Baby Cronister Updates

Little Miracle Worker

2009-12-12T14:20:00.001-08:00

Sorry it's been a while since we've updated the blog... needless to say, it's been a very overwhelming week. The funeral and burial was yesterday - and it was absolutely beautiful! We are so proud to have a little Saint in heaven - it's such consolation to know that although, of course, we (selfishly) miss him, since he was baptized, confirmed, and died so quickly that this world never even had a chance to take away his beautiful innocence (that every parent wishes their child could have forever), he is now in Heaven, rejoicing with all the Saints and Angels in the presence of God!

Bryce said the other day, "You know, our entire goal in life is to get to heaven and to bring others with us, right? - We've already sent our son to heaven, what more could we ask!?" It's so true... and we've already had the incredible opportunity to see first hand the work that Corrigan is doing to "bring others to heaven"...

Angela's Mom was talking to someone on Facebook, whose friend was scheduled for an abortion for Friday (the day of Corrigan's funeral) - she saw the picture of Corrigan, Bryce and Ang, and called to cancel her friend's appointment and instead schedule an ultrasound for the same day - the woman was initially very upset with her friend for canceling her abortion appointment, but agreed to go to the ultrasound - the friend asked Angela's Mom for permission to print the family photo with Corrigan and bring it to the ultrasound appointment to show the woman considering abortion, in hopes that she would chose to save her baby's life - of course she gave permission! We found out this morning that this woman has chosen not to have an abortion, and to spare her baby's life! Praise God, and thank you Corrigan for your beautiful witness to the sacredness of "unborn life" - we continue to pray that lives are changed by this seeming tragedy in our own lives. It is absolutely beautiful and brings so much comfort to us to know that although we did not have the opportunity to "keep" our baby here on earth with us, he has already interceded in the life of this mother and unborn baby to save this child's life, in place of his own! We are so proud to have this little Saint in heaven (and so humbled knowing that we cannot take ANY credit for him at all, since he was here for such a short time, and obviously truly was "on loan" from God ;)

Thank you all for all of your prayers and wishes for us during this difficult time. We take great comfort in knowing that we are completely immersed in so many prayers and pleas to our little boy in heaven! May God continue to be Glorified through our tears and joys during this difficult time, and may our little boy continue to witness to the sanctity of life at ALL stages!

Our Lady of Guadelupe - Pray for Us!
Saint Gerard - Pray for Us!
Saint Gianna - Pray for Us!
Saint Corrigan - Pray for Us!

Corrigan Gerard Cronister - Photos

2009-12-12T14:17:00.000-08:00

Cronister Family

2009-12-12T14:16:00.000-08:00

Corrigan's Obituary

2009-12-08T13:47:00.000-08:00

Penwell-Gabel Obituaries - Corrigan Gerard Cronister 2009 - 2009

The Cronisters - Bryce, Angela and Corrigan Gerard

2009-12-07T18:44:00.000-08:00

Our Little Man has made it to Heaven!

2009-12-07T18:32:00.000-08:00

As most of you know by now - Angela gave birth to a little boy, Corrigan Gerard, on Sunday evening, December 6th. He was 1lb, 1 ounce, and 12 and a half inches long. He is an absolutely handsome little guy - and now is our little angel up in heaven! (Looks like most of us, including Mom and Dad, were wrong on the gender guess, according to the poll, huh ;)

We will update later on with more of the story leading up to Corrigan's birth, when the emotions are a little more stable - but for now, just the simple news that he was born alive and tried to take a couple breaths, including one while resting on Mom's chest, and his heart did beat for over an hour while he received the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation and met many of his extended family. He was just too young to survive in this world - but we are so proud to have a little Saint in heaven to pray for us all now!

We will attach more pictures when they arrive, and will keep updating you over the next couple weeks. Thank you all so so much again for all of your prayers, thoughts and gestures of small things with great love! We are so grateful for each of you! THANK YOU! We are truly blessed to be parents and to have been able to spend time with our little Saint before God got to take him for safe keeping and intercession!

