Welcome Daniel!!

Baby Daniel Thomas Celis-Castillo was born on April 26, 2011 at 3:44 a.m. He weighed 6 lbs 2 oz and measured in at 19 inches. Here is the story of his first few days!!!

Two weeks before Daniel's due date, at around 6:45 p.m. on Monday, April 25, I suddenly got up to go to the bathroom, and discovered that my water was breaking!!!! At this time began a frantic search for... a pair of comfortable pants for me to wear to the hospital! Fortunately, my sister-in-law Chely was there to help us keep sane get everything together and we made it out the door with (pretty much) everything we needed and began the 25 minute journey to the hospital. Family was called, as well as a few calls to take care of things for work (my substitute was scheduled to shadow me beginning today, Thursday, April 28 and was actually booked with my good friend for Monday - Wednesday). I didn't know it until about 7:45 the next morning, but it ended up that Kim subbed for me, which worked out great! (Thanks Kim :)

We ended up at the hospital after taking a brief detour (oops, wrong exit, Love) with my water still continuing to break... I had a towel, but I don't think that was nearly enough! We searched for how to get to the actual emergency entrance, and as my water continued to break, I took a ride from my husband in a wheelchair. We got all checked in after finally figuring out the maze to labor and delivery (at Kaiser in Fontana -- can't believe how long of a ride that was!) and I was placed in my first room.

I was given a hospital gown to change into, but I couldn't quite figure out how to put it on... For one because I didn't know how it worked, but for another, because my water was STILL breaking. My husband actually knocked on the door to figure out what was going on because he thought that the sink was running, but no, it was just me leaking into the toilet!!! Continuously!!

Finally, the nurse helped me get into the gown, and checked to see if I was dilated (no). I was transported to the next room, which was a little bigger (the first one was miniscule!), and was where I would spend the time until going to delivery. I was administered a medical insert to try to induce labor and was told if nothing progressed, they would check again in 12 hours and possibly reinduce. At around 9 (I believe after the insert had accidently been pulled out), I did start having contractions. And they were not the kind where you get a break in between... it started pretty quickly to where I was getting maybe 30 seconds to a  minute and a half to rest and then onto the next one. I imagined that happening, of course, but I thought I would be at least a few hours into labor first!! At midnight, the nurse came in to check how much I was dilated and I had some bad news... a 1/2 centimeter! So all that pain and it was still going to be a LONG time before I could get an epidural. I had ended up taking some pain medication, which was not a part of the original plan, and honestly, except for making me groggy, didn't really seem to do much to help the pain. But anyway, so my contractions continued, coming in quickly and not feeling too comfortable, and at 3 the nurse decided to check my cervix again to see if I had dilated a little more so I could get the epidural.

Here's the shock. Not only had I dilated more, but I was up to 9 centimeters!! So there goes any chance for an epidural and now it's time to go to delivery!!! I honestly thought the nurse was kidding when she said it, but I guess not!!!

So after 30 minutes of pushing in delivery (which felt SO MUCH BETTER than the regular contractions!!!), little baby Daniel made it into our world!!

in delivery