The Big Picture

Well, Troy here, giving everyone the big picture. So as you know we came into the hospital late wed night well I guess more like early early early Thursday morning. Melissa was bleeding a lot. They sent us up to labor and delivery and hooked her up to monitor the baby and Melissa’s contractions. The Baby’s heart rate was going crazy it would go up to 180 then drop to like 90 beats per min. Melissa started going into labor and having contractions, which was not a good thing because she was only 25 weeks pregnant (about 40 weeks is normal). The contractions were making her loose a lot of blood. So the doctors gave Melissa some meds. to stop contractions, but this made her start throwing up violently which was bad for the baby in that condition and made Melissa loose even more blood. The doctors were ready to get the baby out right away, so the started to prep her to have a C section by giving her steroid shots to develop the baby’s lungs and called the doctor to come in who was going to do the C-section. All of the sudden things started to mellow out and the baby’s heart was stabilizing. They had us wait a couple of hours until an ultrasound specialist came in and gave Melissa an ultrasound. The doctor was able to see that the baby was attached to the anterior wall of the uterus and when the accident took place the placenta had a partial tear and also the amniotic sack was punctured. Blood entered the amniotic sack and formed a clot in side and she lost a whole lot of amniotic fluid. (only 4cc left out of 10-20cc for normal baby). The specialist told us we are going to do a C-section on you today and your baby will probably only have a 50% chance of survival and if it does survive it may face a whole lot of permanent damage (ie: lung problems, blindness, cerebral palsies, and others) This was the moment of ultimate despair for us. They brought Melissa back into labor and delivery where they continued to prep her for the C-section and gave her more steroid shots. For the next few hours we wept and prayed and wept and prayed. The doctor came back in and was able to see that Melissa’s bleeding had gone down and the baby was a lot more stable so they thought well lets wait a couple of hours and see if it continues like this. And every couple of hours that’s how it went on till that night and everything was miraculously stabilizing. Later in the evening they took Melissa back over for another ultrasound and things had turned from worst case scenario to a waiting game. They said anything could happen. We could have this baby in 1 day 1week or even 10 weeks it depended on 3 factors. 1. If Melissa continued bleeding this much because her body wouldn’t clot. 2. is worry of an infection because the amniotic sack was broken or 3. If there was to little amniotic fluid in the sac which would eventually constrict the umbilical cord. So those are the things that we need to watch for day by day. So now we are playing the waiting game. Melissa is to stay in the hospital till the day she delivers which we hope it will be 10 weeks (so everyone pray for that). They said it will have to be a C-section even if we make it that far. If the baby can make it to first 28 weeks that rules out a lot of possible side affects and dangers then if it can make it to 34 weeks then the baby is perfectly developed and they will go ahead and take the baby no matter what instead of waiting the 40 weeks.
So now the second day Melissa bled half the amount she did that first day so that shows she is clotting which is good. And they have her on antibiotics to stop infection so that makes those 2 first real dangers a less of a danger. Third day she even slowed down even more so things are looking a bit more positive she still is loosing blood and her hematocrit is low. They still said she might need a blood transfusion but her body so far is making enough blood to catch up. They baby has been 100% stable the last couple of days. The doctors are really positive now and think Melissa can make it for a little longer. They set the next ultrasound apt. for 3 weeks from now and moved us in to a long term room.
We are so grateful for our blessings. We know that God is watching over us and everything is going to work according to his will. We are also so grateful for everyone’s prayers, with that many prayers were getting only miracles can happen. So please continue remembering us in your prayers.
Now the big battle to fight is boredom. Melissa is hopefully in here for the long hall and has very limited things to do. If anyone has any ideas on how to pass the time let her know.

I know a lot of you have asked what can you do to help, here are some things I thought of:

·Maybe come by to visit and bring a fun game to play or activity that Melissa can be involved in.
·Hospital food for that long might give Melissa permanent brain damage so some good home cooked meals would be appreciated.
·You girls out there that have skills with makeovers. I tried painting Melissa’s toes once and it got into a mess. So bring some nail polish and some time and make her feel like she hasn’t been in bed for ever.
·Aliyah will have baby sitters for the next couple of weeks but if we plan to stay here for a long time I will need to go back to work and school and could use some babysitters during the day and maybe some nights.
·After a couple of weeks when I cant be by Melissa all the time maybe some of you girls can come by. Bring something so do like school studies or projects just so if Melissa needs some little things you can help her out because she cant get out of bed.
·Prayers prayers prayers prayers.
Ill update this latter when there are other things I can think of.

