Major Setback

We have had a major set back. On Feb 28 Tuesday morning, I noticed something abnormal after using the bathroom. I immediately decided to stay home in bed, lying down horizontally to be safe while trying to reach our doctor, Dr. Sakamoto, to try to see him. I didn't think the problem would be very serious as I just had a checkup a week ago and everything was fine. We were able to reach Dr. Sakamoto after lunch and he said we could go into his office. At first, Dr. Sakamoto didn't think there would be a big problem either when I told him the details but his expression immediately changed when he checked my cervix via ultrasound. My cervix was open and it appears that part of our baby girl's sac was already outside of my cervix. It turned out that I have what is called an incompetent cervix, where one's cervix silently dilate without symptoms. Just one week ago, my cervix was completely closed and measured 4.3 cm - a very good length as doctor's get worried when the length is 2 cm. I learned that most women with this problem do not get diagnosed until their first miscarriage.

Dr. S immediately ordered an ambulance and admitted me to Aiiku Hospital. I will forever remember that fateful day with the view of Tokyo Tower while I was lying horizontally from a stretcher looking up at it. Jong and I were really scared.

Upon being admitted to the hospital, the on-call OB at Aiiku Hospital did a more detailed check. She saw 3 cm of our little girl's placenta protruding from my cervix. After checking the u/s to make sure our babies are not in distress, she moved me to a Prenatal Intensive Care Unit (PICU) room, and put me on strict bedrest (lying down flat at all times), and inserted an IV of antibiotics to prevent infection to the babies because of my open cervix as well as magnesium sulfate to prevent contractions and to relax the walls of my womb, with the hope that after some time with this course of medicine, the walls of my womb would relax enough for our baby girl's placenta will somehow slip back into my womb so that Dr. S can stitch my cervix up with a procedure called cerclage.

Later that day, Dr. S was able to stop by the hospital to see me. He said 3 cm was really bad but we can keep hoping. He also said that if our little girl's sac ruptures, it was over for both our twins because its very unlikely that our daughter could be delivered without rupturing our son's sac and they were way too small to survive outsid eof my womb.

Unfortunately, later that evening, at around 4 am Wednesday, the our little girl's water broke. We were terrified. Dr. S came into the hospital can confirmed with u/s that our little girl had no water left in her sac although our little boy's sac was still intact. He said he could feel our little girl's foot in my cervix. He gently told us that we should expect labor contractions to start shortly and that it would definitely mean death for our little girl and that its very unlikely that he would be able to save our son although he would try his best.

Jong and I were completely devastated. We decided to name our babies Rachel Grace (she would be the first born) and Isaac Samuel and we prayed and tried to ready ourselves to give our beautiful children back to our Lord. I was sent back to PICU room, they took me off of magnesium sulfate and put me on modified bedrest (lying flat except for bathroom and shower trips). They kept me on antibiotics to ward off infection but it seemed like everyone at the hospital had given up hope for our babies.

Jong and I started to call and email friends and family and asked them (and asked them to ask others) to start praying for a miracle. By Thursday morning, we had many people praying for our babies and us all over the world.

On Thursday morning, Dr. S came back. Perhaps a bit surprised that I seemed so stable. He told us that he decided that he was going to try his very best to save little Isaac. He said although the chances are very low and it basically takes a miracle, but if he was able to deliver little Rachel without affecting Isaac's membrane, it is possible that we could try to keep Isaac safe inside me for a while. We later learned that most doctors in Japan as well as in the U.S. would strongly encourage terminating the pregnancy within 24 hours of a premature rupture of membrane (PROM) in a pregnancy so as to avoid the risk of pregnancy that may put the mother's health at risk. We are very grateful that Dr. S is not one of those doctors.

At this point, Jong and I decided that we need to start hoping instead of despairing as our Lord is a God of miracles, love and compassion. We started asking our friends and family to raise an army of prayer warriers all over the world to pray for a miracle, not just for Isaac but also for Rachel.

Since then, we learned that not only our close friends and family as well as our whole church (our church, Tokyo Baptist Church has a regular Sunday aggregate attendance of over 1000 people and Pastor Dennis prayed for Isaac and Rachel in everyone of our 4 services on Sunday), but that people have started prayer chains all over the world. In addition, I have asked my sisters in Christ on a Christian infertility board, Hannah's Prayer, which I have been active on, to start praying as well, and I knew I had Hannah's Prayer sisters praying for our babies and us all over the world as well.

Jong and I, and we know our Rachel and Isaac felt the power of everyone's prayers. We are now taking each day we can pass without incident, infection, contractions or other complications as a miracle. Praying and hoping that each miracle day will build to a miracle week, and each miracle week will last until at least 28 weeks for our babies (about 9 more weeks from now). In fact, we are prayign and hoping for more -- the babies' 30 weeks mark is Jong's birthday so we are hoping that they will last until at least then so that Jong can have the 2 biggest birthday presents in his life. Each time we get to hear our babies' strong heartbeats (their heartbeats get checked 3 times a day), our hearts fill with renewed hope.

Jong and I have been so humbled by the outpouring of prayers, love and support from more people that we can ever imagine. We and Rachel and Isaac have truly been blessed by all of you. We are praying that Rachel and Isaac will continue to hang in there and be born healthy into the world as miracle babies who will bring honor and glory to our Lord Jesus.

I will copy and post a couple of our emails to friends during this period. We will keep updating this blog with updates. We would like to humbly ask for your continued prayers for Rachel, Isaac, Jong and I as we wait patiently for each miracle day to go by, trusting in our Lord.

May our Lord bless each of you,

Sonia