Countdown: T minus 18 hours

THURSDAY MORNING UPDATE:

I can't start without first thanking each of you from the bottom of my heart, for your continued prayers and encuraging words. God is doing miracles already today and there is no doubt in my mind that He is hearing each of those prayers. Please keep 'em coming!!!!

I got about 6 hours of sleep last night. That was miracle #1!! Gracie slept like a total log all night long ........... miracle #2. Mom drove me to Northside this morning while Laura stayed at the house with Gracie. We ran into some traffic but made it there in about an hour: miracle #3!

I had my 18th (and hopefully final) ultrasound, and Jamin looks fantastic: miracle #4. They estimate he weighs about 5 lbs 14oz. Then Dr. Mann came in to do the amnio, at which point I was so terrified I was trying not to shake. It went well and we survived: MIRACLE #5!!!! It hurt pretty badly, but only lasted for like 30 seconds. I kept my eyes closed, focused on holding very still, and just prayed through the whole thing. So I didn't see anything scary, but my mom reported it was not a pleasant site to observe. I was then hooked up to the NST monitor for about 20 minutes after the amnio, just to make sure the baby was doing okay after the procedure, and all looked well.

On the way home I called Laura to check on Gracie. She reported that Gracie woke up in a fantastic mood and seemed to be feeling really good, she ate a banana and some water for breakfast: MIRACLE #6!!! What a giagantic relief!

I then got a call from James telling me that WWIII was avoided and our family drama appears to have reached some peaceful resolution: MIRACLE #7!!!!

So much has turned around in the last 12 hours .... oh the Lord is at work!!

I've been resting and trying to stay off my feet as much as possible since I returned home. Laura went back to work and mom has gone home, so it's just me and Gracie for now. She is perky and energetic like her "normal" self, and has had a piece of bread and more water and a lollypop in the last hour.

Please continue to pray for us. We are expecting to get a call with amnio results sometime between maybe 4:30ish and 6:30ish tonight. At that point we will get Gracie handed over to her Grammie, and James and I will head back to the hospital for admission.

Please pray for: mature lungs, minimal confusion receiving amnio results and coordinating admission, and decent sleep for James and I tonight. Also please pray for traveling mercies for my sister, who will likely end up on a red-eye flight tonight from Colorado back to GA.

God is in control of all of these details and so much more! We are so incredibly grateful for your prayers!

I will update more tonight as things change ...........

Makin' plans

Today was a super busy day. It began at 9am when I got a phone call from Gracie's beloved preschool teacher, Mrs. Meyer, who apologetically informed me that Gracie has been exposed to head lice by one of her classmates. Isn't that fabulous timing? I seriously had to hold back the tears on the phone, I simply can not add anything else to my plate right now. I am completely overwhelmed as it is, both emotionally and physically, ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.

So I've been nervously checking her sweet little head every chance I get, and so far I don't see anything. I am PRAYING that nothing materializes, I will just lose my mind if I am having to fumagate my entire house and scramble to rid my baby of nasty bugs next week on top of preparing for Jamin's arrival. I am seriously way over my stress limit as it is.

My blood pressure problems have been worsening this week. This is something that we've been fighting for the last 6 weeks or so - my pressure basically drops super low periodically throughout the day. I will have these episodes where I feel totally fine one moment, then tingly and faint the next minute. They have been giving me IV fluids at the hematologist to try and help boost my pressure, but that only helps for a day or two at best. Wednesday I had Brandi take me to the fire station since it's right around the corner from my house .... my pressure was 86/40. The paramedic explained (and my doctor's have confirmed), that basically this is a result of me being a thin person, and my body is just overwhelmed with the pregnancy and all the medications I'm on.

My contractions have been increasing to insane frequency this week as well. I'm regularly having 6-7 contractions per hour ... earlier this week I topped out at a record 9 in one hour. I am feeling very heavy and painful pressure down "THERE"; I swear when I get up to pee I'm thinking, "Jamin please don't fall out!". It's crazy. I can definately attest to the fact that my body is about to give up on this whole pregnancy thing.

My mom arrived at noon today to drive me to my TWO back-to-back doctor's appointments. I saw Dr. Mann first, and had ultrasound #17. Jamin looks great, he weighs approximately 5lb 11oz! (This should put him in the neighborhood of about 6lb 3oz at birth.) I then saw Dr. Garcia, who felt my cervix and reported I'm about 2cm dilated and still 80% effaced. He looked me square in the face today and said, "I absolutely can not believe you are still pregnant!". I told him ... me neither, but my God is in the miracle business!

