The Birth Story

I don't know if anyone is interested in hearing the nitty gritty details of Calder's arrival, but just in case I thought I would include them, plus having them recorded somewhere is a good idea.

On Sunday (Oct. 12) we went to church as usual. I had some serious Braxton-Hicks contractions the night before so Jason and I were up between 2:00 and 5:00, they stopped so we went back to bed and thought nothing of it.

After church we hung out a little bit and I noticed I was having some painless contractions and come to find out there were about 10 minutes apart. I was pretty sure they weren't the real meal deal, but we timed them just in case. So, I would say the contractions started around 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon but it wasn't until 6:00 or 7:00 that we were sure they were real and I could definitely tell when they started and stopped. I took Deebo for a very long walk around 5:00 and that seemed to help things move along. After getting back I made some chocolate chip cookies to keep myself busy.

At 9:00pm the contractions were about 7 minutes apart and Jason and I decided we should get Deebo to our friend's house for the evening before things get too serious or too late. Jason drove him there and I took a bath. Somehow the bath made things speed up a lot and the contractions jumped from 7 minutes to 4 minutes apart. They were becoming uncomfortable and I was getting a little anxious for Jason to get home. Once he got home I hung out in the bath a little longer. In fact I didn't really want to get out of the bath and Jason was joking that he couldn't get the tub down three flights of stairs and into the car, so I had to get out. After getting out I got a bit more uncomfortable.

We hung out a little longer, I threw up at some point and we decided it was time to call the doctor. She said we could come in, but she would like the contractions to be 4 minutes apart for about 2 hours before we get to the hospital. So, we waited a little longer. Finally we decided to head out to the hospital. It was a little early but we figured we should go. Jason got some last minute stuff packed up and off we went.

After getting checked in around 11:00 pm we went to triage. I was already 9cm dilated. They were a bit shocked that I was pretty much ready to go. Unfortunately I was Group B Strep positive and needed two rounds of antibiotics before they would deliver. My water was still intact and so they said if it broke on it's own we would deliver, but if not they wouldn't break it until I had enough antibiotics. So, I sat, fully dilated for 5 hours until they would be willing to break my water. This was the hardest part. It was a little late in the game to have any pain meds. I didn't want any but would have welcomed a nap. I kept willing my bag to break even though I knew it was better for my baby if we waited. I was just so tired. I hadn't slept and had a short night the night before. It felt like 4:00am would never come. Thankfully it finally did.

After breaking my extremely thick water we were ready to go. They actually had a hard time breaking the water and didn't think it would have ever broke on it's own. He could have been born in the sack. We took a few practice pushes and were ready to go.

It took five or six contractions worth of pushing to get him out. Pushing was a pleasant switch from just sitting and waiting. It certainly burns and feels tight but I wouldn't say it's painful. It's pretty cool how your body just does a lot of the pushing on it's own. It was such a sweet moment when he came out.

Jason was so sweet the whole time. He took incredibly good care of me and talked me through the harder contractions, which were basically all of them towards the end. He saw things I'm sure he would have preferred not to see but acted as if he didn't even notice. He just held my hand and helped me through it. I'm so thankful for our little family. I couldn't be happier.