Here is a pic from the night before we went to the hospital, last night before we got to meet the little guy, actually probably just about 24 hours before. This says 40 weeks but it was closer to 41 :)
Caleb's due date was March 20th, prior to this I had no real signs of labor and a fairly easy pregnancy. It seemed that he was taking up a lot of space in there but not until my doctors appointment two days after his "due date" did the doctor suspect he might be big! We went into the doctor on Tuesday the 22nd and Caleb still had not "dropped" at all and I had no signs of any labor so he went ahead and did a sonogram just to make sure he was head down. During that sonogram the doctor determined that he could be as big as 9 lbs and 13oz. Oh my we all thought, the doctor said that since I was already scheduled to be induced on Friday we would continue with that plan and see how progress went. The doctor wasn't overly confident that he was actually that big otherwise he said I would have automatically been put into in c-section category. So then our next fear was we were having a huge baby and what if we were not able to get into the hospital on Friday due to it being very crowded which we had been told all week that it was.
Friday morning at 7:15 we left for the hospital and by 7:45 were all checked in which was wonderful. First prayer answered! We delivered him at Baylor Frisco very close to our house which I had heard rave reviews about and they didn't disappoint. Our whole experience there was excellent including the staff, food etc.
Our first nurse of the day was wonderful and started me on an IV and Pitocin. The doctor stopped by and we had talk with him and nurse that they would watch me all day but that Caleb still had not dropped at all and if that continued to be the case or there were any signs of distress that we would deliver him via c-section as we had thought would be the case. I have always said I didn't want to just have a c-section but I wanted to make sure no added distress was caused to the baby so whatever was safest was what we needed to do. So we hung out in the delivery room until about 12/1 with a small bit of progress I think we went from 1 to about 2 or maybe 3cm. The around this time the doctor came by to say he was going to break my water to see if that helped or sped up the process. At this point I wasn't in much pain yet but the nurse told me that the anesthesiologist was heading into a complicated c-section so they wanted to come put in my epidural before that. No medicine had to go in but just in case in the next few hours I needed it and they were not available. So they came in and put in my epidural line, two doctors. One who was the normal one and the other who was I believe his boss but mainly would oversee the process. As he was putting it in they kept saying they were ready for him in the operating room so the other doctor offered to finish taping the epidural to my back so he could get into surgery. They did a test dose of meds and seemed to be working although it was stronger on one side than the other. Either way we were ready when we needed the meds.
About an hour after the doctor broke my water we started to see some progress and then a little more progress and I was starting to feel a lot of pain. Around that time they started my epidural which seemed to help the pain a lot. A few more hours passed and I was starting to feel a lot of pain especially on the left side of my body. Seemed to feel every contraction and it was very painful. The nurse had the anesthesiologist come back in to check everything and he noticed that my epidural was out...hence the pain I was feeling. I had bairley moved so ended up blaming it on a bad tape job of the other doctor. He was very apologetic although by far the epidural wasn't bad at all so I didn't mind having one again as long as it meant it would help in the end!
So after epidural #2 was in place we were back in business, Caleb had dropped a little bit and I had dilated to about 4 cm's. Around 7 was shift change for the nurses also about the same time I started feeling terrible, I thought I was going to be sick for about a half hour and probably should have gotten sick, I bet it would have made me feel better quicker but I hate that so much I avoided it :) The new nurse was hopeful that the sickness meant that I had progressed even more so on the next check they found that I was at 9.5 and he had actually dropped. Something we thought was never going to happen which was awesome!
Here is the last picture opportunity before we started pushing...pic of me and then the rest of the room :)
After my doctor came in though he said it was probably time to start pushing, she somewhat dissagreed and took her time getting the room prepped before we actually started. Around 9:45/10 we actually started pushing. The doctor finally came in around 10:30 or so as we were getting really close, also at the same time the Ohio State basketball game was on and a good game it was. The doctor asked if we could spin the bed around so he could watch the game too...needless to say Jared gave him some updates but we didn't move the bed ;) After about an hour total of pushing and at the very end of the basketball game (11:01pm) Caleb made his debut! We were so excited to meet him and they weighed and measured him twice to make sure his large size was correct. 9lbs 1oz and 21.5 inches long, he had a fever when he was born due to me having a fever at the end of labor. Within 10 minutes though that was gone and we had him in our arms! What an amazing moment and day!!
My parents had gotten into town earlier that day so after about 2 hours they came to visit Caleb for the first time and brough Jared and I some food, I was so hungry after not eating since 10pm the night before! We were then sent to our room and our next adventure in being parents had begun!
Jared was wonderful during the whole process and I could not be more thankful for such a wonderful and caring husband. Plus, he loves babies and kids which most of you probably know already which is awesome. We are so thankful to God for such a beautiful, healthy baby boy!!
