He's Here!

April 19, 2011

Woke up at 2:25 am to go to the bathroom and realized that my water was leaking. After giving it some time I knew it was officially my water...no gushing, but definitely my water. So I woke up Josh. He got some work stuff taken care of handing off and showered while I finished packing and called the hospital to tell them we were coming. 

On the way Josh joked he was failing his one job. Stupid pot holes. I also had my first real contraction on the way to the hospital which didn’t help his feeling. We pulled into the ER entrance and then parked (also with some finagling). I was admitted and my first two nurses were Julie and Delores. Delores was getting trained in on the floor. It was great to have two of them. They had great humor and were very encouraging, especially since my goal was to deliver without any pain medications. They checked my vitals and baby’s heart rate and then did the exam to see if I really broke my water. They said 90% of the time people go home because it was sweat or pee and not amniotic fluid. The lab results came back and I was happy to be part of the 10%. When they checked me I was at 3cm, with just a couple contractions.

But things picked up. They quickly went to 5 minutes apart. Dr Goersch came in as the doctor on call and checked me again and I was at about 3.5-4cm around 6:00am. She told me that things were progressing well, which Taylor would like, but Dr Taylor would likely recommend Pitosin if things didn’t continue to progress. Nurses changed at about 7:30 and I got a student nurse and Kristen. Again a great pair!

By the time Dr Taylor stopped in a little after 8. I had progressed to 8cm which made Dr Taylor very happy. He guessed we would have a baby by noon. From the 8 to 10 was the hardest. It got the point where I wanted to push but wasn’t far enough so I did a lot of pah, pah breathing. Josh did a great job. My right hip would hurt and he pressed on it the whole time. 

At 10:38am I was finally told I could start pushing. The student nurse was on my left leg and Josh on my right. Kristen was below. They coached me through. Looking back I was pushing but not quite giving it my all. A little afraid of the full out pain I guess. But I finally gave a good one and after that the nurse knew I was capable and really started coaching me to push more. At 12:00 Taylor came in to check on me. Was happy that things were going well, but wanted to keep things going. He was going to go do a C-section and would be back afterward.

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I was having trouble feeling when contractions were starting so Josh would watch the monitor and let me know so I could start my breathing better. That was very helpful. At 12:45 Taylor came back in and let me know that things hadn’t progressed too much and he was starting to think C-section…maybe the baby was too big. But baby was still handling it all well so he was ok with me still pushing if I could handle it (also concerned with my stamina). Well…that kicked me into high gear. The whole team really…Josh, Kristen, and the student were really coaching and counting now. By the time Taylor came back a half hour later, he was happy with the progress so he let me continue pushing. He actually got himself dressed and scrubbed up, so I knew the end was in sight. My bottom hurt from laying-sitting in the same position for 3 hours, my right hip was really hurting for some reason, and I was ready to have the baby. Dang it hurt, but we made it. They used the vacuum twice to keep at the crowning position between contractions instead of letting him slide back in. Found out later his head was 14cm!! So 3.5 hours, no pain medication, and a baby came!

2:10pm: Caleb was laid on my chest and my body...thoughts..and heart felt an explosion of joy, relief, and love! Josh had tears of joy and was so proud of me and Caleb. It was the best! They wiped him down on me, checked his vitals, and then he peed on me. haha We're obviously comfortable around each other from the start.

My mom, a physical therapist, had told me how important several things were to do in the first 7 to 20 minutes. So I had Caleb tummy to tummy as soon as possible. Then I held him up to my face and had him stare into my eyes. I asked a nurse to help me get him into Josh's arms from some face time too. 

Once they knew we were all ok and Dr. Taylor had stitched me up, the room cleared out and it was the three of us.There was Caleb, lying on my chest, grunting and burying his face into me, and I could only stare in awe. The first song I sang to him: "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always; As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."  After that came a few other songs and humming. He calmed right down and we enjoying our snuggle time. Nurses came in every so often to check our vitals. After about an hour we had the nurse do his first bath, weight, and measure him. Caleb cried occasionally for a brief period of time, but overall handled it all very well. 

Our first visitors were my parents. They came in the final stages of the bath. Mom brought me Peanut Butter Eggs and the day's newspaper. My mom came in and fell in love. Josh said the moment that touched his heart the most was watching my mom become a grandmother. There was a whole new glow to her. She was in awe and couldn't stop smiling (not that that is hard for my mom anyway).  Gene joined shortly after my mom got there and was eager to get his hands on his first grandson too. He hand the inspector's look on his face, inspecting Caleb's little body. 

Denise Alms, Oma

Gene Alms, will be named by Caleb

 

Josh's parents came next with smiles and anticipation. Nana and Papa were eager to welcome their sixth grandchild to the family. Nana got some time to oooh and aaah and then Papa got some time in the rocking chair with Caleb and wasn't eager to give him up any time soon:)

Ruthan Miller, Nana

Bob Miller, Papa

While Nana, Papa, and Josh moved our belongings and Caleb to the recovery room I took my shower. One of the most surreal moments where you realize what your body just did. That's all I have to say about that.

The rest of the night we had family and a couple friends stop by. Everyone was so happy to meet Caleb. I had a very successful full feeding with Caleb. Afterward he was so alert and bright eyed. Both Josh and I got time to hold him and stare into his eyes. What a feeling!

Our Family