Kennedy Faith arriveds July 5 at 11:17 p.m.

Friends,


Once again our daughter Kennedy Faith has beaten the odds and baffled the medical community. She is headed back to Rush Copley in Aurora today after receiving the ok from the vascular surgeon.

So…how did we get here once again…

On Sunday as everyone was enjoying their 4th of July holiday, Brian and I were busy packing and putting finishing touches on the nursery. Just days before, our OB scheduled us for an evening induction on the 4th advising us that the gestational diabetes, early rupture of membranes and my advanced maternal age raised the chance of complications during labor or stillbirth after 40 weeks.

Packed and ready to go, we called Labor and Delivery at 7 p.m. as directed only to find that there was no room in the inn, so our induction was being postponed by an hour or so. By 9:30 p.m. 2 more women had come in with spontaneous labor bumping us to 11. At 11, we spoke to an exhausted nurse, who told us to go bed and someone would call with a new induction time, which turned out to be 7:30 a.m. on the 5th.

How ironic that at 17 weeks, my water broke and they were literally afraid she might fall out at any moment. And now here at 39.5 weeks, my body had made zero progress on letting her out.

Beginning at 10 a.m. I was given a medication every four hours to “ripen” the cervix and thankfully around 8:30 p.m. my water broke naturally sending me into a rapid and strong labor pattern.

At that point, my perfect storm of a pregnancy resulted in me having an experienced labor nurse in my room at all times.

Through the pregnancy, Kennedy has been a mover – constantly wiggling out of the way of the monitors at my bi-weekly non stress tests and her birthday was no different. She spend most of the day frustrating the nursing staff by moving out of the monitors reach every 20 minutes or so.

It was nearly 11 p.m. when she again “fell off” the monitor, but this time there was no finding her. After a quickly placed internal monitor detected a very faint heart beat, the entire Labor and Delivery team descended on my room and I was rushed to the operating room.

Brian told me later that he couldn’t believe how calm I was considering it was clear there was something terribly wrong. As I lay on the operating table and the nurses and doctors rushed to prep me, I felt completely at peace – knowing that no matter what happened God was in control.

Several hours later, I awoke to learn that our baby girl would be transferred to Lutheran General for advanced care. I later found out that she was initially unresponsive when born, her blood gases and oxygen levels were poor and her left leg was completely white with zero circulation. The doctors also discovered a massive blot clot in her umbilical cord and feared a similar clot could be in her leg.

They next day, my OB stopped by with the “good news.” While they have zero idea what caused the blood clot, it appears it had been building for while. Had we not been in the hospital for the induction, we likely would not have detected Kennedy slowly slipping away as the clot cut off her lifeline. Had we not had the perfect storm of a pregnancy, we would not have been under the monitoring that resulted in them “catching” the clot.

Late yesterday, the vascular surgeon cleared Kennedy. Although her original symptoms were consistent with a blood clot, they could find no evidence of one remaining in her body and she is now pink and responsive all over.

As I write this, I am anxiously waiting to hold our miracle baby girl for the first time. She should arrive back at our local hospital later today.

Going into the hospital two days ago, we still didn’t have a final name picked out and I told Brian that when she was born I would be turning to him to choose a name. When I woke up from surgery, he told me that Kennedy Faith had arrived – her name means Strength/Strong Faith. She has been God’s greatest gift to us and through her He has strengthened our faith – revealing his goodness, mercy, comfort and blessing in more ways that we could ever comprehend.

Thanks for your prayers and support along the way. Brian and I will be spending a few days alone with our baby girl in the hospital, and look forward to visiting with many of you over the next few weeks when we get home.

Carie Anne