God Bless,
Bryce, Angela and Corrigan Cronister

We've made it to 22 weeks!

2009-12-05T09:06:00.000-08:00

Today is another day of celebration! Today marks the "22 week" milestone on this crazy journey. Angela's still just taking it easy on the couch at home, and her sister Jen is here this weekend to keep her company so Bryce and his mom can get a little break ;)

Baby is still wigglin' around in there, and we've had lots and lots of visitors - it sure helps the time to pass faster when people are coming by every day! Last night we even got TWO dinners brought to us! ;) Thank you all so much, you've made it very easy for this to be as little stress as possible. We are so blessed to have you all!

Both of Angela's finals went well yesterday, and Bryce finished his internship yesterday as well, so he will be back to work on Monday hopefully. Ang will take her last two finals on Monday afternoon and then be done for the semester!

Nothing really new to update on - just keep all the prayers coming, we're doing well!

Saint Gianna, Pray for Us!
Saint Gerard, Pray for Us!
Our Lady of Guadelupe, Pray for Us!

Week One - Complete!

2009-12-04T07:12:00.000-08:00

First of all, sorry we haven't gotten a blog up the past 2 days - it was not intentional just to keep you all on your toes ;) Our internet connection has been very unreliable the past couple days, and every time we've tried to get one up, we lose it.

Everything is going just fine - yesterday was a day of celebration, being as it was the "One Week Anniversary" since Angela's water broke - and the first real milestone as far as the medical staff were looking at. (Since the first 7-10 days are the most risky time, according to the doctors and nurses, we were feeling pretty proud to have been able to say that the Lord has gotten us to this point!)

Angela is still feeling the baby move every day, which is very comforting - and Grandma Amy got to feel it yesterday, too (now Bryce is REALLY getting jealous ;)

We will have another doctor's appointment on Monday, have some more lab draws and listen for the heartbeat again - still hoping and praying it will be loud and clear like this week, and hopefully find out more specifically when they would like to hospitalize Angela and baby. We'll be sure to update after that visit.

Our first Novena's (and many of yours, I'm sure!) are finishing tomorrow, and we'll just start 'em over again to remind all those Saints and Angels that we're not in the clear yet!

Angela's starting to get pretty antsy with this whole bed rest thing... but took two tests on Wednesday, will take two more today, and two more on Monday and then she'll be done with school, which will take a little bit of stress off and she can dig into this stack of movies, magazines, books and word puzzles that have accumulated, thanks to all our awesome family and friends :)

Thank you all for all of the meals, books, visits, snacks, help cleaning, help studying and getting the semester finished out, Christmas decorations, etc. and most especially for all of your prayers! We are so overwhelmed with all of the support you all have given and are realizing yet again how grateful we must be for everything God has blessed us with - we are truly in awe!

We love you all and we'll keep you all posted!

Love,
Bryce, Ang and Troublemaker Baby Cronister

Day 5!

2009-12-01T07:46:00.000-08:00

It's another day... we wake up every morning totally relieved to have had an uneventful night! Praise God! After yesterday's doctor's appointment, we were much more at peace and more confident knowing that we had a doctor behind us, supporting us, and rooting for us - she was so wonderfully hopeful!

Ang has still been feeling the baby kick this morning, and had a little scare when she got a call from the doctor's office (they told us they would only call if the labs were abnormal) last night... well, the abnormal lab was that her urine was too dilute and she needed to stop drinking so much water - she just laughed and said "That's the best news I could have gotten from you guys!". We figure if that's how "abnormal" the labs were... we are truly headed the right direction - we are so blessed!

