Isla Rose

Well our baby girl is finally here! She was born a week ago today, March 16th at 10:14 am. She weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces--our biggest baby yet! I was almost a week past my due date and I had been having some irregular contractions Thursday. I went to the office to be checked and I had made some changes/progress, so Zack and I made the decision to go ahead and go in to the hospital that night for an induction. Friday morning around 7:30, they came in and broke my water, I got an epidural and they started the Pitocin. I went in dilated to a 3 and by 9 am I was already a 6 and very shortly after that a 10! One of the things I prayed for over this delivery was that it would be quick and easy. Well it was both of those things. I am so grateful it went quickly. However we did have quite a scare during the delivery. Right before Isla was born, her heart rate dropped in to the 50s (which is too low for a baby) for about 6-7 minutes. It was pretty scary for a few minutes, but thankfully I have the greatest doctor in the world! :) He came in and said, "okay, we've got to get this baby out now". I think I realized how serious it was at that moment when I heard his "serious voice", saw my mom starting to cry and about 12 more people appeared in the room, (okay maybe only like 5 more people, but it seemed like 12.) But a few pushes later she was here! Slightly purple, but here nonetheless. She was immediately given oxygen and taken to be put under the light and she pinked up and began to cry. The next few days proved challenging for Miss Isla Rose. She had problems keeping her blood sugar up. We had to give her sugar water, a shot of Glucagon, and eventually an IV because her glucose wouldn't stay above 40. We worked very hard feeding every hour and with the help of the IV we were finally able to get it over 40 and eventually up in the 70s. She also had an elevated bilirubin level and had to stay an extra night in the hospital for light therapy. So amidst all of these somewhat normal challenges with a newborn, I noticed that her left eye was swollen and she wasn't opening it like she was her right eye. I, of course tried persistently to examine it and open it, but couldn't actually see her eye. On the second day we were there, the pediatrician said he opened the eye and could see her actual eyeball, but couldn't open it enough to see if it refracted light. The third day, he said he couldn't open it enough to see her eye at all. He recommended we follow up with an eye doctor because they would have the tools to open her eye to examine it.

We finally made it home on Monday and had our appointment with our pediatrician on Tuesday. Her routine newborn check up was great, but he did tell us that there was definitely something wrong with her eye and he wanted us to be seen by an ophthalmologist.

We were able to get an appointment as a work-in today with a pediatric ocular plastic surgeon in Birmingham. We knew we needed to be seen by an actual pediatric ophthalmologist, but he had a two month waiting list! We wanted to be seen sooner than that, so we took the appointment with the plastic surgeon, hoping to at least get an answer or a referral to someone else.

We headed to Birmingham today and made it to our 2:00 appointment at about 1:30, expecting to be there for several hours since we were being worked in . Thankfully, we were only in the waiting room about 10 minutes before we were called back to see they doctor. He was wonderful! He looked at her eye and told us she had what is called microphthalmia, which is a developmental eye disorder that basically means a "small eye". For some reason her left eye did not develop properly. There is no known cause, it is not necessarily genetic and is not linked to anything that might have happened during pregnancy. He told us that her eye would never grow normally and that she would never be able to see from that eye. He then told us he would really like for us to see a pediatric ophthalmologist, Fred. (the same doctor that had a two month waiting period) and sent us over to his office. We were put in a room to be seen--all before our scheduled 2:00 appointment! The Lord totally went before us and opened the doors for us to be seen by exactly who we needed to see. In less than an hour we were seen by two specialists! The pediatric ophthalmologist did a more thorough exam using a tool to open her eyes and confirmed what Dr. Long had told us about the microphthalmia. We were concerned about her vision in her right eye, but he said she has a completely healthy right eye--Praise the Lord!

Where we go from here: in 3 months we will go to the Alabama Eye Foundation to be educated on and hopefully fitted for what is known as conformers that we will put in her left eye. The goal with these will be to help her eye socket and lid grow as her face grows so she doesn't have any asymmetry in her features. Eventually she will be given a prosthetic eye that she will use. Both doctors said that the prosthetics are great and you often may not even notice when people have them.

It's never easy when your child is "sick" in any way, but as Dr. Long told us today, this is a bump in the road, not a catastrophe. We went expecting similar news to what we received and we were glad to get clear answers and know that we are on the best path for Isla. Even when we were suspect of there being a problem, Brittany and I reminded ourselves (Zack writing now) that the masterful Creator formed Isla in the womb and knew exactly what He was doing. As far as we know, Isla will live a healthy, happy life, just like our other children. She is beautiful, and we can't wait to watch her grow with her brother and sister. The Psalmist says,

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,

the fruit of the womb a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

are the children of one's youth.

Blessed is the man

who fills his quiver with them!

He shall not be put to shame

when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

(Psalm 127:3-5 ESV)

Our quiver is filling up! We will covet your prayers as we continue this journey with Isla. There are obvious challenges that will come along the way, but as we've already seen today, the Lord is faithful and is going before us preparing the way.....not surprising though is it!?

Counting my blessings

Tomorrow is my due date.....and no sign of baby just yet. Last week with the way I was feeling I would have sworn that she would be here by now, but this past week I have felt great. I haven't had a single contraction. I have had a burst of energy and am actually sleeping really well! (which is a nasty joke for my body to play on me as I am about to have a newborn! :)) I have been pretty disappointed that she hasn't come yet and have had quite a few meltdowns that actually included the tearful phrase "I am going to be pregnant forever!" Oh what pregnancy hormones and unrelenting physical discomfort will make a person say and do! However the past few days I have decided that I absolutely could not go on anymore with this attitude! I have so so so much to be thankful for, because guess what? I'm not going to be pregnant forever people! and once she is here I can't put her back :) The Lord has refreshed my Spirit by

giving me some great rest and allowing me to soak up time with my precious family of four. I know I will never get this time back and I don't want to wish away these days!

I am so glad I haven't missed out on things like celebrating Dr Seuss's birthday with a little green eggs for breakfast....

....going on yard sale adventures and picking up a few treasures...

....having a sticky snack with this cutie...

...spending time with my sister....

...and other family members :)....

.....and soaking up the sunshine...

I have so much to be thankful for. I have spent much time in prayer over the next season of our lives as we add a new little one to our family, praying that the kids' transition goes smoothly, that I don't completely lose my mind as we learn a new schedule and routine and how to care for three children three and under! and that most of all we would savor these days. Even though I am somewhat anxious as to what the future holds as far as our day in and day out routine, I really believe Zack and I will one day look back on this time as some of the best days of our life. I want my children to know without a doubt that we loved every single moment the Lord gave us with them. So we will continue to wait on dear Baby Isla Rose and hope that she will join us soon. We are so excited to meet you baby girl! Until then, we will wait on the Lord's timing, trusting that it is perfect and so will our sweet baby girl be when she arrives!