Morgan is 10 Days Old

Her shirt says, "Daddy's Little Pumpkin."
The hat, mittens, slippers, and pumpkin were made by Clint's mom, Luann.


Doesn't she have a pretty smile?



Learning to suck her thumb...

More Pictures of Morgan!

Clint coming down the hall with Morgan.

Morgan is sucking her thumb!

Taking Morgan home, Oct.25th.

My Mom and Dad with Morgan.

Morgan's third bath! She is getting dried off.

MORGAN FAITH HOWARD

Well, childbirth is not the easiest thing in the world, but it could have been easier for us...

It all started on Monday, October 20th (actually about 9 months prior to Monday...but, for the sake of time I am skipping ahead). Sara went to her regular pregnancy checkup where she was informed by our doctor that he would be leaving town for a week beginning Friday. Our due date was set for Saturday. We faced the possibility of having Morgan while our doctor was out of town (along with the doctor who would normally back him up). So, the doctor gave us an option...he said we could try inducing on Tuesday, the 21st. Later, when we talked to him about the induction prior to making our final decision, we learned that another reason he was making the suggestion was because Morgan had not grown much over the past couple weeks. He didn't know the reasons for this, but said that it would justify having Sara induced (since there was the possibility of a problem).

So, after gathering some information, asking for advice from several wise people, and praying for God's guidance, we decided to go ahead with the induction.

We arrived at the hospital Tuesday morning around 8am. After all the preliminaries and preparations our nurse (Sonya) started the labor-inducing drug around 9am. Things started out promising. The monitor on Sara's abdomen showed that she was having regular, though weak, contractions. In fact, Sara could not even feel many of them, and those that she did feel were not painful at all. These kinds of weak contractions are actually normal, and take place through the last few months of pregnancy. The promising thing was that Sara's contractions gradually became regular, just like they needed to be.

But, we waited...and waited...and waited. Our doctor had already warned us that they may have to induce up to 18 hours before labor really takes hold. So, we weren't all that discouraged. Besides, Sonya checked on us regularly, and assured us that Sara was progressing well since her contractions were do regular.

After several hours of this we began to notice that the baby's heart rate monitor was registering spikes and drops. We did not think much of it since when the baby moves around the monitor can have errors. But, around 2pm Morgan's heart rate dropped into the 60s (beats per minute...normal would be around 120-160). At first we thought the monitor wasn't picking her beat up well, but Sonya quickly figured out that the number was right. She immediately had Sara rolling onto her sides, up on all fours, doing everything she could to move the baby around. Sonya explained that sometimes the baby can lay on the umbilical chord, cutting off the blood flow. She paged our doctor and told him the problem. He made the decision to do an emergency c-section, let Sonya know over the phone, and headed up to see us.

Our doctor was in the room in a matter of minutes, but, fortunately, by the time he arrived Morgan's heart rate had come back up to the 150s. This was fortunate for a couple reasons. Obviously it meant that Morgan was still okay, but it also meant that Clint was allowed to go back with Sara for the c-section. This is not normally allowed in emergency c-sections, but since ours was not so urgent they made an exception.

Sara was quickly prepared for surgery and taken back to the surgery room for final preparations while Clint was given scrubs to change into and instructions about what to expect. After Sara was all preped they allowed Clint in and the procedure began. from the first cut to when they had Morgan out on the exam table took less that 5 minutes, and she was born at 2:55pm. The doctors did a wonderful job, Sara was doing well, and Morgan was doing very well. In fact, there are some routine checks done for every baby immediately after delivery; the nurses assess alertness, color, senses, etc., and then give the baby a score out of 10 possible. Morgan was an 8. Sonya later told us that she took off 2 points because Morgan was a little blue to start out, and remained that way by 5 minutes...this was to be expected in Morgan's situation, although we did not know it yet.

After Morgan was quickly cleaned and assessed, they brought her around to where both Clint and Sara could see her. Sara then had to stay while she was sewn up, and she was later transferred to isolation for about 2 hours after the c-section. Clint, however, got to carry Morgan all the way down the hall to the nursery where Morgan was put in an incubator.

