Well.. it sure has been an eventful week, so here’s an update! 

Let’s start with mom: 

The first week of may, mom started to not feel as good as she had been. After her visit with her oncology team on Tuesday, her blood pressure readings were way higher than what they had been. One of the side effects of her infusion is increase in blood pressure. And one of the side effects of high blood pressure is headaches! She also had some ear pain and was given an antibiotic to treat a potential ear infection. The antibiotic made her nauseous on top of all of this. It was overall a tough week, she was exhausted, nauseated, and in a lot of pain.

Once we figured out better dosages and stopped the antibiotic she started feeling better and was able to celebrate her 57th birthday on Friday, May 3rd! We went out to eat with friends from the lake and Marcus brother and his wife.  My Dad’s brothers came that weekend and grilled out and overall had a fun time. 

I flew home for the rest of the weekend but on Wednesday Carson and I flew to Charlotte so that we could all drive to Atlanta for Mother’s Day Weekend. For a few months we had been planning on doing the National Brain Tumor Society’s Brain Tumor Awareness 5K. This event honors survivors and pays tribute to those who have passed away due to brain tumors/brain cancer. All funds also go towards brain tumor research! 

On Thursday we got to Atlanta and Spent Thursday and Friday at Andrea and Marcus’ house. We went out for dinner and did some projects around the house. We were all very excited to walk the 5K with mom in our #4Is gear. 

Well we had to be at the Atlanta Braves stadium by 7:30 so we were all up bright and early… only for Andrea to say she thinks her water broke!! (Now we all thought she just didn’t want to walk lol) After calling her doctors they said that since she wasn’t having contractions yet they didn’t have to rush, but to go ahead and come in to get checked. We were on the fence about what to do next. 

Carson, my dad, my mom, Marcus’ mom, and I decided to still go ahead to the race knowing we could leave at any point. Andrea and Marcus gathered some things and headed to the hospital, stopping at Waffle House for breakfast along the way like true Atlantans. 

After we finished the 5k, we headed home for some rest before heading to the hospital to check in on Andrea. 

Well long story short.. we waited, and waited, and waited some more. She was monitored and given meds and induced and patiently (and painfully) waited for OVER 50 hours until Iliana decided to make her entrance into the world. Pretty much her water broke prematurely and none of the rest of her body was ready yet! 

Iliana Isabel Velazquez was due June 12th, and ended up being born May 13th, a month early! She came in at a whopping 4lbs 15oz!! She was initially sent to NICU but passed all her tests and was sent to the transitional nursery and only a few hours later to the regular labor and delivery floor. They required her to be in the hospital for 48 hours to monitor since she was early but she did a great job at all her tests and late Wednesday evening was discharged home!! 

Throughout all of this time, mom was a trooper and spent long days in the hospital and long nights waiting for news ready to run to the hospital if needed. Unfortunately this took a great toll on her and she started to feel pretty bad again. We are currently working on getting her blood pressure back under control and getting some extra rest in. 

Thank you for reading this far sorry it was a long update! We have had quite an eventful month and will be traveling to/from Virginia this weekend and Atlanta quite often now to see babygirl!