Ok...so it's been 6 weeks since this amazing day but as the title states, "Better late than never!"
Caleb's Birth Story
On March 16th at 3:07 am, I woke up feeling really wierd. To be honest, I was half asleep as I made my way to the bathroom (by this point, I was very used to sleep walking to that location!) and all I thought was that I had to poo (sorry tmi, i know!) After hanging out in the bathroom for a bit, it occurred to me that going to the bathroom was not what I needed to do at all and that maybe something else might actually be going on....
At this point, I woke Chad up and told him that I thought I was having contractions because I felt a ton of pressure and couldn't sit down without being super uncomfortable. We started timing them and they were about 8 minutes apart. Apparently, I yelled at Chad for having bad breath...lol!
By 4 am, the contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart and I was starting to switch from being uncomfortable to being in pain. At this point, we called the doctor. I continued walking around the house and trying to get last minute things together (hairdryer, makeup, etc). When I'd have a contraction, I'd stop and at one point Baloo (our cat) came and checked on me.
We left for the hospital around 4:45 am and called our family on the way. Mom said, "Awwwwwwwwwwwww!" ....Dad said, "Hallelujah!" and Chad's Mom and Dad said, "Yeah!!!!!!"
On the drive to the hospital, the pain started to get really, really bad and the half hour drive seemed like it would never end! Once we got there, we checked in and then went upstairs to labor and delivery. It took about 5 minutes for the nurse to come and get us out of the the waiting room. I couldn't sit so we stood outside in the hallway. Chad helped me breathe through the contractions...now that his teeth were brushed, he was amazing! :)
Once we got into our room, the nurse got me into the bed and hooked up the monitor and blood pressure machine. She checked my cervix and I was 2-3 cm dilated. Soon, another nurse came in, took blood and hooked me up to an IV. At this point, my contractions started to get much worse. Chad continued to try to help me breathe through them but they were starting to get excrutiating. We did long, slow breaths together but by this point, I was more than ready to get an epidural. All we had to do was wait for blood work to get back but this seemed like it took forever. Also, we had to wait for our doctor to get there.
When Dr. Zimmerman got to the hospital, he called the lab to get the platelet results and finally administered the epidural at 7 am. He jokingly said that an epidural is like a used car. Sometimes, can be a great deal...sometimes, a little flakey. For a while, my epidural felt glorious...but it
was definitely fl
akey...never really covering both sides at once.
At 8 am, Dr. Zimmerman came in and broke my water. The nurse told us that there was some meconium in it but that this was pretty common for post-term babies. She explained that when Caleb was born, they would have specialists in the room to be sure that his lungs were clear. At this point, I was about 5 cm dilated, 100% effaced and at -2 station.
At about 8:15 am, the people from the Carolina Cord Bank came in and we signed the papers to donate Caleb's cord blood. It felt really good to be able to do something that may help another family have a miracle.
At 10:30 am, the nurse came in to checkup and I was still 5 cm. She called Dr. Zimmerman and they started me on pitocin to make the contractions stronger and hopefully move things along.
At 10:50 am, I decided to watch Glee :) It was a good idea but while I was watching, my epidural started its long, awful decline and I couldn't concentrate on the show because of the pain. At 11:40 am, our nurse came in and increased the pain medication in the epidural. I was really afraid of the side effects that I had heard about the epidural and at first, I resisted adding any medicine. The nurse got really stern with me though and gave us a very in-depth explanation of what an epidural does. It really helped us to understand the risks (or lack there of) of the epidural. Once she increased the medicine, it made my legs almost completely numb but it did sort of help. Part of the problem was that Caleb kept jarring my ribs during every contraction and the epidural isn't designed to go up that far...
At 12:20 pm, Chad had gone out to grab a bite to eat (per doctor's orders...he didn't want to leave) and I got checked up again-- 7 cm dilated; 0 station. Yippee!!! Progress! I couldn't wait for Chad to get back so that I could tell him the news!! :)
At 2:35 pm, I was 9.5 cm and the nurse started to shift me around a little to get me ready to push. OMG! At this point, Chad and I were feverishly excited!!! We were going to be parents soooooooo soon!!!!!
