Coming sooner than expected!

On the way home from work on Wednesday night, our little girl decided to make a splash...literally. My water broke. All I could think was 'oh crap, here we go again'. I took the train home collecting my thoughts and putting together lists of what needed to be done. You'd think since Jon and I had been here before (even earlier!), we would be prepared. We weren't. With the move and both of us going through a busy season at work, our attentions have been everywhere but gearing up for the little bundle of joy that's been waiting to make her appearance...which was supposed to be on JUNE 20.

I got off the train and there was my little family, walking to meet me; Jon, Ethan and Otis all strolling my way. Otis goes nut-so to see me. Ethan has this new thing that when he sees me, he raises his hands above his head and squeals "MOMMY"...how can you not love that? Made me smile, although, I knew that our little worlds were about to change.

We walked home and I explained what happened to Jon. We calmly started getting our stuff together; got Ethan in front of Mickey with some Cheerios's and milk and made the call to Miriam to come get Ethan. We were in the hospital by about 8pm.

Things were looking a little dire at first. I started contracting and was having one every 1-2 minutes. They got the steroids out, brought in all of the doctors...My on call OB-GYN, residents, anesthesia, NICU...to explain the situation. We've been here. We knew the drill.

Good news: we are at 32 weeks. MUCH better than 26 with Ethan and a lot less risk of complications. Bad news: still not where you want to be. We were out of the major risks that Ethan faced, but there were still issues on lung dev, jaundice, eating and sleep apnea. With the contractions coming in so strong and being a bit dilated. The bets were on that I would deliver on May 5.

We made it through the night...contracting all of the time but no more dilation. Then, out of nowhere, the contractions stopped at 1pm on the 5th. Thank god! We are currently in a controlled stable state and baby is healthy. It looked like our alternative Cinco de Mayo name "Margarita Patron" was not to be.

Because my water broke, I'm in the hospital on bedrest until I deliver. The goal is to get me to May 16, which I would be 34 weeks. That is when the risks of a higher infection/complications outweight the postives of keeping the baby inside. I am on bed rest until then. Not too long from now. The good news is that I was able to receive all of the doses of the steroids to help speed lung development. From an ultrasound yesterday, the baby's at a really, good healthy weight of 4lbs, 5 oz. and she's active and strong. We're all in good spirits and Jon is spending his free time this weekend running getting everything out of storage and ready for the baby's arrival.

I'm already missing my little man...he's at Grandma's until we give her the word to come back when I start labor. He's in good hands, but it's hard to have him so far away, especially knowing that his little world is going to change forever when he does get home. And my other little man, Otis, is at the Malon's ...getting pampered and will probably never want to come home :) I miss them both. Such is life! And just so long we are all healthy and happy, we're all very lucky and have cause to celebrate!!

Ava Michelle Koelsch should be with us in the next week. We look forward to meeting her soon!

Thanks to all of our friends, family and the amazing people we work for and with. The support that we've received over the past couple of days is overwhelming and lovely. We are so lucky to have such a great support group around us.

We'll keep you all updated!!