Gabriela was born at 11:47AM on Saturday, May 19th, 2007.
She was 7 pounds, 2 ounces, 20 1/2 inches long.

I checked Erica's temperature yesterday at 4:45PM, and she was running a fever. I brought her into the hospital. After 2 or so hours, they told us that Erica had a kidney infection, which was causing Erica's (and also Ela's) heart rate to rise significantly. They gave Erica antibiotics and pain medicine and we spent the night. At 8:00 in the morning, they told us we could either induce or wait to see if labor begins. If labor didn't begin, we would eventually induce anyway. (Mind you, Erica had been having regular contractions since 10:00PM Thursday evening, with no labor to show for it. She was still dilated at a loose 2.) So we decided to break the water. When we did, we discovered that there was maconium (sp?) in the amniotic sac, which means the stress had caused Ela to "go to the bathroom." In other words, Ela was breathing in her own fecal matter.

Two and a half hours after we broke the water, Erica had only progressed to a tight 3. At that point, they told us we would probably end up having a c-section, because the stress was too much for Ela and Erica was progressing too slowly. After talking about it (and crying a little), we decided to go ahead and have the c-section immediately rather than waiting for nothing to happen and having it later.

So Erica had the c-section. I got to be with her. I peeked over the drape several times to see what was going on. They had Erica's stomach wide open, but Erica didn't believe me. She was sure they hadn't begun the procedure yet. I didn't try to convince her. I watched as they pulled Ela's head out, and then the rest of her. Then I watched as they took Erica's uterus out to clean it, before putting it back in.

I went over to Gabriela and watched them do their stuff, trying to suction out all the maconium in her lungs so she could breathe properly. Ela was excreting maconium nonstop, which means it is a good thing we went ahead and got her out as quick as we did.

They took Gabriela immediately into intensive care. We would soon find out that she had a great deal of maconium in her lungs, so much so that one of her lungs collapsed. They extracted the air out of her chest and were able to reinflate the lung. She is now breathing on her own, but she still has a lot of maconium in her. She will probably have pneumonia for about a week. We won't be able to actually hold her for between 3-5 days. But we can go in and stare at her and touch her as often as we like.

Prayer for her swift recovery. She seems to be doing well. She looks strong and alert. I got to stare into her deep eyes for about five minutes.

She's beautiful.