Unfortunately, just when all of the excitement picked up, my body started to slow down. Between my 2:35 checkup and 5:20 when our favorite doctor went off his shift, absolutely nothing changed. As it turned out, Caleb's head was transverse and a small part of my cervix would just not finish dilating. By 4 PM, I was feeling really tired but still optimistic that things would change for the better soon. Intermittantly, Dr. Zimmerman had me push as he tried to manually pull the cervix over Caleb's head but it just wasn't happening.
As a final attempt (though I didn't know it yet) to get Caleb to turn, Dr. Zimmerman increased my pitocin and had me turn on my side.
By 5:20 pm, when Dr. Beatty took over, I was still 9.5 cm, Caleb hadn't turned, and my epidural had worn off. When she walked in, one of the first things that she said to me was that it was looking like I might have to have a c-section. Needless to say, I got really upset...I was so tired and scared. For the next two hours, we tried everything to avoid this but at 6:50 pm, we were told that if Caleb didn't come in the next hour, the c-section would have to be done for the safety of both Caleb and I.
After a few more attempts at position changes and what not, we started to be prepped for a c-section at 8:05 pm. By this point, Chad and I just breathed and held each other...It may not have been our plan on how, but Caleb was coming soon...our miracle would be here soon...
C-Sectioning Into the World... Chad's Account of the Birth of Our Son
Because so much of my next few hours were spent in surgery and recovery, Chad did an amazing job of writing Caleb's story...here it is below, unedited by me...
"Where do I begin... After a long day of contractions, pushing, turning, twisting, and everything else...Caleb decided he was not going to come out on his own.
Dr. Beatty let things go as long as she could, but stressed she was not going to let anything harm Nicole or Caleb.
It just got to the point with him being transverse and her in labor for so long, that it just wouldn't work.
At about 8:15 or so, they took Nicole back to the OR. I went into the changing room and took forever to get the stupid scrubs on. I got ready and waited. They came to get me around 8:30 or so.
I sat down next to Nicki at the head of the table. She was scared but doing great. She was afraid of passing out and getting nervous.
Before I knew it, the nurse told me it was time to see my little boy. I looked over the curtain and saw the most amazing thing ever.
My little boy. They brought him around the table for us both to see. He was already crying.
Me and Caleb went into the other room to get him cleaned up. I tried to video as much as I could so Mommy could see. He got an 8 & 9 on the APGAR score...
We hung out in that room for a bit, then went back to see Mommy. I know Mommy was still scared, but the happiness in her eyes made me feel like she was ok.
I wheeled Caleb back from the OR to the PACU, where we waited on Mommy to get back...Caleb got checked out, and was doing great. His blood sugar got checked since he was such a big boy. He needed a score bigger than 45, and he was 63, so bood sugar was good. He was a trooper through all of his shots...A tough little man.
After a little while, Mommy came in. She was still a little shaky from surgery, but being able to see Caleb started to put everything at ease.
Mommy was doing good in recovery. She didn't want Demerol for pain since her mom had a bad reaction to it. They got her some pain meds... Her blood pressure was still high and she was having trouble focusing.
Once Caleb was done with his bath, Mommy got to feed him. He started breastfeeding right away with no trouble... Mommy's blood pressure started to settle down, and we got moved upstairs to our room..."
The Greatest Sound Ever...
Caleb's birth may not have been how I planned it and while I may not have gotten to have that experience of my baby being placed on my chest the instant he was born or seeing Chad cut the cord, I do have one very vivid memory that will forever be the most beautiful in all of the world. There, on the operating table, barely holding onto consciousness... I heard my son's first cry- a loud, strong, wail...before he was even fully out of me!
At that moment, every fear, every sadness, was gone....our miracle had arrived...just as stubborn and determined as he must have been the moment he was created.
Weighing 9lbs 3oz and measuring 21.5 inches long, Caleb John Humphrey was born on March 16th at 8:40 Pm. For both his Mommy and Daddy, it was love at first sound! :)
Wow! It's just amazing how the time flies...I can't believe that our little bugaboo is already 6 weeks old! Last night was a tough one for the little man...His reflux came through full force and he had a bit of difficulty with his breathing because of it. Of course, Mommy was a LOT more worried than Caleb and so we went for a visit to the pediatrician today. Turns out everything is fine...the acid in his tummy was just a little hard on his throat which caused him to make loud gasping noises when he was trying to fall asleep (really scary!). Anyways, the doctor put him on some new medicine- prilosec- which should do the trick!
