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Friday, August 24, 2012

Caleb James

When my first son Joel was born, my husband wrote a blog briefly describing the entire experience from first contraction to bringing our little baby boy home. I hoped to do a similar one for our second son so we wouldn't forget but never got around to it. Now it's 8 weeks later. Time flies! So now I'm going to make a similar attempt to remember and record all the events of that wonderful day on June 25, 2012.

Joel was born 7 days late so when Caleb was 10 days late I was more than ready and beginning to think he may never come and that I was going to have to be induced. A few days after my due date I went to have a sweep done and the midwife couldn't even do it because I hadn't started dilating at all. I was not happy and that's why I was sure I was going to have to be induced. But luckily I didn't and at 10 days late I finally went into labor. At around 1:00am I began having contractions. FINALLY! And apparently I had forgotten just how much they hurt, even the earliest ones. Since my first labor took 26 hours start to finish I was prepared to take it easy and prepare for the long haul. Oh how wrong I was. I wanted to stay at home and wait as long as I could before going to the hospital but after only a few hours I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to go now and I was finally between 5 and 7 minutes apart so could justify going in. We stopped on the way to pick up some food. The last time they wouldn't let me eat or drink anything and if I wasn't going to be eating for the next 24 hours I wanted to fill up. But it didn't up being a problem because they were wonderful and encouraged me to eat and drink to keep my strength up. Anyway, on the way, I called ahead to let them know we were on our way. The woman on the phone said she didn't think we should bother coming in yet because my waters hadn't even broken yet and she thought it might not be real labor. But I was sure that it was so insisted that we were coming anyway and if they wanted to send me home, then fine. 

When we got there, they were so great. We immediately went into our own room and had a great midwife. The first one wasn't there for very long but was so nice and helpful. She brought be a birthing ball, which was seriously amazing. The gas and air makes me sick and I didn't find it at all helpful the first time. And strangely enough using the ball was so much more helpful and relaxing. She even brought in some lavender oil and massaged my lower back. You'd think that would be weird but I was in so much pain I didn't care and I loved it. I can't even tell you how much that helped! The combination of the massage oil and the birthing ball was WAY more helpful relieving pain than any pain meds they gave me. I did not expect that. Then they ran a really hot bath for me to help relieve the pain. I loved the idea of having a water birth but was sure I would end up getting an epidural and you can't have both so I just took a bath and went back to our room. 

Because I was expecting to be in there for at least a day, my plan was to wait as long as possible to get an epidural. I was sure I would need one again but wanted to wait because once you get it you are completely confined to the bed. They also told me it was best to wait until I was in active labor, which was basically having at least 4 contractions every 10 minutes. When the time finally came, they came in and examined me again. It was time. Things were finally speeding up. I asked them if that meant they though he might be born today. They laughed and said he'd be born before noon. Wow. So things continued, contractions becoming more and more painful and closer together. Finally it became so unbearable that I was desperate for an epidural. They came in and began to set up before they called in the doctor. I desperately begged them to hurry. I could feel the pressure of him coming. Eek. They told me the baby was coming now and they didn't think there was time for an epidural. James and I very kindly told them to suck it and get the doctor, which they did. I couldn't believe how fast things were moving. I'm not the kind of person that screams at things. Not at movies. Not when I'm scared. And definitely not when I'm in pain. By this point I was screaming uncontrollably. It's really hard to describe. There is nothing like it. It was actually really scary. Poor James must have been terrified. I know I was. I so badly wanted the epidural I was actually trying to keep him in  and not let on to the midwives that he was coming out. I was even sitting up hoping that would hold him off until the doctor came in. But nope, Caleb was coming now. He was going to push himself out no matter what position I was in. Finally not being able to take it, I swung my legs up onto the bed and pushed him out. I couldn't believe it had happened. It was so weird. I could feel everything so intensely. I'm not going to go on describing the pain because there really is no way to describe it with words and nothing I could compare it to would do it justice. So there's no point. 

Then they handed me my beautiful baby boy. He was so handsome. He had black hair and black eyes. He weighed 7 lbs and 14 oz. And was born at 11:25am on June 25th 2012. He was so gorgeous. Because there were no complications we were able to leave after about 7 hours. I was so glad. There was nothing I wanted more than to take my sweet little boy home and get some rest. 

So we brought our beautiful son home to meet his little brother and settle into his first home. Happy Birthday Caleb.