Caleb's Grand Entrance

This post is LONG but I wanted to remember the details. I broke it down into parts so it's easier to skip to specific parts if anyone's interested.

Thursday, July 15 - I went to the doctor found out I was dilated to a 2+ and felt a few regular contractions. I also passed the mucous plug. I called my mom and told her she'd probably want to fly out as soon as possible since Zach came within 24 hours of passing the mucous plug last time. She bought a ticket and her flight that got in about 1:00 a.m. Friday morning.

Friday, July 16

Getting things going - Since I had my mom fly out so quickly I wanted to go into labor soon so I wouldn't feel like I jumped the gun on calling her. Zach and I had a dance party which lately requires multiple requests for "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys. He loves singing the "ba ba ba" part. I did some cleaning, bouncing on an exercise ball, and we took a trip to Walmart to walk around for awhile. All day my stomach felt weird and ached.

To the Hospital (9:30 p.m.) - It'd felt like my water may have been leaking all day so we decided to head to the hospital and get things checked out after getting Zach to bed. (Side note: It was such a relief to have my mom here to stay with him. My biggest fear going into the delivery experience had been what to do with Zach when we were at the hospital.) I was feeling a lot of pressure and was pretty uncomfortable but wasn't having any regular contractions yet. Derrick's brother Jamon and and sister-in-law Jean were at the hospital already. By coincidence we were put in rooms next door to each other. After getting hooked up to some monitors the nurse checked to see if my water had broken and sadly it hadn't. Apparently the wetness I felt was the continued drainage of passing the mucous plug. I was not happy and was afraid we were going to be sent home. I did not want to wait any longer for this baby to come.

Waiting (10:30 p.m.)- The nurse called the doctor and told me that since I was at a 4 they'd keep me overnight and see how I progressed. I got hooked up to an IV and was left to wait. Derrick and his brother got to go back and forth between the rooms to see how things were going for the other's wife. Through the night contractions were irregular. For a couple of hours they were 1 to 2 minutes apart but then stopped around 4:00 a.m.. I didn't get much sleep that night because I was too worried about being sent home. When I kept myself uncomfortable or got up and walked around, I could sometime get some weak contractions going.

Saturday, July 17

Breaking my water (7:00 a.m.) - The on-call doctor checked me out and though I wasn't contracting anymore, I had dilated up to a 6. Rather than send me home she broke my water for me. That was a strange feeling. She stuck this instrument that looked like a crochet hook and gently scratched at the membrane. When it broke it felt like a big water balloon popped inside me. Breaking my water caused me to immediately dilate from a 6 to an 8 and got contractions started again. They started getting pretty intense so I decided to get an epidural.

Getting the epidural (7:30 a.m.) - This was the worst part of the experience. Derrick had to leave the room for 45 minutes because here in Texas they have a law against letting the husband remain in the room while the epidural is being administered. Apparently one husband had a freak accident where he passed out, hit his head, and died. Talk about a traumatic labor and delivery experience for the soon-to-be mom. Instead of getting to have Derrick with me, some random nurse I'd just barely met started holding my hands which was more weird than comforting. Unlike last time, I had to sit up and hunch over during the process. That was probably the most uncomfortable position to be in when you're having hard contractions. On the first attempt to poke me, the needle pierced a blood vessel or something and my heart rate shot up 40 bpm in just seconds. The anesthesiologist had to undo all the tape she just applied and re-poke me again.

More waiting (8:30 a.m.) - I was about to be put on pitocin to speed things up when the doctor decided that there were too many babies coming at once that morning. In order to keep things from getting too crazy for herself she'd wait to hurry me along. Our sister-in-law was one of these moms and gave birth to a little girl around 9:00 a.m. While we were waiting my contractions slowed down again and stopped. I was so frustrated!

Pitocin (around 12:30 p.m.) - Once put on pitocin the contractions started up fast. They came every couple of minutes and were usually off the chart. Because of the epidural I could feel enough pressure to know I was having a contraction but thankfully no pain. Within half an hour I started feeling so much pressure down below that it felt like Caleb was going to pop out on his own.

Pushing (around 1:00 p.m.) - We called the nurse to let her know that it felt like the baby was coming and after checking me she immediately called in the doctor and setting up the room for delivery. After pushing through one contraction Caleb's head was poking out. We waited for the next contraction and part way through it Caleb popped out (1:17 p.m.). The doctor was surprised by how big he was (he weighed 8 lbs 9 oz). Apparently Caleb's size was what made it so I had such a hard time progressing on my own.

Meeting Caleb (1:18 p.m.) - After using a nasal aspirator to suck out all the gunk in Caleb's nose and mouth, Derrick got to cut the umbilical cord. Caleb was then set straight on me in all his slimey glory. It was amazing to just look at him and know he was mine. Caleb was so tiny, warm, and cuddly and figured out how to eat like a pro. After cleaning me up (I needed 2 or 3 stitches) the doctors and nurses left us to spend time together as a family for an hour before taking Caleb away to the nursery for several hours. My mom brought Zach to the hospital after dinner while Zach showed a little interest in Caleb, he had more fun climbing all over me and trying to push buttons.