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So I am at home right now, going to take a shower, get some things, and create this post, then I will head back to the hospital for the night. Yes, today has been one of the most surreal, intense, exciting, and longest days of my life. We went in for sick call on Wednesday morning so they could check out Ciri. Her unit sent her there mainly so they could send her home on bed rest because of her contractions. We get there and we find out that Ciri is 2 cm dilated. So they keep her for awhile to observe her. An hour later, they check her again and she is 3 or 4 cm dilated! That’s when our awesome doctor, Dr. London, decided that he could do nothing to stop the contractions and most likely the baby was going to come soon. So, they give her magnesium to slow down the contractions and about 12 hours later, she is contracted about 8 cm. Fast forward to about 4 am, and she is at about 9 or 10 cm dilated, so they pop her water and in about 30 minutes, Ciri’s body decided it was time to give birth. Her labor contractions started almost immediately after they burst her pouch, it was the hardest thing for me to watch. To see someone in so much pain, and all you can say is to push, breath, and good job. What kind of help is that? Well, it was all she needed, because in a short time, baby Isabella Izabella (just went through this post and noticed I spelled her name wrong. No, not a bad father, just a tired one…) Coralyn was born.
One of my initial fears when we realized that she would be born 7 weeks early, was not that she would be very young, but more about my younger brother, Jesus. His birthday is April 11th, and he died a few days after he was born. Since the beginning I was afraid of getting excited about being a father only to lose my child before she had a chance to survive on her own. Miscarriages suck, you don’t need someone to tell you that, so when I realized she might be born on his birthday, I wondered what kind of sign that was? Was it a gift, or a curse? Well, after seeing my baby girl come into this world, after cutting her umbilical cord, and after escorting her to the Neonatal ICU, I knew it was a gift. I knew that Jesus would watch over my daughter as he has watched over his brothers and sister all our lives. Not only that, but his birthday, which has always been a day of sadness in my family’s hearts, will now be day of happiness. My beliefs on God and religion may not match up with what I am supposed to believe as a Catholic, but when it comes to miracles and our everlasting souls, well, there is no confusion. They are real, and today I bore witness to the best miracle in the world! Happy birthday my Izzy-girl!
It’s past midnight and I am getting ready for bed. I am sooo tired, it’s been a long day. We left around 10 in the morning to the hospital for a recheck. Ciriana was checked out for some abdominal pain last night and was told to return today. It turns out she is having full blown contractions! She is currently 1 cm dilated, but after running tests, they determined that she is not in labor and will not be in labor for at least another two weeks.
It started Saturday night/ Sunday morning when she couldn’t sleep because of pain in her abdomen. Her stomach was really tight, but we thought it was normal. When we visited the doctor last week, he said she should get small, slightly painful contractions. I don’t think this is what he had in mind. To make things worse, she had not felt the baby move in some time. We called the doctor and they said to get seen right away, so we headed for the hospital to get her checked out. First, the car ride did not help at all; bumps and restricted movement make contractions worsen. Once they checked us in, they hooked her up to a machine that amplifies the baby’s heart beat, which was beating thank God, and also measures her contractions. The doc came in and assured us that Baby was in good health, but she was concerned about the contractions: they were about a minute and a half apart. The contractions were not disabling at all, just uncomfortable, according to Ciri.
After a few “exams” to make sure she wasn’t dilating more, they sent us home. Ciri called her sergeant, who told her not to come in to work today. I called in too, not going to leave her alone like this. It worked out, too, because we had to go back in for a recheck in the morning; they wanted to make sure she definitely was not dilating. During this appointment, they checked her again to verify that she did not dilate more than 1 cm, and to make sure her and baby’s vitals were good. Everything sounds fine, except the contractions will not stop. Baby’s heart beat is strong, and there is no sign of premature labor!
So here I am jotting this down, mainly to calm myself so my mind doesn’t snowball with crazy “what-ifs” like it loves to do. Our first trip was a little stressful because of our fears about Baby’s health, but after we heard her heartbeat, we began to cheer up and relax. I took some pictures with my cellphone to keep my ADD under control…
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Hey everybody! I just got these pictures scanned in and edited. I take out all that screen information out, that way you get all baby all the time. We got these two, plus the one on the splash page (she is getting too big for the ultrasound thing, she barely fits in the screen!), and one more of her girly junk. She was being a little brat during for the tech, she would not let her get shots of her heart chambers. I guess they need to know that she has four, some thing to do with her health. Idunno.
I kind of felt some sort of gratification of my daughter being a pain in the ass. See, she has been a pain with me since she learned how to kick and punch. As soon as she realizes that I have my hand on Ciri’s belly, she stops moving almost instantly! Until the last ultrasound appointment, I thought she didn’t like me! Little turd. Well, now I know it’s not personal, and she is just trying her darnedest to piss people off. Right on my little Spudlina, kick butt. We named her Spud in the beginning because she was just a little spud, and Ciri was hoping she would be a boy. So now we corrected ourselves by referring to her as Spudlina. For those of you that want to know what we are going to name Spudlina after she is born… well, you’re going to have to wait until she is born. It’s top secret. Sorry.
Anyway, more pictures to come…