About This Project

Jon and Ari were married just a little over 2 years ago and are overjoyed to be expecting their first baby. While on a Memorial Day weekend visit to her parents, Ari went into labor at 25 weeks' gestation and was hopitalized; she was later transported by ambulance to a hospital in Madison with a regional NICU center. As of this writing, she is still in labor having contractions in spite of medication to try to stop the labor contractions. The medication will be discontinued tomorrow morning. If labor does not progress, she will be hospitalized until the birth of the baby...the longer the better! If she does have intensified labor, she will need an emergency C-section due to breech presentation. The baby will need to remain in the NICU for 3 to 4 months. Jon and Ari live hours away from the hospital location, and this will be very difficult for them. Medical costs for both Ari and the baby could easily hit $500,000. The cost of traveling back and forth with current gas prices will be a struggle for their budget. Jon needs to be able to take some time off work during this crisis period to be with his wife and baby. Unfortunately, this would be unpaid time off under FMLA.

 

Let's band together as friends, family, and others who care to help them through this difficult time. If you are able to help in any amount, we have set up a secure donation site for this purpose. Thank you for your generosity, especially your prayers, and your love for this couple just beginning their family together in such a traumatic way.               

 

Ariadne's blog:  http://annaluciafaith.weebly.com                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

UPDATE #1: Annalucia was born by C-section on May 30, 2012, weighing just 2 lbs. 6 oz. She and her parents need your help to get through the next 3 to 4 months of her life in the NICU unit at the hospital.      

                               

 UPDATE #2:  Hi everyone, we are in the Ronald McDonald House now and we feel as lost and as stressed as ever. It is hard now that we aren't even in the same building as Annalucia. Yes, we're not far, but it is hard to get used to not having her and elevator ride away. We got to hold her today for the very first time and made our hearts melt. When the nurse handed Annalucia to me, it was so scary and exciting! I felt so amazed to know that I was holding my daughter, no other feeling can top the way I felt when I first held her. The next 3-4 months are going to be that much harder now that we have held her. All we want to do is be able to take her home and be a family. Thank you for all your prayers and support in this difficult time. Love Jon, Ari and Annalucia ♥                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

UPDATE #3: (6/6/12)

Annalucia is 1 week old. The doctors have given us some new information about some complications that are going on with Annalucia. She has 2 holes in her heart. One of them is a smaller one between the upper chambers of the heart, the atria. It is pretty normal to have this one, and they think it will close on its own. The one that is concerning them is the one between the 2 lower chambers of the heart, the ventricles. It is a larger hole than normal. There is way more blood being pushed from one ventricle to the other without actually going by the lungs to get oxygen in the blood than should be. This has caused her to develop congestive heart failure which is causing fluid to build up around the lungs and make her hands and feet swell. She has fluid overload. She is also anemic. They had to give her a blood transfusion which only increased the fluid so now they have to give her diuretics to help her reduce the fluid in her body. The problem with that is when she loses the fluid, she also loses her potassium and sodium so they will have to watch her electrolytes very closely. Right now they are playing a balancing act to try avoid heart surgery and to try to get her older and bigger. The problem is some of these things can cause her to not grow.

She also weighed less at birth than what the scale said because of the magnesium that Ariadne was given. It causes both the baby and mother to have too much water weight. Annalucia weighed 1 pound 14 ounces on Tuesday and was about 1/3 of an ounce over that on Wednesday.

Please, please pray for her. She really needs all of you right now.

UPDATE  #4:  (Friday, June 8, 2012): Annalucia is growing again! She's up to 2 pounds, 2 ounces today! :)                      

UPDATE  #5:   Update 7/2: Annalucia's main issue right now is the fact that she's not gaining as much weight as they want her to. She keeps gaining some, then losing some, and it keeps going like that. At this point in her stay she should have gained a good amount more than she has. She has been having a lot of spells still, with her oxygen dipping down often. Her heart rate is still too high as well. It should be around the 150s and 160s, instead it's regularly at least in the high 170s, but generally higher, and in the 200s when she gets upset. Some of these spells should be fixed by her gaining weight and getting stronger. Some are caused by her VSD, and the extra fluid that is getting passed around or through the lungs. They're talking about maybe putting her back on diuretics, which has its own issues, but will help in some ways, hopefully at least till she's gained some extra weight. They really would like to wait to do surgery on her heart till she gets stronger, since it would have to be an open heart surgery...her heart is just so tiny right now. So pray the hole starts causing her less problems and pray she grows fast.  Update 7/3:  Annalucia is finally 3 pounds!

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joyjeffers

Appleton, United States

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