How we got here...

First, our contact information then how we got to this point...

If Kelly knows you, she would probably love to hear from you since she has nothing to do but lay in bed...

Telephone: 707 525 5300 ex. 6263

Mail:
Patient Kelly Welling
Labor and Delivery
Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital
1165 Montgomery
Santa Rosa, CA 95405


Why we are having a baby in California...

We wanted to take one last vacation and our pregnancy had been completely normal and smooth. Our doctor and our research inidicated that we could fly as late as 35 weeks, so being gone during week 30 and 31 did not seem like a bad idea.

We came to the Northern California area on Saturday, March 31 and headed south to the Big Sur Area. On Monday morning after tourinig the Monterey Aquarium, Kelly started having repeated Braxton Hicks (for all the medical people I am probably really mis-spelling everything) contractions. We called her doctor and she siaid to drink cold water and lay down. If they did not go away she said to get to a hospital. We set out towards San Francisco with her laying down in the car and fifteen minutes out of Monterrey she was having them every five minutes. We went to a hospital where she was monitored for about 3-4 hours and everything had calmed down. Additionally the OB did a fetal fibronectin test. This came back negative and meant that she should not go into labor in the next week or more. We deicided to proceed as planned, but to take everything really easy (limited walking around and numerous breaks).

San Franiciscio was fun (and relaxing) and so was our tour of the beautiful wine country, but on Thursday night Kelly was getting the same mild contractions repeatedly. Sinice we had the previous test we decided to see if they went away and if not head to the hospital in the morning. They did not go away and became worse, so we went to the hospital at 4:30 on Friday morning. After 3 hours of monitoring they were ready to send us on our way and decided to check for dilation. Now she was 1 cm dilated and had some blood. We were not going to be leaving soon.

About four hours later we had indication her water had broken. She immediatly had two steroid shots to speed Robert's lung development- the doctors hoped to delay birth for at least 48 hours so the steroids could help Robert as much as possible. She also went on Magnesium for about 2 and a half days. For the doctors and women who have been on that- you know how bad it is. She writhed in extreme discomfort that first night. Magnesium is the most powerful "labor preventer" there is, but during that first night I did not think she would be able to stay on for the Magnesium because her body was being exhausted. They lowered the dosage and that helped tremendously.

As of now, it appears that her water did not break (though there could have been a slight leak). It seems like all of this might have been induced by a small infection, though that is hard to tell. Bottom line: we are no closer to giving birth today than we were 3 days ago, so we are in a holding pattern.

Robert could be born today, he could also go to full term, nobody knows. As of today we are 31 weeks and 5 days. The general prognosis if he is born is good, but we are not out of the woods because there is plenty that could not be so good in terms of his general health and development. The biggest concerns are breathing ability and blood leakage in his brain, but there are other concerns as well.

EVERY single nurse and doctor has told us he is looking great- they monitor his heart rate. That is obviously good.

We know that hundreds of people are praying for us- many we do not even know- and we have seen God take care of us in a number of ways already.

Our prayer requests:
1) That Robert stays in as long as possible
2) For Kelly as she faces the challenges of being on bedrest (longer is better for Robert, but harder on her)
3) As we deal with the logistics of being away from home for a long time. Everything from work to taxes to paying bills to mowing the lawn to getting mail is now something we have to figure out.

That was the quick, misspelled, probably not very clear update, but I wanted to get something out. I will continue to update this as things change and I have a chance.