So... I had our baby! He came five days early, on Saturday March 5, 2011 at 10:18 pm. He was 8 lbs. 3 oz., and was 21 inches long. He was perfect!
We had a time getting him here though! It took a total of 32 hours- that's long even for a first baby! The day before, I had gone into labor at about 2:30 pm, and by 12:30 am I finally went into the hospital because the contractions were becoming increasingly painful. When I arrived I was dilated to about 2.5 cm and 100% effaced, but after watching me for an hour, I hadn't progressed at all, so they sent me home. What a letdown! Then at about 3 am, my contractions were coming 2-5 minutes apart, and becoming even more painful, but I waited until 10:30 am before I went back in. This time I was 3 cm, (all those painful contractions had barely done anything!) and they said they'd watch me for another hour. After an hour, I was only 3.5 cm, but they said I could walk around for an hour and see if that helped before they sent me home again. So I did, and after that I was at 4 cm, and that was finally enough for them, thank heavens! By now the contractions were every 2-3 minutes, and were very painful! This was apparently partly due to the fact that our little guy was posterior, and was having a hard time moving downward. So then they officially admitted me, and gave me an epidural which was AMAZING! For the rest of the afternoon, I rested, read, catnapped (sort of) and tried not to get over-excited that our baby was finally coming.
Finally at around 7 pm, after now having been awake for 36 hours, and having eaten only tiger's blood-flavored ice chips in the last 8 hours, it was time to push. So push I did...for 3 hours. Gah! Amy did some massaging of my abdomen to help the baby turn, which he did very soon after. After about an hour, I started to have the most horrible round ligament pain between contractions. The contractions were actually a relief because the pain I'd have in between was even more intense. Amy was a trooper and for the next couple hours stretched out my leg (which was still asleep) between every contraction to help ease the pain. Then after about an hour of hearing, "you're almost there!" we finally were there, and out popped our little Edward, looking cute as a button and screaming his lungs out. He was very strong and healthy and perfect.
We feel so lucky that there were no serious complications! What a relief to be able to say that. And that is the end of our birth story! :)
P.S. This video is of Eddie having the hiccups- so cute!!
Oh, my!!! What a thrill to read this. You are all so magnificent--all three....love the pictures and the story touches his Great Grandma Delta's heart...can't wait to hold him.
ReplyDeleteYou produced a fine specimen of a son....know the long labor was worth it. I love all of you. Caitlin, you look so fresh as if you have just had an afternoon in the park with Mary Poppins.
The video is a kick! Soo cute!! I'm glad you and Edward and Greg got throught this long ordeal without any serious complications. When can Edward come and visit us? Is he singing yet?
ReplyDeleteLove to you all,
Great Grandpa Dale
Well Grandpa, Greg's going to be going on some trips with his job this summer, so I might get bored and want to come on a road trip! I'll let you know...
ReplyDeleteAnd Gramma, I'm so glad you were able to read it and can't wait for you to meet him!
This is great! He's cute! For a baby :P
ReplyDeleteBAAAAAAAAAAAAAABY!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad everything went well for you, but sad that it had to last so long! Isn't that motherhood? All of this hard work and sacrifice and then you forget all about it because you have the sweetest job in the world?
ReplyDeleteOk, wow, I seriously need to figure out how to get notified of people's comments. I think it took forever because he was posterior plus I had an epidural. :( But all's well that end's well, right? At least the longer time goes on, anyway. So how are YOU GUYS doing? Still liking Oh Canada?
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