We are all set up for next week's induction. Here's the plan at this point:
Thursday 4/9 I will have the amnio at 9:30am, performed by Dr. Mann at Northside Hospital. She must have the sample off to the lab by 10am in order to receive the results back same-day. We are expecting results around dinnertime Thursday evening. This will be after office hours, so it will be the on-call physician who will call my house with the results. If we get the green light, then we will grab our bags and head to Northside Hospital to be admitted (late) Thursday night. They want to have me in a room and prepped the night before the induction.

Because I've been having issues with my blood pressure, Dr. Garcia wants to "drown me with fluids" he said .... his goal is to get about 3bags of IV fluids in me between Thursday night and Friday morning. He will arrive Friday morning 4/10 around 7:30am to begin the induction. He will start a pitocin drip and break my water and hopefully it will be quick!

I will have to come off my aspirin this weekend, and off my heparin by Wednesday, so that it's all out of my system 24hrs before the amnio. By induction time it will have been 48hrs since my last heparin dose. This is pushing it a little to have no anti-coagulants for this length of time, but my docs are confident we'll be okay. At least with plenty of time for these meds to wash out of my system, it means it should be safe to get an epidural, which is a gigantic relief for me!

We WILL have to take special precautions with the epidural, since I'm allergic to fentanyl (one of the narcotics commonly included inside the epi). Dr. Garcia says the anesthesiologist should be able to exclude just the fentanyl and leave the rest, and I should still get adequate pain control. The epidural also lowers your blood pressure, so they will be watching me closely for that. The 3 bags of fluids should help combat this problem.

SOOOOOOOO .... hopefully we will have a healthy baby here by Friday afternoon! I will plan to take the laptop with us to the hospital, and I'll have James try to post an 'announcement' on the blog for everyone.

We will re-start the heparin approx. 12 hours after delivery. That will continue twice a day for 6 weeks post-partum. It is safe to take while breastfeeding.

Please be much in prayer for us as we limp through these last few days! Here are the specifics that are worrying me:
1. No head lice for Gracie .... PLEASE JESUS!!!
2. No spontaneous labor, Jamin needs to hold on until Friday 4/10!!
3. Safe amnio on Thursday, minimal pain with NO COMPLICATIONS
4. Fast amnio results showing MATURE LUNGS
5. Minimal confusion receiving amnio results and coordinating hospital admission
6. Decent sleep Thursday night for both myself and James.
7. Maintain safe blood pressure levels
8. Labor free from complications and Jamin HEALTHY AND STRONG at delivery
9. Resolution of a family thing, which I can't discuss, but the Lord knows what it is .... please just pray for "THE issue" to be resolved with minimal stress and hurt feelings.

I am so so grateful for your love and prayers, for your phone calls, for your sweet offers of help, for the food you've sent, or your words of encouragement .......... THANK YOU!!! The Lord has truly just carried us through this whole journey, and one way He has done that is through the generosity of our friends and family. To Him be all the honor and glory forever and ever, amen!!!

There's a light at the end of this tunnel ...

Lots of big news to report:

I endured my VERY LAST injection of 17-hydroxy-progesterone Friday morning. I will really miss seeing my sweet home nurse, Sharon, each week .... she always gives me a comforting word of advice and straight answers to my questions and concerns. However I will most definitely NOT miss the 40-foot needle, the bruises, and certainly not the limping that takes place for days afterwards.

ALSO ..... I'm excited to say that Jamin will almost definitely be arriving within the next two weeks ... we have an induction date!!! Dr. Garcia wants to induce tentatively on Friday April 10 (which is Good Friday -- how cool is that?) I will be 36w2d at that point. Due to the medications I'm taking, particularly the heparin, he feels the safest route is to get Jamin OUT as soon as his lungs are mature and ready.

The plan at this point is to do an amniocentesis in the morning of Thursday April 9th. This test carries risks, along with the largest needle known to man .... both of which scare the crap outta me. But it also will tell us the level of Jamin's lung maturity. We should have the results back by Thursday afternoon. If all looks well with his lungs, we will go forth with the induction on Friday morning April 10. Dr. Garcia says I'm "ripe and ready to go" (his words), so he anticipates that the induction will only require a small dose of pitocin to get the ball rolling, at which point I should labor and deliver quickly.

I am so eager to meet Jamin, and to end what feels like the world's longest pregnancy rollercoaster ride!

In the meantime, I'm slowly scratching things off my "must do before the baby arrives" list, and praying that Jamin actually WAITS until April 10th. My contractions have really been borderline out-of-control for the last 3+ days ... upwards of 6-8 per hour ... so I am practically holding my breath.

I'm in great need of your continued prayers! Please pray specifically for (1) a safe amnio procedure (2) mature lungs by April 9th; (3) no spontaneous labor prior to April 10th; and (4) comfort for our fears.

More updates soon!!!