Thanks again everyone

Update

There are no significant changes. Things remain stable. Your prayers are working. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Mom

Well we are calling it a night. Things seem to be stable with Mom and Baby Boy.  The latest information is that the next three days are critical for both of them. The hope is to make the 28 week point. Melissa is now 25 weeks and 4 days. Sorry to all who have been calling. There have been so many wonderful concerned friends and family. It has been difficult to answer all of the calls so we will try to keep everyone updated through the blog. Please leave a comment so that Melissa and Troy know that you are thinking of them. 

More in the morning. Good night and don't forget to say your prayers.

Mom

We need your prayers!!

 All,

I am updating Melissa and Troy's blog for them as I know that there are many who would want to know what is happening with Melissa and the baby since the accident last Saturday. 

Unfortunately, things have taken a turn for the worse and it looks like the baby may need to be delivered soon. We are hoping that soon means a couple of weeks or more but the reality is that it could be any day. 

Melissa woke up during the night and found that she was bleeding so they hurried to the hospital so that she could be checked. 

After several tests and an ultrasound it was determined that there is bleeding between the uterine wall and the placenta which has formed a blood clot. The clot is causing the placenta to separate. An additional problem is that there appears to be a rupture in the sack and she is losing critical fluid which makes the environment less than desirable for  the baby.  

At the present moment mom and baby are stable and we are all hoping for things to stay that way for a while to give the baby as much time as possible.  

Your prayers, your friends prayers, and your families prayers would be much appreciated at this time. There is a cute little boy in there that needs to be a part of a wonderful family. 

I will try to update often to keep you all posted. Thanks so much for all of your prayers. We love you all.

Laurie

Christmas [Head]Lights

You know you're addicted to blogging when you're laying on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance under the swift and tender care of paramedics and you're thinking to yourself, "How am I going to put this on the blog?" I think we'll just chalk it up to post-traumatic stress disorder :)

So, in case you haven't heard, what was meant to be a fun-filled night of going down town to see the lights turned into our own private episode of ER. In short, we were crossing an intersection doing about 50 mph (5 over the speed limit) and had almost made it all the way through when a car stopped in the left hand turn lane suddenly decided to try and cross three lanes of oncoming traffic for who knows what reason. He flew out and slammed into the front left corner of our car, sending our rear end momentarily airborn and sending his car spinning about 40 feet into a fence.

It all happened so fast, all I remember are the brief flash of oncoming headlights and then airbags, the horrific sounds of Aliyah screaming, my brother michael gasping and moaning, and Troy yelling to get my attention and see if I was ok. From then on things were a bit of a blur. Once I got my breath back I knew that I was going to be ok but the excruciating pain coming from my abdomen made me so afraid for the baby. My brothers and sister were in the car directly behind us, and what a blessing it was to have them there to take care of Aliyah (who was perfectly fine but scared) and Michael.

Again, long story short, we spent 5 hours with the ER doctors where it was determined that I was a little roughed up but the baby was fine, and they admitted me for the night to monitor the baby and make sure there was no damage to the placenta. We are all pretty sore but so grateful that things were not as bad as they could have been. I don't like to think about "could have been." Christmas takes on a whole new light when seen through the lens of those possibilities. I am so thankful to my family for being there in the instant that we needed them, waiting and praying in the hospital and in their homes and for the care they continue to give us. We truly are blessed this holiday season! We love you all and Merry Christmas!

The Contender

In a title fight worthy of HBO, Aliyah bravely took on the infamous Dining Room Chair in head-on battle. The chair had the upper hand however, and in true Balboa style Aliyah went the rounds but didn't claim the title. Critics of the match attribute the win to weight class differences between the contenders ( the chair being a heavyweight at 40 lbs, and Miss Aliyah representing lighter-than-featherweight at 19 lbs). When interviewed, Miss Aliyah expressed regret for rushing "head-on" into such an uneven match, but was excited to see how her shiner is going to look in all the Christmas pictures her mom is planning on taking. A rematch for the fight is reportedly scheduled for tomorrow at high-noon.