Tuesday, September 28 - Beth and Harper Update

***Friendly Disclaimer*** - If your not quite in the loop on the current situation at hand please skip down to the previous post to get the full scoop.

First and foremost, I'd like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to all the outpouring of support we've received the past few days. We are ceratinly blessed with a tremendous group of family and friends and truly value all the calls, visits, notes, gifts, etc... You guys are the best.

Now for an update on my two lovely girls. Since Sunday it has been firmly determined that Beth does in fact have preeclampsia and will be on bed rest at the hospital up until God decides to introduce this little girl into the world. At this point this could be tomorrow or could be several weeks from now. The strange thing about all of it is that she continues to be feeling great and is in awesome spirits but has a blood pressure that is just shy of Al Rocker's on a treadmill.

An expectant mom with preeclampsia is safe to continue to carry the baby up until the blood pressure gets out of control and unmanageable. When it gets to that point then it is safer for the baby to come out. She's somewhat close but not fully to that point yet so at this point we're day by day as to when Harper will come.

The good news though is that Baby Harper will be completely safe if Beth needs to be induced, minus a few typical complications for a baby born at 32 weeks, including a lengthy stay in the NICU. She is at 4lbs now (50 to 75% percentile) and has been given steroids through shots to her mom which will help prepare her little lungs to take those first few breaths when she's out. I had asked the nurse to hook me up with some of those steroids while she was at it so I'd be all swole when the baby came but couldn't convince her.

Beth is in excellent spirits and I continue to grow in amazement of the wonderful woman I've been blessed with in her. At this point, the docs are telling us it's extremely important to continue to avoid stress and anxiety for her and so far that's been no problem at all. So if you have a funny joke or kind word please give her a buzz. If you have a sad story please either throw your phone in the toilet or don't call.

Seriously though, we really do appreciate all the prayers that have been lifted up on our behalf and have certainly felt a calming peace throughout this very difficult process. We are trusting fully in the Lord that this child is His workmanship and will be born according to His almighty plan. I do have a few specific prayer requests for those willing to pray along side us:

• That at a minimum the baby will stay put in the womb until 8:00 CT Wednesday evening. This will allow those steroids to have 48 hours to prepare Harper's lungs for her first breath.
• That Beth will continue to stay relaxed and stress free for however long this journey lasts.
• That the Lord will prepare us both to handle any circumstance that comes our way.

That's it for now. I'm officially a Zombie and smell like a hospital so am signing off. If you're interested (if your still reading at this point I'm assuming you are) check back in a few days and I'll provide an update.