super saturday

our saturday was so stressful i'm not even sure where to begin or how to put it into words today but here goes nothing.

it started out very early with birthing class. surprisingly, class was interesting and we learned some new things amongst many things we had already read and researched earlier in pregnancy. i think the class made us even more excited and anxious for baby and solidified my thought that though i will TRY to hypnobirth (the latest craze) the drugs will be readily handy during labor! we also felt more and more comfortable with our choice in hospital and the nurses involved, learned breathing techniques and labor positions and overall just enjoyed spending the day together...and i especially enjoyed the labor massages we learned and got to try out in class. AHHH a little bit of heaven for me =)

this is when the day turned to a little bit o' crazy.

class oddly ended early (and i later learned for good God's good reason) and i realized i had many text messages from my mom updating me throughout the day that there was a severe fire near my grandparent's house in Yorba Linda and that she was now in the process of preparing to get things ready to pack up my brother's truck and evacuate their house. (my grandparents are currently on a tahiti cruise and reachable only by email). myka and i quickly made the 45 mile drive up to north orange county to enter what seriously looked like an inferno. the sky quickly turned to gray/brown, the smoke was thick and ash flew through the air, covering our truck quickly. 

we got up to the house as fast as we could finally arriving around 3:30P, where we saw dozens of sheriffs evacuating the areas/houses and plumes of flames/smoke only blocks from the house. i quickly jumped in my grandparents car to drive it to safety as myka and my mom followed, with whatever valuables my mom had packed up. myka and my mom then drove back up to the house around 4:30P and picked up another one of their cars and did one last sweep of the house. at this time, they started getting smoke inhalation as the fires ravaged closer. they got out ok and got as much of the irreplaceable things as possible. the fire had first started at 9AM and by 5:30P had already burned 1,000 acres. (as of 6PM Sunday evening, it has burned over 10,500 acres)

this is where the day took a more bit of a turn...

in the midst of the stress and everything going on, baby stopped moving and my uterus began hardening in almost a defense mode. i got a little nervous but paid little attention to it until three hours later when i started to realize that i hadn't felt the little one move in over 3 hours, my uterus was as hard as a ball and sharp pain was coming ever 4-10 minutes for over a minute each time. turns out, i was seriously contracting. myka and i rushed down to labor and delivery (our 2nd time in two weeks!) for observation. (on a funny note, as soon as the monitor got on the baby immediately decided to put on a show...turns out she's a big ham...but that's another story) the nurse then administered a test that apparently could tell her if baby was coming in the next 2 weeks which luckily came back negative (sorry deb, looks like no big baby debut on your birthday!) she also was able to tell us that my cervix is starting to dilate slowly which is a little scary but would not give me an accurate answer on my effacement and dilation in fear that an exam would irritate the cervix and possible cause it to dilate even more! i then was given a shot of terbutaline to stop the contractions (ashley, i feel so sorry you had to have so many of that shot!), ordered to drink lots of water and rest and was sent home.

we headed back up to my mom's house to await any news regarding my grandparent's house and while reading the news and seeing pictures, could only assume that the fire made a crescent shape sparing their house from any damage, until we were finally able to make it up there at 4P this afternoon, where we saw that the fire crept less than 500 ft from their house. i cannot describe the emotion and shock of seeing the charred hills and the immense remorse i have felt for all those that have lost their homes. it is a very eye-opening and humbling experience.

here are some pictures from the OC Register that do not due any of the experience justice

a burning Deodar street house, a few blocks down from my grandparents house:

people watching the fire at Bastanchury and Fairmont, less than a mile away from my grandparent's house:

the ring/crescent of fire at the corner of Bastanchury and Fairmont: