Curry Daniel Halland - How he came into the world...
(Written November 2009)

Most of you know that Curry Daniel Halland made his grand entrance into the world Sunday, November 1, at 1:34pm. He weighed 7 lbs, 20 inches long. He is the cutest thing ever. He looks so much like Brinley.

Now, when I say he made a grand entrance, a grand entrance he made indeed. At about noon on Sunday, the 1st, I started to have some pressure on my belly. It felt like he was just pushing really hard on me and he was stuck in a comfy spot. All of the sudden, about 12:30pm I rushed into the bathroom not feeling well. I started to bleed, a lot. Gage and I and Brinley were actually about ready to go to the mall so Gage was getting Brinley in the car while I was in the bathroom not knowing what I was dealing with at that moment. I got enough energy to get to the driveway to tell Gage he better get back in the house. He knew something wasn’t right by the look on my face. I had looked like I had seen a ghost. Gage rushed Brinley inside and I told Gage he better call my parents to tell them they needed to come get Brinley and that he needed to rush me to the hospital. My parents live a few blocks away so they were there to pick up Brinley within minutes. Gage got me in the car and we raced to the hospital.

As soon as we got to the hospital he wheeled me in, I got checked in and the nurses immediately places monitors on my belly to see how the baby was doing. Not good. His heart rate was only in the 50's and 60's and it needed to be in the 110's...somewhere around there. They started coding me and paging all of the nurses and doctors they could. They wheeled me into the operating room and there were literally about 30 people in there all trying to prep me quickly in order to get the baby out and keep me safe too. In the meantime gage had to move the car from where he dropped me off, so when he came back in the the room where I was that is when they were wheeling me to the OR. He was quite scared and was told to wait until someone came to talk with him to tell him what was going on. He said it was only about 20 minutes he had to wait but that it felt like an eternity.

So, I was now in the OR with tons of medical staff doing everything they could to get me ready for surgery. I was crying and shaking. I literally thought I was going to die. I didn’t think I would make it, and I didn’t think the baby would make it. Thoughts were going through my mind that Gage would have to raise Brinley on his own. The dr's were talking about how I was rupturing, abrupting, etc. I had no idea what that meant but knew it wasn't good. Within a few minutes of being in the OR I was under. By the way...so you can picture how fast all of this went, but the time I knew something was wrong and my parents came to get Brinley to the time the dr's got Curry out it was only one hour! Amazing.

The next thing I remember I was waking up in the recovery room. Gage was there. He had already gotten to see the baby. As I was coming out of it the first thing I asked was how the baby was. The first thing that was asked of me is what are we naming this baby again? See, Gage and I hadn't made it 100% official but were pretty sure we had decided on a name. He needed to make sure that is what we for sure wanted to name him. Yup! Curry Daniel Halland. (Curry is a family name. A last name, but also the name of Gage's little brother who died at only a few hours old).

So, back to how the baby was doing. Not very well. He had taken in some blood and needed to be put on oxygen. He was transported to OHSU within a few hours of being born. I was not to go to OHSU until the next morning. They wanted me there so I could be close to the baby. My mom came to stay with me the first night in the hospital. Most of that night was a blur since I was so heavy on the drugs. Gage went to sit with the baby through the night since my mom was with me. Gage said that night felt like the longest night of his life. The next morning I was transported to OHSU were Gage and Curry were. Sometime in the afternoon we were given a debrief on how Curry was doing. The dr's informed us that he had blood in his lungs and in his stomach, he may have blood on his brain, he was having seizures, and they didn't know what kind of long term effects this would have on him. I'm sure there is more to this but again, I was on so many drugs I was fuzzy on all of the details and still have trouble remembering the details. I should have had Gage write this!

As for what happened to me and the reason for the emergency c-section...the placenta had detached from the uterine wall and created a blood clot causing all of the bleeding.

Back to Curry. Last week was the toughest week of my life. I have never been so emotionally drained. Each day we would hear good news about Curry, then bad news, then good, then bad. They dr's just didn't know from one day to the next what would happen with his little body. The dr's got Curry on a seizure medication, which I cannot spell at the moment if I tried. That seem to stop the seizures he was having. But he was still on oxygen and about 500 tubes and wires. It broke my heart to see him like that. I think I cried most of last week. The hardest thing was not being able to hold my baby for the first 5 days of his life. But the first time gage and I did get to hold him it felt amazing and we cried.

