Ivan is near, and it’s brought a swarm of tornados. Several have struck the towns between my house and Athens. Many homes have been hit, and there are more twisters on the way. Update In the last half-hour, there have been five tornados in my county, some hitting my town. There are fatalities reported. I’m in Athens at the moment, but Chris and Vivian are safe at home. Still more twisters on the way…

<a href="/cameraphone/archives/001696.html" title="Going Home! "><img src="/images/legacy/weblog/cameraphone/images/200408231900/_t.jpg" alt="Going Home! " width="120" height="146" class="pic" border="0" /></a>
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Chris has been discharged, but Vivian has one more day under the care of the NICU, so they’ve let Chris keep her room for the night. Tomorrow, Vivian should be tranferred to the pediatric ward for one final day (where mommy gets a room as well). And then, on Tuesday, it looks like they can both go home.

She gets to sleep with us tonight!

<a href="/cameraphone/archives/001693.html" title="It's all OK "><img src="/images/legacy/weblog/cameraphone/images/200408211847/100_2911_t.jpg" alt="It's all OK " width="120" height="80" class="pic" border="0" /></a>
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In case you missed the photos over on the right, here’s a quick update: Vivian Ruth Wagoner arrived just after five o’clock Thursday morning. The last hour of labor, after we arrived at the hospital and Chris’s water broke, was rough on Vivian. An obstruction in the pelvis forced Chris into having a C-section, and reduced oxygen levels to Vivian during that last hour, combined with heavy meconium, put Vivian into the infant Intensive Care Unit, where she remains. Her readings are nearly back to normal, so we’re hoping Chris and Vivian can both be transferred to pediatrics for the final few days. The full story, with more pictures, will follow when I can get it written.

<a href="/cameraphone/archives/001691.html" title="Smiling "><img src="/images/legacy/weblog/cameraphone/images/200408201635/_t.jpg" alt="Smiling " width="120" height="146" class="pic" border="0" /></a>
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<a href="/cameraphone/archives/001690.html" title="Vivian Ruth "><img src="/cameraphone/images/200408190726/picture(3)_t.jpg" alt="Vivian Ruth " width="120" height="146" class="pic" border="0" /></a>
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We’re going to go ahead and go to the hospital. It’s not at all an emergency situation, but we’ll get some more thourough tests done, and then (hopefully) quickly bring the baby out.

After three very painful days, we’ve reached the end. No… no baby yet, but there will be one soon, one way or another. Chris has been having regular contractions for over three days now, but they’ve only managed to open the cervix a little bit. They haven’t really been the full-powered type of contractions needed to do the job. But, there is something going on that is causing Chris an incredible amount of pain, and it’s been going on since the contractions started. We’re not sure what it is, but all of the dangerous complications have been ruled out, and the baby is unaffected by it. It may be something simple like a folded and pinched bladder that will go away when the real delivery starts. We’ve been waiting for that to happen, but it hasn’t. Perhaps the pain has been severe enough to shut down that part of the system, or something. In any event, we’ve decided waiting it out isn’t an option anymore. We’ve begun an herbal treatment that will likely induce full labor in the next hour or two. In the event that that doesn’t work, we’ll be off to the hospital for, if nothing else, painkillers. So that’s where we stand. I’ll let you know if we go to the hospital. If we don’t, I’ll update you as I can. And to re-iterate… it hasn’t been a health issue up until now, only a pain issue. Both mother and child are physically doing well.