Little Man's Arrival

So here it is, almost 2 weeks later, that I am finally getting around to posting about Caleb's birth! Oh well, I guess I should get used to it now that I'm wrangling a rambunctious toddler and tending to a newborn as well. Anyway, many of you may know the story of his arrival by now, but I promised I'd post about it so I'm holding true to my word. [Warning: This will undoubtedly be long and rambling!]

For several weeks, the doctors had been telling me "it could be any day now!" because I was dilating so early, but by 39 weeks I was still not having any consistent contraction patterns so Nick and I began to consider induction for a few reasons. First, we were having family in from out of town and I didn't want them to spend the week here waiting for Caleb and then not get to enjoy our sweet boy before they had to leave. Secondly, I was miserable by this point and work was getting quite difficult, but I wanted to spend every single day of my FMLA leave with my little boy in my arms! And third was a fear that one of the doctors had instilled in me, that it may be a "fire drill" if I went into labor on my own (getting someone to watch Shiloh, getting to the hospital with Nick, getting epidural, etc etc). So we scheduled an induction for Monday, Aug. 30 (2 days before his due date) if he did not come sooner.

Since Caleb apparently was pretty happy with his current housing situation, we went in Monday morning at 6 am for the induction. At that time I was already between 5 and 6 cm dilated and I think 70-80% effaced. The nurse said we would likely get to meet our little boy by lunch time that day, and that she wanted to talk to Dr. Price to get a plan of when everything should happen in the event that things went pretty quickly. So around 7:50 am the Pitocin was started, and then at 8:25 am the doctor broke my water. My nurse told me I could go ahead and get the epidural before they did this, but I declined (which I would later regret!) as I thought I should at least be in some discomfort before I did so.

Well, about 5 minutes after my water was broken I began having some pretty strong contractions. I kept thinking, "Wow, this is quick! Surely they can't be this strong already..." so I waited a little while before pressing my call light. [I lost all sense of time sometime during this period] When the nurse didn't come in, I asked Nick to press it again. A while later, she still hadn't come in and I was really hurting, climbing up out of the bed with each contraction, and wishing I'd taken time to learn some breathing techniques and/or coping strategies. I sent Nick out to the nurses' station. He came back in with another nurse who inspected and said, "Oh! Your call light's not plugged in!" {Yeesh!!} She started my fluid bolus and went to find my nurse, who then summoned the anesthesiologist shortly after. He put the epidural in [9:20 am, around 8 cm dilated I believe] and said it should take about 10-15 minutes to take effect. I remembered from my labor with Shiloh that it happened pretty quickly.

This time, however, I was not feeling any relief. NONE. What I WAS feeling, were miserably painful contractions... I was well into transition and not prepared for it! It felt like only 10-15 seconds between contractions, and I couldn't find comfort or relief from anything, any position or comfort from Nick, and I didn't know if I was going to pass out or throw up or cry... and I remembered reading in my trusty copy of this book that it was impossible to focus on ANYTHING during this time, which I found very true... when my nurse summoned the anesthesiologist back in, he said I was dilating too quickly for the epidural to take effect... and he tried to get me to tell him whether different areas of my body held the same sensations or different, and I was writhing in too much agony to be able to answer him lucidly. I kept hearing these horrid screams, yells, and moaning and finally realized they were coming from me! I couldn't control it. About this time I was feeling the need to push which was miserable because they told me I couldn't yet, I was only 9.5 cm dilated. The anesthesiologist gave me some more "juice" in my epidural and finally, FINALLY, by the time they told me I could begin pushing, I felt some pain relief and about 4 pushes later [10:17 am]...

We were so very, very blessed to meet our sweet son.



The poor guy looked a little worse for the wear having endured such a quick labor and delivery, to which the doctor and nurses attributed his facial bruising. But other than that, he was a healthy, happy, BIG boy! :)

(More pics to come soon, if you haven't already seen them on facebook!)