Yeah! We are so thankful to finally be able to announce the arrival of our son, Cal Roman Hershey.  He was born Tuesday, Sept 16th at 4:15 pm (Italy time) at the US Naval Hospital here in Naples.  He weighed 7 lbs, 6 oz and was 18 inches long.  Cal is named after one of Brian’s mentors and close friends, Chris Caliguiri, who had a huge impact on his walk with God during college.  And the middle name became our piece of Italian flair to commemorate where he was born.  

 

Though we knew that each day was getting closer to his arrival, we were certainly not expecting it to happen the way that it did.  I had a regularly scheduled appointment that morning and had woke up in quite a bit of pelvic/upper leg pain.  So, when I saw the doctor, she went ahead and checked my cervix again to see if I was still holding at 4 cm.  As she measured, she said, “Oh Bonnie, you are at 6 cm now.”  And she added with a laugh, “I’ve never checked someone at 6 cm in my office before.”  During the measuring, she also realized that the baby’s head was not really ‘engaged’ that far down yet.  He was still swimming kinda high, and both OB doctors were concerned that if my water were to break on it’s own (and knowing how fast my deliveries occur), there was a risk of the umbilical chord coming down in front of the baby’s head.  This would then require an emergency C-section--something that all of us certainly wanted to avoid.  So, my doctor’s recommendation was to keep me in the hospital and break my water slowly (with a small puncture) in a controlled environment, where they could make sure that baby’s head came down first.  

 

So, after making a call to Brian that morning, we decided to go ahead and do as they suggested, even though I was reluctant and nervous about how my body would respond to this kind of encouragement (versus baby coming on his own timing).  And by the time we were ready to start the process, I had already increased to 7 cm.  This was around 2:30 in the afternoon.  My body quickly progressed once it realized that the water was gone, and without any other major interventions, Cal was born at 4:15!  

 

We were able to walk home from the hospital last night with my OB doctor who was also walking home from her shift.  It was nice to be able to make the slow walk home (since we live so close to the hospital) and enjoy the cool evening together as a family.  

 

Our girls are SUPER proud of their little brother and already in competition for holding him.  As I type this, Alece has been cuddling him on the couch for almost 30 minutes and quite contented to stay there as long as I’ll let her.  He is going to grow up with two extra little mommies for a while and, hopefully, that will develop into a close friendship as they get even older.  We are so thankful for God’s timing, faithfulness and wisdom!