Morgan had been a little blue because her blood-oxygen level was low (80s instead of normal 90s). They blew oxygen into her incubator to get her levels up. It took a little longer than normal for her levels to stabilize, but she was calm and very alert the whole time. Later we found out that the reason her heart-rate had dropped and the reason her oxygen levels were low after delivery was because her placenta had begun to detatch from Sara's uterus. This normally happens immediately following birth, but in 2% of cases it begins happening early. Since the placenta is the baby's lifeline to mom, if the placenta begins to detatch then baby will be in serious trouble.

God certainly was looking out for Morgan. We had a wonderful nurse who noticed the heart-rate problem and acted on it immediately. We had wonderful doctors who made the right decision to perform a c-section and who delivered Morgan safely. And, even though Sara was scared for Morgan, she was amazing. The ordeal was pretty startling, but it wasn't really scary until after it was over, when we learned how serious the condition really was.

Sara was able to see Morgan right after delivery in the surgery room, and then through the nursery glass just before she went to recover in isolation. So, it was at least 2 hours after delivery before Clint was able to see Sara, and about an hour more before Sara was able to get a good look at, and really touch, her baby. Before Morgan went to see Sara, while Morgan was getting her first bath, Sara had a scary moment. Clint was down at the nursery filming the bath, and Sara's mother had just left the room to go see the bath, leaving Sara alone. Suddenly, she felt very light-headed and nearly blacked out. She called out to her mother who had only gotten part way down the hall, and then she found the nurse-call button on her bed. Our nurse was the one bathing Morgan, and was almost done when Sara hit the button. She finished up quickly, and she and Clint went down to check on Sara. Sonya checked Sara out, and found that she had an extreme drop in blood pressure. Sonya was great, again, and she immediately started Sara on extra iv fluids and oxygen, and she called the doctor.

Sara's pressure came back up pretty quickly, the doctor came and checked her out, and although he wasn't sure why she had such a sudden drop he did say that it wasn't totally unexpected from a patient who had just been through the trauma of major surgery. Since she was stable again he left her on the extra fluid and the oxygen and left to make his rounds.

Finally, about 30 minutes later, Sara was able to bond with Morgan. Sara couldn't hold Morgan because of the surgery, but Morgan lay in the bed right next to Sara. The nurses helped Sara breast-feed Morgan for the first time, and everything was going well. But, then, Sara started to black-out again. Clint took Morgan, and the nurses went to work on Sara. Again, she had a severe drop in blood pressure, and, again, they upped her oxygen and iv fluids. Sonya called the doctor again, and, although he wasn't able to come right away, he gave her some suggestions for repositioning Sara in bed to prevent the drop again.

Within a couple hours Sara's pressure dropped for the third time. This time it went down to 60s over 20s (normal is about 120 over 70). Sonya called the nurses station to have them page the doctor. The nurse at the station said, "Dr. Miller is speaking at an event. Is it an emergency?" Sonay then said, "I have blood pressure of 60s over 20s." That's all it took to get the doctor called away from an event where he was a speaker...that's how serious it was.

The nurses got Sara stabilized again, and the two doctors who did the c-section arrived to look her over. They agreed that she might have some internal bleeding, and they decided to re-open her c-section incision to "take a look around." This time Clint was not allowed to go, so he waited for a couple hours while the doctors preped and checked Sara. Finally, a nurse called the waiting room to say that Sara was okay and that the doctors found and fixed the problem. The doctors later came to tell him what had happened.

During the c-section one of Sara's veins got a hole in it. They didn't know how...maybe it got stretched or nicked, but the surgery left a very small hole. In fact, it took the doctors some time to find the leak because it was bleeding so slowly. But, they found it and put a stitch in it, but not before she had to have 5 units of blood to replace what had been lost...in addition to the liters of fluid she had already and continued to receive.

