are making no promises. The baby could come any day, and we are praying that she holds out entering our world until 28 to 32 weeks. Until the baby comes, S will, more than likely, have to stay in the hospital. We are hoping that she will be incredibly bored because that would mean the baby is not yet born.

We will try to keep this blog updated as things go along. We would really appreciate your prayers for us. We once again really need God’s help. Pray that S wouldn’t go into labor anytime soon, pray for our baby that she will grow and develop fast, pray that Kait will do well in this crazy time for her, and pray for our little girl in Kenya. This will probably delay when we can go to Kenya to get our girl. When the baby comes she will be very small and have to stay in the hospital for a long time. Thanks you so much for your prayers and concerns!

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