Hannah Is Home

After 21 days in the hospital, Hannah was finally discharged today!!! We're so happy to have her home.


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Yesterday when I sent my email update, the nurses were going to put yet another IV in for Hannah's antibiotics. They had trouble finding a viable vein and no one wanted to put her through being poked a million times, so they called her Doctor and asked how aggressive he wanted them to be. He decided that since she'd completed 2 weeks of treatment, we'd observe her for 24 hours and determine if she could be discharged. We had the nurses run new labs today and the labs show that she's continued to improve. It sounds like her white count was still up a bit, which indicates that there may still be an extisting infection, but she has improved enough that the Dr was confident in her recovery and her pediatrician can continue to monitor her progress.
I have to tell you, I went to my OB appointment yesterday to have my incision site checked. My doctor had run tests on the placenta and cord blood to try to determine what caused the abdominal pain and fever I came in with. She found no trace of infection. The placenta was beginning to develop an abruption (where the placenta pulls away from the uterus) but that wouldn't have explained my elevated white blood count or the fever I had. She said basically I had some freak symptoms that brought me to the hospital, but my symptoms were just enough that they decided to induce. If they had sent me home, I was supposed to be induced 5 days later. My doctor said that by then, Hannah could have been much more ill and the abruption could have advanced to the point that Hannah could have even been still born. What an amazing turn of events! I know how close we were to having a disasterous outcome, and I know that many people go through the heartache of losing their babies so early in life, so I am so VERY grateful that God orchestrated the events that led up to Hannah's birth and I trust Him to care for her the rest of the way.
Thank you all so much for your prayers, encouraging emails, meals, flowers and many many offers to help...we feel very loved and cared for. We're continuing to pray that the meningitis is completely gone and that Hannah will have no damage from the infection.
We'll be introducing Hannah to you soon!!!!