Welcome Katrina!

We are so excited to announce the arrival of our daughter, Katrina Jane Dyck. She was born on Tuesday night, July 15th by emergency C-section.

We'd gone in for a routine "overdue" checkup and the Doc was immediately concerned when he did the ultrasound. I could tell right away something was wrong - he didn't answer my questions and the screen wasn't looking right to me. After the ultrasound he met with Josh and me in his office and told us what he'd seen: There was almost no amniotic fluid, reduced fetal movement, and he saw calcification of the placenta. He recommended immediate c-section. This was all communicated in the local language. I thought I understood what he said, but I wanted to hear it in English to make sure I knew what I was getting into. C-section and a spinal block here in this country was not on my list of things to do (whose list is it on??). We got in touch with an American doctor from the Baptist Hospital in our region. He and my local doc have known each other for years, and we thought it would be helpful to have him hear what our doc was saying and give us his recommendation. After conferring, our doctor friend agreed that an immediate c-section was the best plan.

From 8 pm when we agreed to do it, things went really fast. They prepped me and wheeled me into the ER, but though they had said Josh could be with me for the surgery, they didn't actually mean it and kept him out. He kept trying to come in, and I kept asking for him, but he was encouraged to wait and pray (really) and they told me he was behind the observation window (a lie). Katrina was born at 9:25 PM, healthy and hollering. I heard my doc say "Suction" and then a very healthy cry! She had the umbilical cord around her throat twice - so we're so glad we ended up doing the c-section. She weighed 4.19 kg and was 54 cm long (9 lbs 3.6oz and 21.3 inches). Her apgar score was 10! My spinal block and the incision all went well, seem to be healing well.

We stayed in the recovery section for 2 hours and then were released to our recovery room just after midnight. By the 17th (Thursday) they let me go home. They actually were planning for me to stay one more day but since I'd already been up, I didn't see any reason to stay longer. We definitely ran into some cultural differences in the way they do things, but generally we were firm about the things we definitely didn't want to do and quiet about the ones that didn't make that much of a difference. The nurses were really nice and helpful.

My short hospital stay went well but I'm glad to be home. Still in pain but Tylenol helps. Katrina is a happy baby, smiles often (REALLY, not joking, not just gas...) she giggled in her sleep a bit ago, got on a schedule right away, and has been sleeping long blocks of time at night already, so that is a total blessing. We're so thankful that my folks were here to help out - it's been great to have Mom here to help me remember how to do this stuff!!

Thanks for praying -please continue to pray for adjustment for the family and for healing for me!

PS - A fun fact about Katrina's birth is that she was born on her Great-Grandma Esther Dyck's birthday - we're pretty excited about that! :)