All In One Update...

Ok here’s the scoop for those of you that don’t know already. Saturday morning we had to take Beth to the hospital and by “we” I mean our very dear friend Melissa had to because I was on duty. Beth had a feeling that her blood pressure was a little high so we purchased a digital blood pressure monitor a couple days before and Saturday morning it was WAY high. We’re talking triple digits high. So Beth called the doctor’s office and they told her to go to the emergency room and NOT to drive herself. That’s when she called Melissa at home and her exact words (okay, so pretty close anyway) to her husband as she ran out of their bedroom were “Gotta go, watch the kids. I am taking Beth to the emergency room” and that was it. I can only imagine what Aaron was thinking at that point. But they made it alright and got checked in. I was able to find a short notice relief from duty and went to the hospital too.

When I got there they had moved her into another room and had her all settled in. She had high blood pressure and they were testing to see if she had any protein in her urine. Two of the symptoms of pre-eclampsia, a very un-understood (new word for the win) condition. Doctors are not sure what causes it but the only treatment is to deliver the baby. Beth was only 35 weeks pregnant at this point so the main concern was how developed the baby’s lungs are. There was some talk of letting her go home and just be on bed rest because her blood pressure, while high, was not in the severe range and was manageable. That was until the Doctor came in Sunday morning expecting to tell us that we were able to go home but instead had to tell us that Beth did have protein in her urine and was pre-eclamptic. To be pre-eclamptic you need to have between 300-500 mgs of protein with severe pre-eclamsia being between 4000-5000 mgs. Beth has 600-700 mgs so is barely pre-eclamptic but that means we can’t go home. In fact they went one further and sent us to Anchorage where there is a very good neo-natal unit and some of the countries best Perinatologists (doctors that specialize in problem pregnancies – shocker considering this is Alaska…why the best are here, who knows?). So that way if our little girl’s lungs are not developed they have the best equipment to care for her.

So I did some calling around. Made travel arrangements to get us on the jet out of Kodiak. Called my work and told them the situation. Said I have to take Beth to Anchorage and I don’t know when I’m coming back. They said that they cleared my schedule indefinitely and they’ll worry about accounting when I come back. I’m on medical orders so our plane tickets, rental car, and my food is all paid for and I’m not burning any of my earned leave. I love the Coast Guard!!

So we got here and talked with Dr. Whitefield (the guy who got Beth pregnant) and he gave us three options to think about. 1- Wait and see if baby girl can get a few more weeks of cooking in. 2- Perform an Amniocentesis and that will tell us if baby girl’s lungs are developed or not and induce labor. (Dr’s choice at this point) 3- Induce labor and deliver baby girl with out the Amnio. He ordered another ultra-sound to check the baby and find out how much fluid is around the baby and get an idea of how far along she is. The Perinatologist herself did the actual ultra-sound and could find absolutely nothing wrong with baby girl!! Can Beth grow them or what!! She was weighing in at a whopping 6.7 lbs give or take a pound!! And there is plenty of fluid around the baby for an Amnio. They also measured the protein in Beth’s urine again over a 24 hour period and found out it hadn’t changed much. So armed with the fact that Beth’s condition hasn’t worsened in 4 days and baby girl is looking really good option 1 of waiting is now our top choice. The risks of a late stage Amnio just outweigh the benefits in our mind right now. We are very comfortable waiting and keeping a close eye on Beth because that’s who’s at risk now, not baby girl.

Now, in other news. We received new pictures of our Guatemalan Angel. We also talked with Sonya and she said that we did receive a kick out from PGN. Apparently Guatemala is now requiring the birth mother’s birth certificate to be signed by the mayor of the city she was born in. And it appears that this requirement is only for some cities. Ours happens to be one of them. This is a new requirement, one that hasn’t cropped up before and caught everybody off guard. But the kick out is actually a positive thing. It means that our case was being looked at and if it hadn’t gotten kicked out we would have been through PGN at this point. Our lawyer down in Guatemala has been trying to track down the mayor every day but the elections down there have put a serious strain on his time and has been hard to get time with. But our lawyer is very persistent and has promised to get the signature

and our case back into PGN this week or next. This will give us time to get baby girl home and settled before I have to go down to Guatemala to pick up Gabriel. Oh, and she emailed new pictures too! What a nice surprise for us!

We’ll update you all again when things change if we can. Love you all and enjoy the pictures!!