Raelyn Elizabeth Sellers

We welcomed Raelyn into the world on Monday, March 9, 2009. She was born at 6lbs 11oz and 20 inches long.


Contractions started Sunday night at 545p at church (37th week of pregnancy) and continued through the night and all the next morning and into that afternoon. At 1245p Monday (after 20 hours of labor) we got word that we were going in for a ceasarean section in 20 mins... and within the hour, John was watching her being pulled from me and was cutting her umbilical cord. (Yes, we have pictures so if you want to see the graphic ones... email us, obviously not public domain or for the fainthearted!)

It has been a week and one of which I am not quite sure I am ready to debrief as we are still processing through a lot of it. I will bare witness to the amazing and sovereign hand of God in the way that He has sustained us and especially sweet Raelyn. I think I can describe it all in one scenario: the last thing I remember seeing of her after they welcomed her into the world (I was still laying on the operating table), was a nurse with a very scared look on her face whisking out a tiny little purple baby and asking the dr what she should do. Fast forward 24 hours: Tuesday afternoon... that same nurse came into the "nursery" and said to me how thankful she was that Raelyn was doing so well because she was so scared when she left the OR with her. I didnt quite recognize the look on her face that day in the OR but right then as she was talking to me with tears in her eyes... I realized the mighty hand of God in all of this.

Raelyn was on IV for several days after they got her lungs cleared of fluid and oxygen into her little purple body. She was unable to be with us so we could only come be with her a couple times a day. Having to scrub in and wear protective gowns every time. I tell you, if anything is going to motivate you to walk after a csection... it is knowing that the only chance you have to see your child for days on end was a 30 min blurb in the day to attempt to just see her. I firmly believe that God has healed me 100 times faster this time because He knew I would need to be able to endure these days.

Raelyn was born barely knowing how to suck so she had difficulty eating for a couple days.... and I do have to say that I have never been more thankful for a pacifier because it is the only thing that taught her how to suck and in turn how to eat this week. The night they decided they could take her off the IV because she was eating so well, she was allowed to stay our room for the first time in 72 hours. So we kept her for a while but something in us prompted us to send her to the nursery in the middle of the night out of concern for the past few rough days she had had.... and literally Praise God that we did... because that night her little lung collapsed in on one side. The nurses did not bring her back for several hours and I started to get worried because it was WAY past a normal eating rotation. At 6am that morning, the nurse came in to tell me that she was having a lot of trouble breathing and the dr ordered more blood tests and xrays. My heart broke!! That morning we realized it had collapsed in and then she remained hooked to a wall for oxygen treatments. Again, we could only visit her during feedings and had to stay up against the wall so she could eat with her tubes on. We also had to keep her within a certain heartrate or the alarm sounded.

After 24 hours of oxygen treatments, we saw drastic improvement. 48 hours the lung appeared to be back to normal. She had 12-18 hours without the tubes but still in "scrub and robe" room... xray yesterday morning showed some discrepancy so we were not able to leave the hospital. We have been boarding here since Thursday as I was discharged. As of yesterday afternoon, we had been so long without any lengthy alone time, our very precious doctor moved us back to the OB floor and let us stay with Raelyn in a new room while the nurses came in to monitor her. Our time together has been very sweet. We were able to finally introduce her personally to family and especially Bright. He was so excited to hold his "baby sister!!" We will get photos of that up very soon. We learned that she gets overstimulated quickly and has a hard time maintaining her body temperature outside of the quiet walls of the "scrub and robe" room. So we have been keeping the room warm like FL and her bundled up at all times... and not being disturbed much except to eat and get changed!! She slept most of the day yesterday and wasn't very interested in eating.... today, hungry every two hours on the dot. Our first growth spurt!!

She had her xray at 5am this morning... so now we sit, wait and pray our hearts out!!

Heres some of our life in pictures this week:

(Just out!)


(Sucked out fluid and then the oxygen mask)


(The night nurse snuck her down to us after midnight so I could see her for the first time since the OR-12 hours later... she was hooked to the IV but I couldnt get up yet.)


(We could see her for 30 mins that night... so we took some pics. You can see the bubbles of amniotic fluid still coming out of her mouth if you look close.)


(A picture of us spending time in the "scrub and robe" room while on IV)


(On oxygen treatment... she had to stay within 3 feet of the wall.)


(Spending time off the IV and O2 treatments)


(Daddy's first real cuddle session... day 5 after Raelyn arrived... it was a precious precious moment!)


**Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement this week!! You have no idea how dear they are to us and our tiny family!! Just another beautiful glimpse of the body of Christ and true love of relationships. We are so thankful to our families as they have really stepped up and done a wonderful job of caring for and loving on Bright. God has been so faithful to remind us of His enduring promises, unfailing love and abundant graces..... even seen in the way Bright picked me flowers each day in front of the hospital and brought me "presents" of Cars cars :) How grateful our hearts our to Dr Mitchell and the wonderful staff here in Hardin Medical Center. We have been incredibly loved, supported and taken care of by each and every one of them since we walked into the ER doors a week ago today!!

Oh God's hands are even in the little things, beloved!! Just Believe!!