At some point he had a cat scan and we got the news that he didn't have any blood on his brain which was great. Each day Curry got better and better and each day the dr's were able to remove a wire here and a tube there. The neurologists had did some exams on him a few times throughout the week and were amazed at his progress. He seemed to be coming out of it and healing at an amazing rate! We are still not sure if there will be any long term effects and pray there is not. He needs to take the medication for his seizures until he is at least 6 months old and the dr's have a pretty good feeling he will grow out of them as he gets older. He still does need to have an MRI at some point in the next 6 weeks and we pray nothing shows up! Curry is now home and seems fine! He is doing great!

We can't thank my parents enough for the ways they have helped us out. They have watch Brinley most of the week, slept with me in the hospital when Gage needed to be with Brinley a night or two and watched Brinley some more when Gage and I needed to be at the hospital twice each day for a few hours to be there with Curry. They are such a blessing.

We can't thank you all enough for how many of you have prayed for our little family. I amazed at how may prayer chains were going! We feel so blessed to have such amazing friends and family. And for those of you who made us meals....thank you! All of your emails and phone calls have been so much appreciated.

I am recovering great. I am healing a lot faster than I did with Brinley. Gage is doing so much to make the load lighter for me as I recover. Brinley loves his new brother but still isn't quite sure who this little guy is that is taking some of the attention away from him. The tantrums have gone up because of all of the chaos and different routine.

How you can continue to pray:
- Pray for Gage as he goes back to work tomorrow. He is exhausted.
- Pray for me that I do OK without Gage as he goes back to work. It is hard to have a new baby and deal with a toddler after just having a c-section.
- Pray that Curry has no long term neurological effects due to the loss of oxygen at his birth.
- Pray for Brinley that he settles into this new routine with a new member in the house quickly.
- Pray I continue to recover quickly and remain patient with Brinley.

Again, we can't thank you all enough for all the ways you have prayed for us and served us as we went through this scary time. We know the Lord has answered prayers! We know Curry and I both have recovered at remarkable rates because of prayer! We praise the Lord for his provision and healing in this miraculous event in our lives.

Much Love,
Rachel, Gage, Brinley and Curry Halland

For pictures of Curry on facebook go here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?page=1&aid=119199&id=711213424

Curry Turns ONE!

Happy Birthday to Curry!

So, if you don’t already know the story of Curry’s first rough few weeks of life you can read it HERE.

A Letter to my Curry boy,

I can’t believe it has been a year already since you were born! It’s hard to believe. Time has gone by so fast. As I look back over the months since you have been born I am truly amazed at how you are today in comparison to how you were when you entered into the world.

A few weeks after you were born I had a regular check-up with my doctor. We talked a little bit about what happened when you were born. The doctor said you and I both shouldn’t have made it. We should have died due to the severity of the abruption I had before you were born. Simply amazing the miracle that happened that day. To hear that kind of news is amazing and scary all at the same time!

When you were born we didn’t know what was going to happen to you and what kind of long term effects your dramatic arrival would have on you. Now, I sit here at look at you and am in awe of how healthy and beautiful you are. Your smile and your laugh lights up my world. I can’t wait to see how you grow and the kind of personality you will have. It has been so fun to watch all of the milestones so far……rolling over, new teeth, crawling, giggling. You have the sweetest and most gentle spirit. I love you so much and am so thankful to the Lord that you are perfectly healthy. I am truly blessed.

Love, your mama.



The following are some of the details that occurred over the past year since I wrote that story of Curry’s birth experience…..

Curry’s EEG’s – Curry was 6 months old he saw the neurologist for the first time since he was in the NICU. The neurologist thought it would be a good idea for Curry to have an EEG to monitor his brain activity. He had the EEG and the results actually came back pretty well – they came back as ‘relatively normal.’ Whatever that means. Well, it meant that there were some abnormalities but the neurologist had a good feeling that the abnormalities were only movements, not actual seizure activity. So this was good but the doc still wanted to keep Curry on his meds and then do another EEG in 3 more months.

Three more months went by, Curry was 9 months old. I took him to get his EEG. We waited for a few days and finally received the call that his brain activity looked beautiful and that he could be taken off of his meds!