After surgery Sara had about an hour recovery time and then she was moved to the ICU around 11pm (still Tuesday). Clint was able to follow and stay with her for some time, but eventually he went back up to the OB wing to check on Morgan (who was doing just fine) and to get some sleep.

The next afternoon Sara was moved back to the OB, and she was able to hold Morgan for the first time. Everything was back on track...we thought. But, Sara had a fever. It wasn't severe, but enough to be of concern since she had just had surgery and was at risk for infection. They did some blood work and found that her white blood cell count was high, meaning that her immune system was fighting some kind of infection. They also found that her platelet count was low (platelets make your blood clot, and low count could result in excessive blood loss). This was concerning because Sara has had a blood disorder that caused her platelets to be destroyed, and we were afraid that something could trigger that past problem. The doctor was concerned, as well, but he explained that probably this happened because of some of the pain medicine they had her on. So, he took her off that, and boosted her iv fluids. He also started her on iv antibiotics.

He also ordered a chest x-ray because he thought she might be developing pneumonia....it turned out he was right, but he caught it very early. The x-ray showed some fluid in the lower left lobe of her lung, but the antibiotics kept it from progressing, and cleared it up in a couple days. But, the fever persisted. They informed us about the third day that she would not be able to go home until she was fever-free for 24 hours. Her fever broke on Thursday morning, but came back later that night. Her fever broke Friday morning, and threatened to come back Friday night...but her temperature stayed slightly elevated, but did not move high enough to be considered a fever (100.4). Finally, it looked like we were going to be able to go home.

And, on Saturday, they released Sara. The funny thing is that Morgan was actually discharged on Thursday, but was able to stay with us with the nurses helping, weighing, and checking on her even though she technically was not a patient anymore. In fact, the only thing different about her being discharged was that they didn't keep records anymore. This was a blessing because we had the nurses' help, but we will (hopefully) avoid any problems with the insurance company for having Morgan in the hospital longer than they would allow.

But, poor Sara was not discharged until Saturday afternoon. We packed up, washed up, and finally went home. And when we got home Sara's fever came back. So, we called the nurse who discharged us and she called the doctor. He instructed us to give her Tylenol and call if her temp was over 101. So, here we are. Sara is still fighting an off and on fever, although she is feeling so much better. But, she has a ways to go with c-section recovery and blood-loss recovery...oh yeah, and we have a baby she has to feed through the night.

God was and is watching over us, though...more than we know, we are sure. We had a wonderful nurse, Sonya, who stayed on top of all the problems. We had wonderful doctors who made the right decisions quickly, and saved Morgan and Sara. We had wonderful care as Sara recovered. We had Sara's parents to comfort and help with errands. And now we have Clint's mom to help around the house as Sara recovers and we adjust.

You need to know a little more about Sonya...she wasn't supposed to work on Tuesday (when we first went in for the induction), but she had been called in because they needed extra help. But, she was there and was great...and she stayed very late when she didn't have to (she was hoping to go home around 6 or 7pm.....she was still there to check on Sara after her second surgery, about 10:30 pm). She also worked days on Wednesday and Thursday, and she took great care of us...she even stayed late again both of those nights to make sure we were okay. She didn't work on Friday, but she still came by to visit us that afternoon, and she even spent nearly an hour helping us despite our attempts to convince her that it was supposed to be her day off. She also arranged for several of Clint's meals to be free. She really was a blessing from God.

So, that's the story so far. We could have lost Morgan and Sara both, but God has blessed us.

Please keep us in your prayers...thank you for your love and support and prayers so far.

Visit from the Boverie Family

On Thursday Oct. 9th some friends from Colorado, Brian and Deborah and their 3 kids, Catilin, Colton and Colin, came to see us. We went to church with them when we lived in Greeley 4 years ago. They weren't able to stay very long, just about 30 minutes. They were passing through Coffeyville on their way to Arkansas City, KS to see Deborah's grandmother. We were so glad they were able to stop for a little bit and chat though. Clint and I really hadn't seen them for almost 4 years now. Their kids have really grown up. It is amazing what 4 years can do, especially for kids.