Welcome Caleb Michael

Welcome to the world Caleb Michael

He arrived February 1, 2015 at 1:49am

8 pounds 7 ounces and 20.25 inches long 

You arrived when you wanted. Mommy was trying her hardest to not let her type A personality get in the way of you arriving when you wanted. I'm not going to lie, it was tough, but with you potentially being my last I really wanted and desired to know what true labor pains were. You ended up being by far my favorite birthing experience. And I think that's fair for you since you are potentially our last and I'm sure you'll be skimped on video footage and photos!

Luke and Katelyn were scheduled inductions and I really wanted to try and go 'natural' this time {meaning no induction but yes to an epidural}. I assumed since Caleb was my third he would at least arrive on my due date. I wasn't planning for a later arrival {I had his brother's fourth birthday party planned two weeks after his due date}. It was getting pretty stressful with every passing day after his due date.

One week before my due date I went in for my routine OB check up and found I was only one centimeter dilated {no surprise there}. I was on the fence with whether to have the midwife strip my membranes since this never worked with my other pregnancies. She convinced me she was 'pretty good at it' so I went ahead with the discomfort. With my due date just one week away I decided I would test the ole' wives tale and eat at Scalini's {an italian restaurant that swears their eggplant parmesan puts women into labor}. I was trying really hard not to get my hopes up but with these two things PLUS the fact that he was my third {and apparently that means things happen fast, so I've been told} that I would see some progress at my next appointment {due date day}. Sure enough they check and I'm barely two centimeters. So I was bummed and I was especially bummed when they said I would be in for a stress test couple days later to check on the baby and made no mention of scheduling an induction {which in hind site was a good thing because I would have scheduled!}. So, a couple days later I'm back in the office taking the stress test and the midwife checks to see if I've made any progress with dilating and she informs me that I'm barely a 2 still. She senses my frustration and says she can strip the membranes further and also put a scheduled induction on the books just in case I don't end up laboring on my own.

We had a scheduled induction for February 4th and I was praying you would come sooner! The days leading up to labor I was getting a lot of uncomfortable Braxton Hicks. They were the most uncomfortable in the evenings. Every evening I would wonder if this was "it" because they were that uncomfortable. On Saturday January 31st, our family had an early dinner {5:00pm}. We were eating Tacos. As soon as we sat down I got an uncomfortable contraction. I started complaining to Dave telling him every night this has been happening and it makes me wonder if it's labor. Within the span of an hour at the dinner table I get about three uncomfortable contractions and don't help myself with 'seconds'. This is NOT like me. I always get up for seconds and thirds! After dinner, I round the kids up for bath time and by that point the contractions are really uncomfortable and I tell Dave we should probably start timing them because they seem consistent. Bath time is done and I tell Dave I think we may have this baby tonight or early morning so let's plan to go to the hospital tonight {at a reasonable hour} to check in but that we would have time to hang out at the closest Starbuck's for one last 'date'. We call my parents and tell them to take their time but plan to stay at our house that night while we got to the hospital. My plan was to leave the house by 10pm. As soon as I get off the phone I get a contraction that I have to "breath through" and start second guessing my plans for leaving later. Dave is getting frantic realizing that my contractions are between 4-6 minutes apart and 1 minute long. We call my parents again and tell them they need to skip their dinner date and head over now. Thankfully we put the kids down early and they were asleep by the time my parents were over. That couldn't have been planned more perfectly.

We get to the hospital and make our way to the nurse triage. I explain my contractions and they tell me the beds are full and that I would need to wait in the waiting room until one became available. I thought she meant the beds in ALL of labor and delivery were full so I freaked out on her for just a moment and she then explained it was only the triage beds that were full. Since I hadn't gone in "labor" before I didn't know about this step:). Dave and I head to the waiting room and my contractions are very painful at this point that I'm 'breathing' through every one of them. I found the best way to get through them was rub my belly and breath long and deep. I think maybe an hour went by and they finally had a room available. They check me and I'm 6 centimeters dilated. I was a little frustrated because I thought with this amount of pain surely I was like an 8! But they told me I was doing a really good job for being a 6 and that I could probably go without an epidural. They wheel me to the delivery room and I was pretty proud of myself for making it to labor without an induction and being able to bear the contractions on my own. I told my nurse to hold off on calling the anesthesiologist because I wanted to see how long I could go without it. Not soon after, I got a couple really painful contractions and had her call them up.

I was nervous about the epidural since I had some complications with it when I had Katelyn. When he arrived I let him know my concerns and I was pretty annoyed by his apparent lack of interest. He barely listened and talked over me. Sure enough, he sets me up and minutes after he leaves my blood pressure starts dropping. I had an amazing nurse that was able to get me back quickly and keep it from dropping any lower. She was really annoyed with him too and said he's notorious for giving too much of the drug. Once my blood pressure leveled labor was a breeze from that point on. I did however itch like crazy everywhere {side effect from the epidural} so I wasn't able to fall asleep but I think the itchiness was better then feeling the painful contractions:).  The epidural did slow down my contractions so I was in labor a little longer then if I never got it. A couple hours later, I don't feel pressure {the guy dosed me up to strong to feel anything} but I was feeling pressure on my chest {kind of a feeling of anxiety} so I call the nurse in and she checked me to find that I was ready to push. My midwife comes in and asks me to do a practice push. One practice push and three pushes later Caleb was out! It was so easy!:) Caleb was quiet for what seemed like eternity. I kept saying, is he going to cry?! And then finally he started. We got to hold him immediately and love on him.

Here are our pictures from the hospital. We didn't have as many as with Kate and Luke because we got out of there as quickly as possible {24 hours later}. Because the flu was bad this year they weren't allowing siblings to visit the rooms. We really wanted Luke and Kate to meet him as soon as possible! Not to mention the beds are so uncomfortable and the interruptions throughout the night are annoying:).

We arrive home February 2nd where Luke and Katelyn got to meet there baby brother for the first time. The immediate love they had for him was priceless. They couldn't wait to hold him and they were so concerned when you cried.