Finally got around to writing this post.   Friday Ciriana had an appointment with a specialist that deals with high risk preggo’s.   The appointment consisted of a “stage 2″ ultrasound and a discussion with the doctor.   The ultrasound technician took some measurements of the baby before the doctor came into the room…

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Since I am taking care of Izzy during the day, I took her with me to the appointment along with lots of food and toys.   As the ultrasound tech moved the magic wand around Ciri’s belly I looked down at my lap to hand Izzy another cracker.   While I was trying to hand it to her, I hear the technician and Ciri let out a little gasp.   The technician followed her gasp by saying, “I know what the baby is!”   I looked up at the tech who was staring at Ciri… who was staring at the nice little monitor they provide for parents to look at.   While my head was spinning, playing catch up with what I missed, I hear Ciri say that she knows what it is too.   She reads ultrasounds as well, so it’s hard to keep anything from her.   Finally the tech focuses the wand on my kids brand new genitals… large, brand new genitals!

I felt pretty good hearing the technician and Ciri exclaim about my boys’ thingie.   It’s an ego boost by association.   Then, they had to bring me back down   by explaining that the mother’s hormones will make the genitals larger than normal.   Screw you guys – he’s ALL Daddy!

No no no.   It’s just a fun thing to poke fun at (mua hahaha, pun intended!).   In truth I was stunned to find out our next little offspring was going to be a boy.   We had our suspicions, but it’s such a great feeling to have our thoughts verified.   A boy!   This is truly an exciting time for me.

So, after the fun part we moved on to the discussion with the doctor.   She explained right away that Ciriana DOES NOT have incompetent cervix.   It was a relief to hear our doctor, with such confidence, explain that our next baby would not be born during the second trimester.   Ciriana and Izabella did not exhibit any of the symptoms associated with incompetent cervix, except preterm labor.   This is one of the biggest fears we’ve had with this pregnancy.

So, they’re going to put her on some drug I can’t pronounce, let alone spell.   The drug is actually a natural enzyme/chemical that the body makes during pregnancy.   It was explained to us that if the levels of this chemical drop, labor ensues.   So, it’s very important to maintain a constant level of this chemical in Ciri’s system.

There is also only a fifty fifty chance that this treatment will work, but without it, the chances are that this baby will not last to term anyway.   So, drugs it is.

On our way out of the hospital, they had Ciri go to the labrotaory to get a recheck on her thyroid.   They called her with the results yesterday.   Unlike the last pregnancy, her results show that she still has some thyroid abnormalities and she will need to continue her meds.   This was the only bad news that we got out of the whole deal, but overall we’re still very relieved.   If the thyroid condition is controlled, Ciri and the baby face less of a risk when compared to an incompetent cervix.   Now, I just have to make sure Ciri takes her medication – she was a bit of an airhead during the last pregnancy…

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Yup, I am excited.   Ciri, in between morning sickness, is excited too.   You know, 2008 has been a whirlwind of a year!   Izzy comes early.   I quit my job.   Thanksgiving in California.   Now, Ciri is preggo again!   I’m not complaining, I love my little growing family, I’m just saying it’s been busy.

So, yes, we are now expecting a new baby, hence the Baby Egg Timer widget.   Ciriana and I are a little weary this time around, mainly because Izzy was born early.   We discussed way back when about having more kids –   we dodged a bullet with Izzy, I mean, things could have been way worse.   The doctor’s explained to us what they think caused the premature birth, and they explained that they have a better chance of preventing it the second time around.   There were many factors that we believe contributed to the preemie-ness, like stress and late nights at work, so this time Ciriana is not taking any chances.   She has already explained that she wants to be released from the military and the sooner the better.   She is also not doing any exercise during PT in the morning that she feels is too strenuous.   Last time they had her running in the cold rain, so you can understand her bitterness.

Anyway, aside from the fear we have, we are very excited.   We’re both hoping for a boy this time.   A girl would be nice, too, though.   We still have a lot of clothes that Izzy never had a chance to wear.   We’ll see if the right mini-me broke through.

Some thing I didn’t get to do last time was thoroughly chronicle the “Preggo Experience” on this here blog.   Granted, she was only preggo for seven months (the first one never counts, making it six months of total quality preggo-ness).   This time, I’m starting early and, hopefully, we’ll make it to, at least, full term.

Ciriana’s first appointment was this past Monday, but they rescheduled her to today.   So, we’ll know more about her medical situation then.   Her thyroid condition was never properly diagnosed –   again – so that will force the doctors to classify her as “high-risk.”   Like they need the thyroid thing to tell them that, all women with at least one premature delivery, I believe, are high risk.

