Grace Ann

(copy of email sent)
Dear Family and Friends,

I'll start with a recap for those of you who haven't been informed yet, our little girl Gracie was born around 3:00 in the afternoon on Sept 18 weighing exactly 7 pounds. She had to come via C-section because there were complications again and Gracie was not responding well to labor. I went into the doctor's office on the 17th because I had begun noticing pain in my abdomen again and suspected that I was gaining too much amniotic fluid again, as is what happened earlier in my pregnancy. My suspicions were right, I got sent for an ultrasound the same day in Bend and by the evening the doctor said I needed to come to the hospital right away because the baby needed to come out. As far as my AFI (amniotic fluid index) anything above 25 is considered abnormal and mine was a 41. So I was very large. The doctors tried to induce labor but after 12 hours my body was not responding and the baby's heartbeat was unfavorable, so they ended up taking her by C-section. I was extremely nervous about having to have surgery and really did not want to have to undergo that, but the surgical staff was wonderful and to be honest, the surgery ended up being the easiest part of the whole ordeal.

Gracie has some complications which is part of the reason I had so much amniotic fluid. One of her kidneys was not functioning and it was very enlarged, about twice the size of the other kidney and distending her abdomen making it very hard to breath. The other complicaton was that at birth her lung pressure did not automatically equilibrize and she was not able to breath well on her own. Things seemed okay when she arrived, but her condition began to deteriorate and she had to be transported to the NICU at Bend because the Redmond hospital was not able to stabilize her condition. There she had to be put on nitric oxide to help her breath and the Panda Team from Doernbecher Hospital flew in to Bend to take our little girl back with them to Portland, Oregon.

Right now Gracie is in intensive care, NICU, at the Doernbecker Hospital.

I got discharged from the hospital on Saturday and we came up to Portland to see Gracie and are staying at the Ronald McDonald House.

Gracie is stabilized now. She is not yet able to breath on her own. They have her on an oscillary respiratory machine and that is the biggest concern right now, getting her to breath on her own. They have her sedated heavily with morphine and she is on dopomine to stabilize her blood pressure. We are very thankful that she is stable right now and in such good hands here at Doernbecker. She has a team of about 19 doctors attending to her and she is in the best hands possible here.

Hubert and I are able to go visit her at anytime. There really isn't a way for others to come visit. Her condition is very critical and of course, more visitors could put her at risk for any infection and that would be very bad under the circumstances. There is no window from which to view her. She is in strict ICU and we have to scrub in to our elbows just like the doctors to see her and we can't hold her and touch is very limited at this point. After seeing her with all the needles and machines hooked up to her, we understand that this is going to be a long recovery process and one that won't resolve quickly. We appreciate so much all of the concern and care that has been shown to us regarding Gracie. I really appreciated the hospital visits as well. I really can't tell you exactly how much it has meant to me, but please know that it has meant so much. And too, all those who took care of our kids while we were in the hospital have lifted such a huge weight of worry from us about having to be concerned about Mackenzie and Caleb at this time. So many just took over and helped out and we did not have to think about them. I have felt the power of your prayers and have felt the Holy Ghost strongly around Gracie protecting her.

At this time, Gracie just needs many, many faith-filled prayers. We are so comforted to know that our ward and others are praying and fasting for her. Hubert & I strongly believe in miracles and know that with Faith in God and his Son Jesus Christ, all things are possible. I am convinced that the miracle we saw earlier in my pregnancy, with this complication just suddenly "resolving" is still just that. At 28 weeks if this condition with the amniotic fluid had continued, Gracie surely would not have made it to term. By this problem resurfacing so suddenly again at 37 weeks, it has really given her a fighting chance. The doctors keep saying that the good thing is she is strong and a healthy weight, so we are hoping with time her lungs can get strong enough to work on their own. If she were premature and battling the same circumstances, the outcome might be much different and harder for her.

We will send updates via the email as we have access to a computer here and are more than happy to get emails from you as well. We would love to hear from you. We have a trac phone given to us by Hubert's family but it has very limited minutes so we are saving those for his family in Lakeview and my family in TN, and we can't use it in the hospital anyways so it is probably not the best way to get ahold of us.

We love and appreciate you all and so greatly appreciate your prayers for little Gracie. I wish I could attach a picture to this email to show you how cute and sweet she looks, but I did not come prepared to get any of the pictures off of my camera so they are all sitting here but I can't access them.

With love, Hubert & Jodie