Welcome Miss Harper Grace!

We're proud to announce the arrival of our daughter, Harper Grace Hall, who arrived at 5:46 on Thursday, September 30th after 35 hours of labor end to end. She came in quite a bit early (at 32 weeks) but is doing great. Her weight at birth was 3lbs 13ozs and 17 inches. In typical fashion in my wife's side of the family, she entered this world full of drama and emotion. I've been so caught up with spending time with her and taking care of Beth that I haven't had a chance to send out an update till now so my apologies. So with that being said, let me try to boil down all the events of the past several days into this somewhat brief post.

It all started the morning after my last posting. We grew overly confident that the doctors had gained control of the sporadic blood pressure Beth was facing due to the preeclampsia. So much so that I had planned to work from home that day and join Beth around lunch time at the hospital. Well, I received a call from Beth around 9:00 that her blood pressure was at an all time high and the doctor was coming in to check her out so I hopped in the car and made it to her room just in time to hear the Doc inform her that they were going to induce.

As a male who hasn't been through all this before, when you hear induce it seems to imply that it's somewhat of a rapid process. However, I learned over the course of the next 30 hours that is simply not the case. Why do they even call it inducing anyway, a better term would be "forcing the unnatural", "gently prodding", or maybe "long, slow, painful, indefinite process". Anyway, the next 30 hours was a slow, gradual process of minimal progress and some pretty major pain for my wife. We were hoping the epidural would come sooner rather then later but they ended up giving her that at the half way mark after around 15 hours and that was a big help. It is impossible to imagine these incredible woman that can last this length of labor without that. I'm certainly not man enough for that sort of pain.

From there it was just the waiting game, until..... the nurses came in for a regular check up on Beth, we noticed them start to whisper, then one of them leans over to us and says "don't be alarmed, we just triggered an alarm and about 20 people are about to rush in your room". Low and behold the flood gates open and an army of scrubs comes rushing in along with her doctor who was dripping with sweat after sprinting from 4 buildings down after receiving the alarm on her pager.

They informed us that the alarm went off because Harper's heart rate had dropped (we came to find out that was due to the placenta which was detaching from Beth's womb due to all the trauma of the past 30 hours) and they ordered an emergency c section. While I was terrified I was also quite relieved that all this wouldn't last another 30 hours.

They rushed Beth out, threw the whole sterile get up on me and I made into the surgery room minutes before Harper left her momma's belly which she was so content to stay in. Harper was quite shocked to be out at first, making no noise and not moving which had Dad in a panic and was rushed out by a team of NICU docs. They checked her out for what seemed like an eternity and then invited me in to see her. I walked in a basketcase not knowing what to expect but at the sound of my voice her eyes opened wide and looked right at me and right then and there she captured my heart for life.

Little Harper is doing great and being cared for by what I'm convinced is the best NICU practice in the nation. She's breathing on her own, eating her mom's milk, sucking a pacifer, and all the doctors are calling her quite the feisty little diva which I'm convinced she gets from her dad. Beth on the other hand had a rough go at first. Due to the high blood pressure from the preclampsia they constantly were checking her every fifteen minutes for 24 hours after delivery which extended the sleepless nights caused from the 30 hours of delivery. On top of that they had her on this anti-seizure medicine called magnesium which, in lack of a better term, makes you feel like a bag of poop. Once they took Beth off the mag she was feeling much better and was able to spend some much needed time connecting with her daughter which was probably one of the most meaningful things I've witnessed in my life.

In life we so try to control every little detail through these "plans" we create for ourselves. Certainly if you know Beth and I well we take this to an extreme. But sometimes God has plans of his own and while sometimes we can't understand them they are infinitely more wise then anything we could possibly dream up. We have a house in slight disarray, which would have been in major disray if not for the tiddying up of loving family members. But so many things we had planned simply aren't they way we pictured. We don't have a crib, no rocking chair is at home, no decorations are on Harper's wall, no car seat is in the car. Beyond these material things, our plans of holding Harper in our arms until the wee hours, passing her around to doting family and friends, rocking her to sleep, and bringer her home to her new room will not happen for several weeks, possibly 2 months at the worst case. Beth is being released today so this will certainly be a day filled with tears for mom and dad but we leave knowing our little gift will be receiving the absolute best care possible and mom will be able to get some good rest before welcoming Harper to our home.

I am so thankful for a loving God that meets us exactly where we are and could not imagine going through all this without having a strong reliance on Him and his almighty plans. I am fully convinced that God put in his Word statements like "I knew you in the womb", "you are fearfully and wonderfully made", and "you are God's workmanship" so that Beth and I (and so many others) would find comfort during insanely challenging times like this. I certainly could not imagine going through all this without this faith.

Thanks to all for the constant calls, texts, notes, prayers, gifts, support, etc... Some were received at exactly the right time when I kind thought was needed. The fact that Harper is doing so well makes us hopeful that she'll be home sooner rather then later. We are so thankful and madly in love with her and know full well that she's going to grow big and strong in preparation for joining our family and our home.