In honor of Caleb's three monthaversary (!!) I thought it was about time I got around to sharing his birth story.
Caleb was due July 15th. For about 3 weeks leading up to that date, at every dr.'s appointment she would tell me how great my cervix looked etc etc and that for sure it would be "any day now".... I have since decided that no Dr. should ever tell a women who is 9+ mths pregnant that it "could be any day now".... it gets your hopes up and makes for some long days/nights!!! Finally, on July 21 I went in for my last prenatal ( I was tentatively scheduled to be induced the following week) and the Dr. preformed a membrane sweep....
side note: for all you women who aren't mothers... don't let me scare you... but having your membranes swept is worse than the actual birth of the precious baby!!! All the pain... but no reward.. they violate you and send you on your way!!!
My parents had arrived on July 19th and would only be staying for about a week... but I was sure I would have delivered by then.....well.. the little boy cut it close!!
On July 22nd around 8pm I went to the bathroom and when I stood up to leave.. it felt like I had peed again... Having never had my water break with the girls ( it broke as I was pushing and they were coming out, so I never actually really felt it break) I wasn't exactly sure what had happened.
I figured
a. my water just broke
b. i just peed my pants
I was really hoping for the water breaking part, cause peeing your pants at 30 is a bit embarrassing.
David was home from work for supper, so I came out of the bathroom and just mentioned that I thought my water had broken but wasn't entirely sure. I wasn't having contractions at this point so I told him to just finish his dinner and then we would see where we were at!
I stood up again about 10 mins. later and had another gush of fluid and decided that yep... i was pretty confident my water had broken. I still wasn't having any contractions but since both girls had been very fast labors ( Madi-7hrs, Lily-1 1/2hrs) and since I needed to be on antibiotics ( i had tested positive for Strep B) we decided to head to the hospital, with a quick stop at David's work ( he had only been at his new job for a week at this point!) to drop off some keys!
We got to the hospital just before 9 and they brought me into a labor room ( it was the room I ended up delivering Madi in... they didn't believe me when i said I had to push and never moved me to a delivery room!!) and then checked me to see if infact it was my water that had broken... lo and behold it had!! They hooked me up to a monitor and left us for about 20 mins... (it was super busy that night... 6 babies born)
After about 20 mins they came back in and started the I.V. for my antibiotics..and I KID YOU NOT.. IT WAS WORSE THAN LABOR.... i am not sure if it was my veins or the nurse trying to start the iv... but it took her about 45 mins. She started with my left hand and after 20 mins of trying and 2 collapsed veins she gave up ( but left my hand black and blue) and started in on my right hand. After 1 collapsed vein, she was able to get it in and the iv started.. my hand has never been so sore and to this day I still have numbness on the one side of my right hand!
At this point it is about 11 pm and I am only just starting to have some minor contractions. They didn't want to send me home, because they figured things would pickup and it would be super fast like Lily.. so they suggested we turn down the lights and try to get some sleep before things "happened". Around 1 am, the Dr. checked me and i was only about 2cm. I was extremely discouraged since i figured we'd be closer to 6 or 7. The contractions were coming faster and harder at this point and I decided to try some of the laughing gas to see if that could help with the pain..
another side note:
I swear that there isn't really anything in the gas. They tell poor pregnant women that if they suck on this it will make them feel better....I sucked on that thing like there was no tomorrow and swear that it did nothing for the pain... it just makes you think about sucking on the tube instead of thinking about the pain!!
At around 1 am (5 hrs into labor.... i was so discouraged!) they checked me again and i was only 3 cm... 2 HOURS AND I HAD ONLY PROGRESSED ONE CM..... The contractions were really hard and strong at this point so they gave me some pain meds through my i.v. I can't remember exactly what it was.. but it only worked for 4 mins at a time and they could only give it to you every 2 hrs.
WHO THE HECK INVENTED A DRUG THAT ONLY LAST 4 MINS AND CAN ONLY BE GIVEN EVERY 2 HRS... HAD TO HAVE BEEN A MAN!!
