I warn you now, this will be lengthy. There's a lot to update you on!
I woke up on the morning of the 15th feeling really crampy. I had been feeling this way off an on for about a week and so I didn't put much stock in it. However, I noticed after about a half an hour that the pain/discomfort didn't seem to be letting up like it had been doing previously. I told Dane to go ahead and go to work and that I'd just keep an eye on it. I had an 8:45am appointment scheduled for my weekly fetal monitoring at the hospital and figured I could just ask them if they thought I was in labor or not.
I had Reed with me because I thought he might enjoy getting to hear the baby's heart beat and seeing her on the ultrasound. We walked in and I signed in at the desk while Reed went over to the kids corner. As I walked over to be with him a nurse passed me and said, "are you alright, hon?" I told her I thought I was having contractions and she immediately brought me back to sit and begin my monitoring. Apparently I looked a lot worse than I thought ;)
She told me that I was having contractions that were about 3 minutes apart. They weren't super strong but they were frequent, but it appeared that I was in early labor. They called my doctor and she said to go ahead and admit me.
Pat came to get Reed and Dane left work to come and be with me.
I was 3cm dilated at the time they admitted me and my labor progressed pretty slowly. I had frequent contractions that just never got super strong. By the evening I was only about 4cm's so they decided to break my water and start a slow pitocin drip. At this point I also opted for the epidural.
We "slept" as much as we could that night and by early morning it was just about go time. I'll skip all the gory details and just say that while she weighed more than Reed I had a much easier time delivering her.
A little bit after she was born, my dad and Pat brought big bro up to the hospital. Reed was super excited to come and finally meet his baby sister :)
Now, how did we settle on her name you ask?
Well, I had liked Claire for a while and Dane and I knew we wanted to name our daughter after my grandma, Betty Irene, who meant a lot to us both. I had proposed Claire Irene and while we were pretty certain this would be her name, Dane was still considering it.
After our 20 week appointment when we found out we would need to follow up on a possible brain concern, I was obviously a bit worried. That night I was on the couch trying not to fall prey to my fears. I decided to Google the meaning of the name Claire Irene since that was what I was pretty sure she'd be named. What I found completely solidified her name for us.
I typed in "Claire" and found that it means "clear, or bright."
Then, I typed in "Irene" and felt the Lord speaking to me. You see, Irene means "peace." My computer screen was filled with the word "peace." The very thing I had been praying for the entire pregnancy. The very thing I had been praying for just moments before as I sat worrying on my couch.
I knew God was telling me that our little girl, our "clear, bright peace" would be fine. That I need not be so upset, that He was taking care of her and that I could be at peace.
And so now, we have the results of her MRI. Dane and I met with the neurologist just this afternoon. Claire does indeed have Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum. This is what we were prepared for. This is what was expected all along. But despite that, the news is good. As good as it could possibly be in fact. There were no other abnormalities or concerns found. She is an extremely "normal" baby. She has had no problem doing all the things that normal babies do. If we had not been made aware of her ACC there would be no outward signs that anything was "wrong" with her. The doctor was very hopeful (of course he can't say with any kind of certainty) that we can expect her to have little to no delays as she grows and develops. It appears that her case of ACC is what they call an isolated incident, meaning that it was not caused by/is occurring with some other abnormality.
She is really an easy baby so far. She sleeps well, she eats well, and she cries sparingly. Reed is reacting to her like any 3.5 year old would. He loves her and is super interested in her, but is also acting out a bit more and wanting to make sure he still has mom and dad's love and attention.
Tomorrow is Dane's last day of paternity leave so prayers are welcome for me. I'm a little nervous about having two kids by myself all day. I think once we establish our routine we'll be fine, but it's gonna be tough at first. I'm super thankful that Pat has offered to keep her Thursday's with Reed and will also be taking him to VBS at her church for a week in June.
Thank you all for praying with and for us and our baby girl throughout the last few months. We truly felt the love of the community of believers we have. It brought us a lot of comfort and peace. We know we are super blessed.
One last thing...Reed has to have a third eye surgery next week (June 6) to correct a vertical misalignment in his right eye. This is not uncommon for kids with strabismus (to have to have multiple surgeries as they grow) but it's no fun nonetheless. I'm a bit nervous because this will be the first surgery that he will be old enough to remember/understand and as his mom, that's gonna be hard. Prayers that all goes well and it ends up just being no big deal at all.