Thank you everyone for your constant prayers and offerings to help - Bryce's Mom is coming over to decorate the apartment for Christmas today :) One of Ang's teachers has offered to come over once this week and again next week to proctor her last tests and finals so that she can still finish out the semester, and Bryce is in his last week of his internship. Everyone has been so gracious and helpful during this difficult time - we are so grateful! Thank you to all of you who have offered masses, holy hours, and tons and tons of little prayers for us - we can feel them and this little one is hangin' on tight, thanks to all your prayers!

Our Lady of Guadelupe - Pray for Us!
Saint Gianna - Pray for Us!
Saint Gerard - Pray for Us!

Great Doctor's Appointment!

2009-11-30T10:16:00.000-08:00

We just finished a very good doctor's appointment this morning - that little heart is beating strong and fast (155 beats per minute - that's good!). We've switched doctors since the pregnancy has become high-risk very quickly, we realized that the "Au Naturale" route probably wasn't a possibility anymore ;) So - we were very pleased with this new Doctor today - she was very hopeful and was able to answer all of our questions. (We're realizing very quickly that the medical field doesn't always have all the answers ;)

She stressed that the first 7-10 days are critical, since most women go into labor during that time - and wrote a prescription for another antibiotic, that should also give us another 7-10 days' from today (so that bought us an extra 4 days, essentially). The key is still to make it to at least 23 weeks (24 would be even better!) at which point, Angela would be hospitalized until delivery. Ideally, she will be on bed rest at home until 23 or 24 weeks (Mid-December) and then would be hospitalized until delivery at 34-36 weeks at the latest. If anything were to happen with the baby or her health after 23 weeks, they would weigh the risks to the baby and would deliver via c-section. So, for the next couple weeks, we will have weekly visits to the doctor and weekly lab draws to monitor for infection.

It was such a great blessing to hear the baby's heartbeat - just that was enough of a relief to bring tears to our eyes! Every day is a struggle, but a huge huge blessing at this point. It's especially comforting when Angela can feel the baby move (Bryce is super anxious to be able to feel him or her wigglin' around!) but the doctor stressed that we should not be using the fetal movements as an indication of how the baby is doing, since we're only 21 weeks and 2 days along.

Thank you all so much for the prayers - we're hangin' in there!

9 Week Ultrasound Picture

2009-11-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

Baby Cronister

2009-11-30T09:49:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,

As many of you know - our Thanksgiving was WAY TOO EVENTFUL! We are expecting a beautiful little gift from God, but not until April 10th. On Thanksgiving, November 26th, 2009, Angela's water broke, we headed off to the ER right away and they kept her overnight, told us that since we are only 21 weeks along, and there was very little amniotic fluid, labor would progress quickly, and we would lose the baby. On Friday morning, November 27th, they did an ultrasound (still no signs of labor, but did have some difficulty finding the heart beat) and found that although there was very little amniotic fluid, there were no other signs of labor. GREAT NEWS! We were sent home on Friday afternoon after Angela received some antibiotics and just monitored for any contractions or anything. She is on complete bed rest and just drinking tons and tons of water to try to replenish the amniotic fluid - also took two days of antibiotics to keep fighting off infection (a big concern once the amniotic sac has broken).

The chances (medically) that the baby will make it are very slim - but with God, all things are possible and we are very very hopeful! The baby really has no chance of survival at all before 23 weeks - so the biggest task right now is to just prevent labor until at least December 12th - at which point the baby would have at least a chance of survival outside the womb. After the 23 week mark, though, every day would be a great step toward a better chance for the baby to be healthy and survive.

We are asking especially for prayers from Our Lady of Guadelupe (our dear Momma who has been very faithful to both of us through our lives, and on who's feast day would be the 23 week mark!), Saint Gianna (patron saint of difficulty pregnancies and pregnant women) and Saint Gerard (patron saint of mothers, especially pregnant mothers).

Thank you all so very very much for all of your prayers - heaven has been rocked the last 4 days with our prayers and we are so grateful! That is the best thing that anyone can do for us right now is just keep on prayin'!

We love all of you and please pass this on to whoever will pray! We will take all the help we can get right now!