Details!

Kristen and I were discharged from the hospital this afternoon and are so glad to be at our "home away from home" in Lenexa! She's doing great and looks perfect to us! We will meet with a doctor at Children's Mercy on Tuesday. They're planning to do an ultrasound (and possibly at CT scan) at noon Tuesday to check things out. The chest x-ray they did right after birth showed nothing. They did another one on Friday morning and thought they saw a shadow, but are going to leave any further testing to Children's. We are believing that the mass is gone...that God has intervened in this sweet baby's life!

Will posted the big details in the last entry. I'll go into more now...so if you want to know more, keep reading!

My water broke Thursday morning at 4:30. We grabbed our stuff (still packed from the earlier false alarm) and headed out in the rain to the hospital. We got into one of the birthing rooms at 5:30, and just as the anesthesiologist was getting ready to scrub for the epidural, the nurse checked and said I was moving too fast...no epidural! They then prepared to move me into the delivery room (more equipment there than in the birthing room). About 3 pushes and Kristen arrived at 6:25. Thankfully, it was quick!

Kristen did great. Everything they checked was wonderful. The neonatologist called her "Super Girl" and said she looked perfect. The doctors and nurses at St. Luke's were amazing. So many of them rejoiced with us at the birth of our miracle and offered their prayers that things continue to go well. Our story seemed to go quickly through the hospital. We heard of connections to Great Bend more than once!

She spent her first 30 hours in the NICU, just as a precaution. They let her stay in the room with me after that. Thanks to coordination between Grama Eckels and our dear friend, Tammy, Emily and Grace were able to come up to meet their little sister Thursday evening. They were so excited! Since Kristen was still in the NICU, the girls had to scrub in before they could see her. I think they would have taken an entire bath in iodine if need be to get to see that baby! Thankfully, they only had to scrub up to their elbows for 3 minutes.

We'll stay in KC through Tuesday, then head back to Great Bend after the appointment at Children's Mercy. Thanks to all of you for your continued prayers and support. As I said earlier, we are believing we have received a miracle and pray that it is confirmed on Tuesday!

Much love,
Kim & family (which is now just a bit bigger!)