She's Here!!!

It's been a LONG time since we've updated our blog - sorry about that!  We've been in the US for the past 5 weeks or so, and it's been a great time with family and friends!  Of course, the reason we came back to the US was for the delivery of our first baby.  Here's a picture of Wendy on April 5th.

And just a few days later, the mysterious thing growing in her belly appeared.  Let us introduce you to Esther Ruth Hofman.  She was born on April 8th at 8:25 am.  She is 7 lbs 21 oz and 21 inches long.

Here's the new mommy with little Esther, and this is what happened.... We showed up for a regularly scheduled office prenatal visit yesterday, 10 days before the due date, and because of swelling in Wendy's ankles and elevated blood pressure, she was sent to the hospital for some labs.  There we discovered that she had an uncommon form of pre-eclampsia called HELLP syndrome (1/500 pregnancies) and needed to be hospitalized right away. 
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Wendy was started on an IV medication called magnesium to prevent the development of seizures, which can happen in this condition.  Induction is the treatment for HELLP syndrome, so Pitocin was started.  The pain of contractions would have caused Wendy's already-elevated blood pressure (180/105) to further rise, so the OBGYN recommended starting an epidural right away and that is what we did.  This can be a serious, life-threatening condition but our faithful God was with us every step of the way!  It was by His hand that we decided to have the baby in the US, which is wonderful because we may not have been able to appropriately diagnose and treat this syndrome in Gabon. 
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The vaginal birth went well, after 9 hours of labor.  There were a few small hiccups: the OBGYN had to use forceps to rotate the baby's head just before she emerged; there was meconium present; Wendy and the baby both had a temperature of 100 deg F (9 hours after her water breaking); and Esther had some mild difficulty breathing, requiring CPAP and a brief stay of about 2 hours in the NICU. 
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Right after the birth, however, it got  even rougher.  Wendy had an extreme amount of pain from a burgeoning blood clot (hematoma) and the doctors had to evacuate the blood with a secondary procedure.  Her hemoglobin fell to 8.0.  During this time, her blood pressure fell to 90/30 and she went unconscious, then as the doctors treated her blood pressure, she was in and out of awareness.  However, the procedure was successful, she is no longer in pain, and she is now on the road to recovery.  And she thinks her little girl is very pretty - I have to agree.


 
And here's the new daddy with Esther. She's looking for some food - like daddy like daughter.  :)

We see God's hand in all this not only in having delivered in the United States and having access to great medical care, but also in the fact that Wendy's HELLP syndrome began precipitously right at the end of a routine prenatal appointment.  If this timing hadn't been perfect, because she had minimal symptoms, she might have begun seizing at home without warning.  Praise the Lord for his work in our lives...and THANK YOU so much for your prayers for this time.

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We'll try to put updates here on the blog as we have them - please forgive us if we don't get to emails/calls very quickly.  We're new at this, and it may take us a while to get things figured out.  But we're very very happy!!