Making An Entrance

Abigail Grace Cook was born at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, June 6.

Katrina is doing wonderfully; she'll likely get to come home Friday. Abby, on the other hand, faces a long road. She would have hit the 24-week mark on Thursday, so she is just on the line where a baby has a reasonable chance of survival with intensive care.

Given that fact, Abby's doing quite well. She weighed in at 1 pound, 8.5 ounces, which is actually quite large for her age. She is 12.5 inches long. She will be at the neonatal intensive care unit for the foreseeable future, likely several months at minimum.

Katrina and I got to go see her and touch her in the NICU several times today. We also were able to let several visitors take a turn seeing her up close, but only the parents are allowed to touch her at this point.

Speaking of visitors, we really appreciated all the support we received from so many people today. We had a steady stream of friends and family visiting throughout the day and an even more steady stream of phone calls of support from all over the country. We received word that Abby had been lifted up in prayer by at least a half-dozen congregations and many more individuals from New Hampshire to China. God is good!

For those of you in the neighborhood, calls and visits are welcome. If you're wanting to visit, you probably should call ahead (614-293-1131 is Katrina's direct line) to make sure our little room doesn't run out of room. Also, the NICU is closed for several stretches throughout the day, so you'll probably want to make sure you're coming at a time you can go see Abby. (By the way, Abigail and Abby are both fine. Your choice.)

Here's a Cliff's Notes version of the last 27 hours, for those of you who'd like to know what in the world happened:

Tuesday
9:45 p.m.: Katrina calls me at work to report a worrisome symptom. I convince her to call 911 and start getting ready to leave work early.
10 p.m.: As I prepare to leave the office (~1 hour away from home), Katrina says the medics are on the way.
10:30 p.m.: Katrina says the medics have examined her and determined the situation isn't urgent. They say they can take her to the hospital, or she can wait for my arrival. She decides to wait.
11 p.m.: I arrive home, grab a few things, and take Katrina to the hospital.
11:15 p.m.: We arrive at the emergency room and are immediately transferred to the labor and delivery wing, which handles all pregnant women who come to the emergency room in this kind of situation.

Wednesday:
Midnightish: By this point, we have talked with several medical students, residents, nurses and doctors. They are asking us about the situation and running some tests in an intake room.
12:45 a.m.: We get the news: The cervix is essentially gone, and there is some serious dilatation. In other words, the chances were very slim they were going to be able to stop Abigail from being delivered in the near future.
1 a.m.: Katrina is moved down to a labor and delivery room. We're told that they're going to give steroids to try to develop Abby's lungs and some other chemical to try to calm the contractions. Their hope was to delay delivery for at least 48 hours to allow time for a full series of steroids to help her lungs.
1:30 a.m.: We try to call our parents with the news so they can make plans to move towards Columbus ASAP.
3 a.m.: Things seem to be stable, with contractions every eight minutes and holding. They even got weaker for a while.
4 a.m.: With things still stable, I run home to pack a suitcase and do a few other things while Katrina gets some sleep.
5:30 a.m.: I arrive back at the hospital and get a total of about an hour of sleep before phone calls and hospital activity start a new day.
8 a.m.: All of a sudden, Katrina vomits. In the ensuing examination, it is discovered that delivery is imminent. The delivery room fills with about a dozen people. Because we hadn't had a chance to take childbirth education classes, I was fairly useless. The staff really stepped up and took care of things, though.
8:30 a.m.: After a short active labor, Abigail is born. She is immediately placed in a special bed in the room to be cared for by a group of specialists. I get to see her some, Katrina barely gets to see her at all.
8:45 a.m.: I follow the staff as they wheel Abby to the NICU. They say it will take several hours to stabilize her.
9 a.m.: I make an urgent round of phone calls to spread the good news.
10 a.m.: We get our first visitor, Jeff Darby, the college minister at our congregation. He comforts us and keeps us company as we wait for news and as Katrina drifts in and out of the conversation because of fatigue.
Noonish: We finally get word that Abby is stable and we can go see her in the NICU. She's so small! We stay about 20 minutes, but Katrina needs to go back to bed. It was so hard to not be able to hold her!
Rest of the day: A whirlwind of visitors, phone calls and hospital stuff. By the end of the day, we had gone to see Abby several times, and she seemed to be a little more comfortable each time. She grasped her little hands around a finger several times, especially when Katrina touched her hand.

I will post updates as warranted and as I have an opportunity. Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. They truly carried us through an extremely difficult 24 hours.