Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play

Day 1-
Weight- 670 grams
Height- 12.4 inches
Hair color- dark brown
Eye color- unknown since my sweet eyes are still fused
Disposition- Feisty.......

I am now the proud mother of a micro-preemie.

Yesterday, in a rather dramatic turn of events, my sweet daughter Prudence Clara decided that 25 weeks and 2 days was just long enough to be confined to one spot and decided to come out to play.  She was born at 10:23 in the morning after much effort by the doctors to stop my labor.  Within 15 minutes we went from discussing things to her being pulled from her cozy womb and introduced to this wonderful world.  She came out crying like a champ and just as feisty and fiery as I would expect a half Latina to be.

She was quickly intubated and looked over and then whisked away to her NICU momma's (those beautiful nurses that are caring for her deserve the title momma for what they do for those babies).  And then Juan and I had the waiting game until we were allowed to see her and hear more about our amazing girl.


The few things I do know, is that she is such a fighter.  Just over 24 hours old she has been extubated although we are not sure how long she will be able to keep up doing all that work on her own.  Its a kind of minute by minute basis with some of that.  Her hemoglobin is dropping off a bit which is not abnormal but might require a blood transfusion in the near future.  And soon she is going to get treated to her very own tanning bed to combat jaundice.  They have told us a ton of other things we are looking at in the near future but I am really not thinking outside of the promises of the next 24 hours and our next micro steps.  But I do know that Prudence is completely in charge of this show and that she is letting all of us know that in no uncertain terms.

And I do know that  at 10:23 on September 20th,  I truly learned to place all of this in the Lords hands and trust his plan in this.  And its not easy for me to let go of the wheel in much.  God has blessed me to be a mommy of two very different daughters.  Lucy was a full term baby who has been the text book baby from conception to 22 months old.  She has hit every milestone and then some and has a the smile that can probably melt glaciers.  I am almost in tears now just thinking of her smile and laughter and how much joy she brings to our lives.  And now we have Prudence who definitely decided to go her own way.... But in all of this, God chose me to be blessed with these amazing little girls and I am overwhelmingly honored and terribly frightened by this all.  I have been drawing all my strength from the prayers that are pouring in from friends and family and even strangers who have been hearing our story.  AND ITS JUST 36 hours into this!

Our 22 month old daughter Lucy had barely understood the concept that mommy was getting chubby (and would sweetly kiss my belly when we asked her where her sister was) and is now having her whole world of nothing but what Lucy wants turned into a crazy whirlwind.  We are so lucky that my sisters have stepped in and became surrogate mommies while mommy is recovering/trying to figure out what happened.  My parents have been our sanity, keeping our lives outside somewhat intact and going.  And my husband, my wonderful Juan and only, has been the calm rock in all this.  The place to rest my head and collect all of this beautiful adventure.

The last thing I want tonight is for everyone to either listen or at least think of these lyrics which fit my girl so well

"Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue, its beautiful
and so are you
Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play...."


So tonight in my brief attempt to collect some thoughts I just wanted to have a place or diary to place my thoughts, fears, triumphs and failings through this.  Please read, share our story, and say a little prayer for all of us as we wade through the waters of micro-preemie world!