Iris Deborah Chamberlain

The Birth of Iris began on Saturday June 8, 2012 early in the morning. I woke up to get ready to go to the Balloon festival for Art City Days and I was bleeding a little so instead we went to the hospital. I was dilated to a 3 but everything looked normal and I wasn't having contractions. I was going to go home Sunday morning. Well that didn't happen. I had contractions that night and every night till she was born on Tuesday morning. Everyday the Doctor would check on me and everyday they would say you can go home tomorrow morning on bed rest if everything goes well. Monday night the contractions got really painful and close together. The morphine they gave wasn't working for the pain. It was odd though I would have about 5 contractions 5 min apart for a while and then nothing for another 15 min. I told Trevor I was pretty sure we were going to have our baby soon. We did. The nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 7 the nurse said "You are having your baby now."

 They got everything ready just in time. I was in a lot of pain and having a hard time breathing so they got me an epidural. I love epidurals!! We were wheeled over to the delivery room. There was  a little room off to the side where they were getting everything ready for Iris. She was going to be 10 weeks early and needed medical attention immediately after birth. The Doctor told Trevor "Look you can see her head. Oh and shes coming now! Is everyone ready over there?! Are they ready?!" She was coming out without pushing that little stinker. I did one little push and out she came. She made the sweetest little bird sound and the rushed her out.

Trevor went with her. They have the dads go because the babies can hear their voices and it comforts them. Trevor came back and they took us to our room. I wasn't going to be able to see her for another 6 hours so we took the time to sleep. When I woke up Grandma Chris was there and we all went to see Iris. Trevor found her by the dimple on her chin. She was tiny weighing only 3 lbs 2 oz and measuring 16 in long. I got to hold her for just a bit and it was amazing! I didn't know if I would get to hold her or not.

 She needed oxygen so she had to be our baby elephant for a little while. But it didn't last long. Shes our little fighter and came off the oxygen quickly. They did have to put her back on with a nasal one on just room air later. And so began Iris's struggle to live in the NICU. I will post another post about her time and my travels to the NICU.