We’ve already begun discussing names and bedroom decoration.   We haven’t decided on anything yet, except that we’re going Winnie the Pooh on this kid.   He/she will get the guest bedroom when he/she graduates from the basinet, and it will be decorated in Winnie the Pooh stuff.

Last time, Izzy got a tree, so I am trying to think what I am going to do for this one…   maybe a fountain?   Maybe another tree.   If it’s another girl, I’ll do a veggy garden – I like that…

I learned a few things about being a good coach to a preggo these past few months. The following list includes items that nobody ever mentions or thinks about until the moment arrives. I originally started this post about a month ago, but then Izzy decided that she wanted to sabotage this post so now I just want to finish it.

First, to quote from the movie Knocked Up: “Read the books.” Ciri has tried repeatedly to get me to read “How to pamper your pregnant wife,” and I say I’m going to read it, but I never do. Trust me, read the books! If you can quote a few things out of the book, that will get you a good amount of brownie points too. I don’t really feel like reading it because I feel that I pamper her pretty darn well, so I avoid it. From her point of view, though, my perceived inaction is probably due to not caring enough about her. See the paradox here? Just read the book; read it on the toilet, on your lunch, or while your stuck in traffic. I’m not sure yet if one should finish the entire book, as long as one has made the attempt… but that experiment has yet to yield usable results. Until the experiment is complete, finish the book; unless you want to conduct your own experiment… good luck and God speed.

Second, although this is a close tie for first, MASSAGES! You could come home late, do nothing but watch TV an get away with it all, as long as you give her a massage somewhere in between. Trust me, it’s almost like all the human contact they need for nine months is massaging. Remember to massage daily… if it’s not daily, it’s not pampering!

Third, house chores.   She can barely walk without wobbling like a preggo bobble toy, let alone doing the dishes, cooking, and other cleaning chores.   I mostly do the cleaning anyway, but every now and then, she gets a wild hair and starts to clean something.   I know pregnant women are supposed to nest and all, but not all of them, I can vouch for that!   Regardless of your preggo’s personal take on typical bodily and psychological functions, they can’t do everything.   Helping with cooking, cleaning, walking and feeding of the animals, and of course washing the car will be most helpful to your tuckered out wifey.

Fourth, doctor appointments can be very stressful on her body and her mind.   Being there for appointments is huge, especially the ultrasounds.   Ciri was a high risk preggo so they did many many ultrasounds; and I went to every single one (first one came too quick for me to get off work, so maybe not all of them).   This really just boils down to being there, not just giving her words of encouragement alone.   Ciri likes to say, “Actions speak louder then words.”   On one hand whoever coined that phrase should be shot, on the other, the phrase does have some significance to it.   One can only do so much, but not doing anything at all is inexcusable.

Ok, I think these are the more important ones that people agree to, but don’t really think about them until it’s too late.   Anyway, they worked for me, I hope they work for others that are looking around for some ideas about pregnancy.   I found some things, but I wanted to get my experiences out there.

So Izzy is now one whole day old and currently resides in the Neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital.   The good news to that is she is doing an amazing job!   She is breathing on her own, she is moving her arms and legs, she cries fairly loud, and she can suckle.   One of the issues we could have faced was undeveloped lungs and muscles.   So far, she is showing that she can do everything!   The only issue she can’t improve on with out intervention is her weight.   They have her in a climate controlled isolette that helps regulate her body temperature for her, that way she can use her calorie intake for growing body fat and muscle.   Ciriana was afraid she would not produce enough milk, if any at all, but is making equally impressive progress as Izzy.   Yesterday she could only produce one drop, today she has produced enough for 3/10ths of one feeding.   Great job!   I’m knocking on wood for the both of them; Izabella is still premature so there will be many uphill battles for her.   Although, she is in one of the finest hospitals around, so, no worries.

Ciriana should get discharged tomorrow, but we’re hoping that they will letter her board there so she can be near the baby (since we live an hour away and so far we are visiting her about four or five times during the day) to provide milk and love.   Hopefully, we get lucky there.   It has been a unexpected, rough, and very fast ride this past week but with a beautiful and healthy little girl.   Hopefully, this unprecedented and unexpected “luck” continues.

I just realized that I left today’s baby pictures at the hospital… nuts.   I will post them tomorrow, I hope…   depends on if I leave the hospital… since they don’t have wifi access…   OK, wish Izabella luck!

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!