More (unexpected) Waiting

Kyle and I went to Seattle yesterday in anticipation of his birth this morning. We stocked the fridge for my mom & Kath to take care of Ella for the week, made all kinds of arrangements between Kyle's work, Ella's school, my maternity leave from Starbucks, having washer & dryer delivered, etc! Snoqualmie Pass was even closed due to avalanche, so we even had to take the long way to Seattle.

Right when we got there, Dr. Peterson did the amnio to make sure Noah's lungs are mature enough for him to be born. This was at 2pm; we were told we'd have results by 4pm. In the meantime we chatted with Dr. Peterson and continued to make plans for his delivery, and asked more questions about it. Dr. Peterson left our room at 3:30 and told us she'd come right back with the results. When she didn't return until 4:25, we knew that the news wasn't good... Noah's lungs are too immature for him to be born today!!! Dr. P anticipated that they may be borderline maturity, but the results came back and shocked her when they relevealed they were just way too immature. If the results were borderline, we were going to plan the EXIT procedure for a week from today, but because they had so far to go, we went ahead and changed plans for 2 weeks from today, which will bring me to 38 weeks (still 2 weeks before his official due date, but because Ella was born at 38 weeks she doesn't want to go longer than that). The new scheduled date is for January 20th. AHHHH!

I was so frustrated and let down that we weren't able to meet Noah today. After driving all the way over there and preparing so much emotionally, spiritually, mentally, for a birth TODAY, I was shocked and a little sad that we were driving home last night empty handed. Talk about a rollercoaster.

I know it's just not God's timing for Noah to be here, and I'm totally okay with that of course. I know that these next couple of weeks Noah is getting bigger, stronger, and healthier. But in the back of my mind I think, two more weeks for that stupid cyst to get bigger.

If I start to dilate, I will have to head over to UW immediately and stay in the hospital until his lungs are ready. It is just too risky to take the chance of him not being able to be born at the U. The same goes for if he is not ready at 38 weeks (which I doubt, but you never know with this child)!

Other things we found out at this visit:

• I will be completely knocked out during the birth. They want Noah to be sleepy when they deliver him so that they can more easily insert the tube, but also so he isn't overly eager to inflate his lungs (which would ruin the EXIT procedure, because if that happens to early he will not be relying on the placenta for oxygen). They also think this will be less stressful for me, in the event that they were going to have to knock me out anyway. I'm nervous about this, but I trust the docs that this is the best for Noah. This will be hard for Kyle, as he will not be able to be in the room. Please pray for him during this time!


• UW is the only hospital in Washington state (and among only a few in the country) that are capable of performing the EXIT procedure. They only perform 2-3 a year. There was apparently hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment shipped from Connecticut last week for the scheduled delivery today. Whoops! All in God's timing!


• Dr. Peterson informed us that on the e-mail she sent out informing all the docs of the delay of his birth that there were over 100 people on the e-mail list. Wow. Apparently Noah has celebrity status, all the docs and nurses continue to tell us that this is one of the most talked about births there.

In the meantime while we wait, I am taking advantage of the extra time to move in to our new house (we closed on the house and spent our first night here New Year's Eve), and most importantly, soak up this time with my sweet Ella. She has been such a trooper throughout all of this, and adjusted so nicely to her new house. She is (finally) wearing panties all day long and going potty in the toilet consistently (diaper at night)! And we finally kicked the dang dog out of our bed! Lots of exciting things going on at the Johnson house... lol!

My mom says this is more time for God to heal Noah. My instinct is to just pray pray pray as hard and as much as I can for the next couple weeks, and just drown myself in God's word... which isn't a bad thing, but one of my best friends Barb reminded me that sometimes God just wants us to shutup, and be still, and know that HE is GOD! He is still in control of this entire situation no matter what I do.

I am forever in debt to you all for your continued prayers over these next couple of weeks!

Resting in HIM!

Love, Andie

P.S. Pic of Kathleen and I (no makeup, gross) with her at 25 weeks and me at 36 weeks.