While waiting for our daughter to arrive, Amanda was placed on 11 weeks of bed rest. Seven of these were spent in the hospital at Sanford.
When Amanda was just over 22 weeks pregnant with Hannah, she began to not feel well. I stayed home from work to watch our then 18-month old son Everett. What started as typical pregnancy-related symptoms ended with us taking Amanda to triage at the birthing center later that night. This would be the beginning of a very long several months in and out of the hospital (mostly in).
We were greatly blessed to have a supportive family, good friends, and a great church during this difficult and stressful time. On top of the medical issues at hand, we had both sets of grandparents rotating taking care of Everett, Amanda and I had to be apart many days and nights, and Amanda was completely confined to her hospital room for weeks on end. Through it all we were constantly reminded and shown how much God cares for and provides for us. He is much bigger than our circumstances.
On May 8, after more contractions and other symptoms began, the decision was made to do an immediate c-section. We were excited and nervous, and wonderfully blessed with the birth of a relatively healthy baby girl! However, she was still 6 1/2 weeks early and needed to spend time in the NICU before we would be able to take her home and have our family all in one place. She made terrific progress thanks to God’s grace and the wonderful nursing staff at Sanford. On May 25 we were able to take Hannah home and she continues to be a healthy and beautiful baby girl.
This four month stretch was an often difficult time for everyone involved. Looking back it is amazing to see how God used that time to teach us innumerable lessons and draw us closer to Him and each other. In addition to being incredibly grateful for the safety and health of Amanda and Hannah, we were overwhelmed with the support and love of our family. We could never have made it through without their tireless and selfless efforts to help us keep everything together. In the end what we learned can be easily summed up in one sentence: God is good, all the time. Read more about how God used this time in our lives at http://krabyfamily.blogspot.com.