For Grammy

I promised my mom daily pictures while she is away...here is a live action shot from our morning when she called. Also pictures of Caden drinking mommy's Starbucks hot cocoa and Uncle Gray and Miss Jenna holding baby Caleb.

Here's what going on in our house today!

Our first Saturday at home all together...Caleb is 6 days old!

Four Days Old!

Four days old today!

Brothers!

Caden did this all by himself, he is very excited to have a brother!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALEB!!!

What a miracle!! Caleb is here! He was born on Sunday night, actually it was early Monday morning, October 6th at 2:09am. He weighed 7 lbs 13 ounces and was 20 inches long. If you want details here is the "story".

Sunday night we all went for a long walk to the park and when we got home we all had popsicles. At 8pm I got up to help Caden out of his chair in the kitchen and her water broke. I looked up at Collin and said my water broke. (later I asked him why he believed me right away and he said it was because I was standing with my legs stuck together) Anyway, I insisted on staying at the house long enough to make cupcakes and get our stuff together. My contractions started right after my water broke but they weren't that bad. We loaded everyone and everything into the car and headed to grammy's house. My sweet college age brother had to leave his fraternity brothers to come and babysit Caden at my mom's house which he did very well. He even changed his first (i think) diaper. Collin, my mom, and I headed to the hospital which is conveniently 5 minutes from my mom's house.

At the hospital we got all checked in and started doing paperwork and getting IV's hooked up. At this point it was about 10:30pm or so and my contractions were coming about 4 minutes apart and I was 4 cm dialated. 30 minutes later they started getting a lot stronger and I started to really wonder how long I was going to wait for an epidural. Collin and my mom were coaching me through and helping, although at some point Collin got yelled at for watching baseball on tv and was not so nicely asked by my to turn it off. Not to long after that I decided I'd had enough of contractions and asked them to call the anesthesia doctor who was 30 minutes away. In the next 30 minutes things got really painful, I don't know how my mommy friends did that without drugs because by the time 30 minutes had passed I was yelling/crying how much longer. Post drugs things were much better. They checked me at midnight and I was already 9.5 cm dialated! I had to wait to start pushing for some antibitocs to kick in so for the next 2 hours I remeber vaguely watching Planet Earth...and mostly watching the heartbeat monitor and the contraction monitor rise and fall. I definately felt not so little Caleb's head getting closer-thankful again for the drugs.

Finally, at 2 my nurse came in and had me do a "test" push. She quickly said to stop and ran pretty fast out of the room to get my doctor. Everything got set up by 2:05 and 2 contractions and a few pushes later he was here at 2:09! They laid him on my chest and we got to hold him right away! What a wonderful experience.

If anyone knows me they probably know deciding to have a trial of labor instead of another c-section was a big decision that I spent a lot of time researching, etc. There were a few additional risks in some really rare cases labor puts too much pressure on the c-section scar. I will honestly say that in the last 2 hours of labor I was convincing myself that my scar was rupturing and it was kind of freaking my out, but they assured me that everything was fine. (his heartbeat was normal and my labor was progressing without stalling) Having gone through the entire experience I would make this decision 1000 times again. When people say that recovery time is faster for a vaginal birth that is the understatement of the year. And for me the experience of giving birth was something so special and wonderful, looking down to see Caleb's head and holding him the very moment he was born, I am so thankful and blessed that this worked out. It doesn't always go so well and I know that there are so many things out of your control, but for me this was a dream!

Anyway, we stayed in the hospital for 2 nights and got home on Wednesday. Having a baby and a 2 year old at home this last day has been an adventure, but so far Caden is really interested and loving towards Caleb. He has even tried to hug and kiss him several times! So that's it for now, I've used up too much precious nap time writing all of this~

Love from our new family of 4!!!