Photos of Our New Niece Evelyn Victoria Ely

These are photos of our new niece Evelyn Victoria Ely who was born 11 weeks early at 2 lb 10 oz. She is now off the respirator and is breathing on her own. Keep Kevin, Sarah, Olivia, and Evelyn in your prayers as these next few weeks will be critical needless to say. Here is an email from Kevin today with some additional details:

I have a couple of picture of our surprise, early new addition, Evelyn Victoria. Sarah was 29 1/2 weeks pregnant yesterday and the due date wasn't supposed to be until June 12. We were surprised yesterday when we found out that Sarah's water broke around 11:45am. After being directed by her doctor to check into the labor and delivery unit at our hospital, we were quickly working with the high risk pregnancy doctors. It was confirmed that in fact, her water did break and it was likely the baby was going to be delivered very soon. At the doctors recommendation, they encouraged us to transfer to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, IL where they have specialists in high risk deliveries and infant care.

Around 7pm, Sarah was taken away in an ambulance and I met her at the hospital. At 10:20pm, we welcomed Evelyn. It was a very quick delivery for Sarah and there were 11 doctors and nurses surrounding the situation. Some of you know the other details which included dad passing out, having to get stitches in the ER and missing the delivery by 2 minutes.

Evelyn seems to be doing well at this point. She is actually off of the respirator as of late this morning (about 12 hours after birth). She is now able to breath on her own with her tiny little lungs. This afternoon, they mentioned that her white blood cell count is low and they have put her on some antibiotics for that. This will be monitored closely.

The situation is difficult for many reasons, but primarily because we can't hold her and are not able to have any control over her situation. Fortunately, she is under some of the best care we could possibly get. We've been told to expect her to need to stay in the hospital for almost 11 weeks (up until the original due date). The hospital is a 55 minute drive from our house, and that obviously is difficult as well.

Please keep little Evelyn in your prayers and we will keep everyone informed on her progress.
Best wishes,
Kevin