I know I mentioned in my last 2 weekly posts that because of his size, my doctor recommended coming in for a c-section or at least to be induced to start labor on Friday. It's so hard to picture your labor going one way, and then having is completely changed just a few days before it's supposed to happen. I was perfectly ready for things to start happening and maybe have a c-section if necessary... But the way my doctor was talking, it sounded as if the c-section was a little more possible than just maybe. We agonized over this decision, talked about our options with certain people to understand their experiences and finally decided that a c-section was the way to go for us.
All of that worrying and then to add a little more complication, I woke up at about 2am Friday morning with awful "period" cramps. I had been having them off and on the past few days and thought it was just my cervix dilating and/or effacing. But this time I just could not go back to sleep. Contractions hadn't entered my mind until about 7am when I started to notice they were starting to come in a pattern... I leaned over to my husband and just cried for about a half hour. Was it time? Was I rushing him? What is my body doing right now. I tried to mentally time the contractions to see of there was any consistency. Sure enough, they were about 8-9 minutes apart and lasting about 30-35 seconds consistently... But still with that dull ache in between.
My mom and sister had started driving down to GA because of my scheduled c-section the night before. So I checked in with mom (and the Internet gods) and confirmed for myself that little man had decided to start coming down. I finally accepted that "ok this is labor." although this wasn't at all what I had expected to feel, his movements had slowed at this point and the pain was right on cue.
In the back of my mind, I was praying that things would move quickly and we would have a chance for natural birth but we stuck with the plan. I made myself bacon, oatmeal and fresh fruit for breakfast... Talk about weird desires for breakfast... And then started my 8hr fast. (When you have a c section, they request that you do not eat or drink anything for 8 hrs prior.) My family arrived just after 9am and that seemed to help me relax a little bit. I took a shower, folded some laundry, repacked my hospital bag and headed to home depot with MH family to kill some time.
It's amazing how time flies. We left the house in 2 cars and headed to the hospital. Here come my waterworks again! As we left my subdivision, I got weepy and emotional knowing we weren't going to the hospital for class... We were going to have a baby. The next time we park in the garage, there will be a tiny little human with us. Gah! I get weepy eyed thinking about this again!
We arrived at labor and delivery around 3pm - our scheduled time. It took about 15 minutes to get all checked in and then they sent us on a never ending search for our prep room. Seriously, I think it was on the other side of town. When we got there, I was given the sexy hospital robe it put on and was hooked up to the heart rate monitor for baby and contraction monitor for me. And wow - look! Contractions were about every 5-6 minutes now lasting 40 seconds about. They weren't too painful but still they were more like menstrual cramps rather than what I would expect labor to feel like. I had about 2 hours before the scheduled c-section and it felt like forever. I was hooked up to an IV for fluids because you need to have a certain amount in your system before they can give you an epidural. I guess they have to give you a certain amount so they know how much is in your system but I couldn't help like feeling - Hello?! I could have been drinking all day long here?! My contractions started getting very long and drawn out and although I wasn't timing them anymore, I was sure they were more like 3-4 minutes apart. My mom and sister were keeping an eye on the monitor and she says that I started to tolerate them better because I would say it had already peaked and was subsiding when it was still lasting on and on. I guess I had gotten used to the intermediate cramping and maybe that's why I didn't notice them anymore.
My family got kicked out at about 5 so that we could be right on schedule for the c-section, but of course we were delayed. From here I lose track of time a bit but I know the epidural was delayed, the section was delayed. I was completely a mess when my mom left. Like, this is it. Nothing else to wait for except to be moved into surgery. Our nurse came back and shaved down there - looking back, completely unnecessary because my incision is no where close to there and I'm just itchy now... thanks. The anesthesiologist came in and both my nurse and hubby helped to try to calm me down as they numbed my back. That was more painful than the EPI itself. I didn't even feel that needle go in. Once it was in though, I immediately felt the sleepiness in my feet and boobs. haha. They laid me back on one side of my body for a few minutes and the coldness filled my leg and belly. No more contractions after that. They then flipped me over and I felt the coolness run towards the other side. I felt like my legs were spread apart but my feet were joined at the soles the entire time from here on out. I know they weren't because they were rolling me around from bed to bed side to side etc. It was very weird.
They rolled me into surgery at about 6:10. Got me all hooked up to the meds and then of course, I started feeling sick. Probably a combination of nerves and the meds. I was given a vomit bag to hold on to and Cliff was able to join me on the inside in about 5-6 minutes. I'm sure they must have started before he came in because it was only about 10 minutes later that I heard the most beautiful crying! Oh, I'm so happy he came out screaming. His wailing sent a sense of relief through my whole body. The biggest thing I was warned about with a section was the pressure when he was coming out, but it was very minimal for me. It took them about 8 minutes to clean him up and wrap him up for our first family portrait. Amazing. I felt so elated to know my little man was right around the corner.Things got blurry again because they gave me a mild narcotic to calm me down. I felt very sleepy. But by 7:20 I was in recovery watching Caleb have his first bath and hubby frantically snapping every little squirm and wiggle. Absolutely in awe.
What were your first words to your baby? Probably something like "hi, big boy. oh my god, I love you." Who knew you could feel so much joy - love at first sight for sure.
What were your first thoughts and feelings when the baby was born? Extremely happy. So in love. Overwhelmed with feelings of happiness.
Who does the baby look most like? His daddy. As soon as he came over I thought, "oh my god, that is DEFINITELY the little boy from our ultrasound!
What was your biggest surprise about giving birth? Laboring really wasn't as bad as I anticipated. Then again, I didn't go through the whole thing. But it didn't feel like what I expected at all.
What is the best thing about not being pregnant any more? The rib pressure is gone - I can HOLD my baby in my arms and not just around my belly and I am so excited to ALMOST be able to sleep on my tummy again.
What do you miss about being pregnant? Hm... I'll have to get back to you on that... I'm pretty happy not to be pregnant anymore!
What are you most proud of yourself for? Making our big decision to go with the section. In the long run, it was the right decision for a lot of personal reasons. Even though I'm sure I could have labored for hours and got him out.... maybe... this was better for Caleb and me.
What was daddys reaction after the birth? What was mommys reaction after the birth? I expected him to sob like I did... but he was strong and only started crying after they took little man away to finish being cleaned. I was a big balling mess as soon as Caleb started crying.
Why we chose your name. We tried on lots of names for our little guy. Tyler was in the running for a while... We even tossed around Jackson or Jax for short, until friends of ours named their dog that... We read 2 or 3 books on baby names and finally found Caleb. It means faith, devotion, and whole-hearted. We felt like this was a strong name that would grow from our little guys baby stages into his adult life.
Birth weight: 8lbs 15oz
Birth length: 22 inches
Eye color: Blue
Hair color: light brown, although lots of people insist he'll be a blonde soon because his eye lashes and eye brows are blonde.
Time of birth: 6:24pm
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