We did that for a few more hours. At around 5am, they moved us into a delivery room cause we were the last ones to deliver our baby... i know that a lot of you other moms out there had long labors and I commend you for that... but after having 2 relatively short ones it was so discouraging to see mother after mother rolled out of the delivery rooms holding their babies.....
She checked me and I was 8cm but had stalled in progressing. I had been diagnosed with a fibroid right around 20 weeks and they had told me there was a chance that it could cause problems during labor. They said that it might move down and block the birth canal and stall the labor and that would result in a c-section. When the Dr. checked me she noticed that his head was twisted to the side and essentially he was trying to come out my hip area, and that was probably why I was having so much pain... AH.. YOU THINK!!!
She recommended that I get up and go to the bathroom and try the exercise ball and maybe with the movement the fibroid would shift and he would be able to slide right out. Now... remember I have been sucking on laughing gas since around 12 ish.... so when I went to stand up .. I almost passed right out.. not necessarily from the gas.. but from the inhale/exhale rapidly part! David helped me to the bathroom and then held me up while I paced around and tried to shake the kid out!! (just kidding.. we all know that doesn't work!)
At about 6:30, I told David that I needed to throw up and NOW!! He grabbed a garbage can and then told the nurse (who was mixing up my next drug shot!) that he figured the baby was going to be here soon, cause this is exactly what had happened when Lily was born... puke then push... She didn't quite believe him...
All of a sudden (6:45ish) I said..."GOTTA PUSH" really loud and swung one leg up on the side of the bed ( i had been sitting on the edge... throwing up) and started to push..
David said... you better come she is pushing.. ..
The nurse came over and said " Dr.... Dr.... she is pushing.. Dr... " and then cupped Caleb's head as that slide out... "Dr... he is here"
The dr. quickly came in and said to me " see... told you that if he shifted, he would come quickly."... and then reached out and grabbed Caleb as his body slide out.
He was by far the longest labor( at just under 11 hrs) ... but still a fun, interesting one at that!!!
Lily opening gifts. She is BIG into In the Night Garden so alot of her gifts with appropriately themed!! She got the "Upsy Daisy" doll from Aunt Sarah!
She loves her Upsy Daisy
She was making her jump up and down off the box behind her. I don't think she realized that the thing behind her wasn't just a box, but a present. We kept trying to get her to open it but she would say "no" and keep bouncing the doll!!!
Madi got a toy too ( she doesn't yet understand the whole "its only one persons birthday and they get the presents" thing!!)
Playing together
She finally took us at our word and opened the big one!! She got the Little People Garage and LOVES it!!!
Pointing out to Daddy that it makes noise!!
Showing Daddy another toy!!
Lily is also fascinated with Veggie Tales.. both our girls are. I decided to make her a Bob and Larry cake for her birthday. And this is the outcome. I was pretty proud of myself!!
She was trying to take the icing off!!
She needed a little help with the candles!!!
Saying "cheese" with a big mouth of cake!!!
There was a log that shot out into the lake that we used to jump off of. If you did it this way, instead of slowing walking in, it was MUCH easier!!
Here is David jumping in!
Auntie Lala with both Madi and Lily out in the tube. Don't worry it might look like they are in the middle of the lake, but it is only about knee deep.
I think this is my favourite picture from Martha's.. They were a ways out, but it is so shallow.. it makes for such a cool picture!
Lily was SO relaxed!
The girls with Auntie Lala
All bundled up ready to go home!
She LOVED playing in the water
Auntie Lala and Madi. I loved how it looks like Dad and David are discussing the best way to get into the water in the background!!
Beanie with a pool noodle.. the thing is like 3 times her size!!
We decided to take the Jasper way to get to Mom and Dad's this summer. We had done it last time, when I was just pregnant with Madi and enjoyed the scenery so much that we thought it would be great to be able to show the kids that! We stopped just before the IceFields and had a women take our picture. As I was asking her, the thought crossed my mind that english might not be her first language but everyone seems to understand a camera thrust at them as " please take my picture". We positioned her so that we would all be in it, but slowly she started meandering to the one side.. I didn't think anything of it till later when I was back in the car checking out the picture.. CAN YOU SEE WHAT IS WRONG???
