He's finally here!

Yay! I have to say I was pretty bummed after reading some of the comments by fellow preggers or moms out there about being dialated to a 3 for a month, etc. but luckily my uncomfortable last month was very short-lived. I know I shouldn't say, "He's FINALLY here" because he was still technically almost 4 weeks before my due date but when you expect your water to break every time you get up to pee (which is a lot)for the past four months it really seems to go slow! And here's the really ironic part - the doctor had to break my water!!! Wow. You just never know. Well here's Caleb's birth story...

Due to lots of rain this past week Josh had a couple days off, including Friday. This was nice because I had a doctor's appointment at 1:30. Thursday night my sister and friend from church had thrown me a surprise baby shower - where I told everyone I wanted my baby to be born tommorow because I had a feeling he was already eight pounds and everyone told me, "No way" - so Friday morning was spent writing Thank you's, Josh doing his homework, and getting presents organized. We went to Target and Wal-Mart around 11:30 to make some exchanges and get a couple more baby necessities, like a bouncy chair and more diapers, and then we went to my docotr's appointment.

My doctor was again thrilled to see me and told me I could do anything my heart desired, no more restrictions! She also said I was at 4 cm and "so ready" and I told her I'd see her tommorow to have the baby. It seemed like the perfect weekend because both her and my chosen pediatrician were on call and with seven OBGYN's and seven peds that just seemed so lucky it was meant to be!

So we all went to Family Video to rent a movie then to the bank to deposit a check and while we were sitting there at the drive through the pain I had been trying to ignore got more intense. I had been having some cramps the night before but it wasn't regular and then stopped so I wasn't sure this pain meant anything. I told Josh I was so hungry and needed Culver's so we hurried there and I scarfed down all my food in about 10 minutes, nervous I would have to go to the hospital soon and they wouldn't let me eat! So we got home, I laid down, and after about 5 minutes I decided I should go to the hospital just to get checked, after all, it didn't happen this way for me last time! So my mom came home from work an hour early and stayed with Gabe while we went.

We got up to labor and delivery and I told them, "I think I might be in labor" and they hurried to get me a bed. A nurse hooked me up to a monitor and after about 30 minutes it was clear there were regular contractions about five minutes apart. She called my doctor who told her, "Don't admit her just yet, this is just what she wants and she may not really be in labor." (haha, she knows me well, huh?) But then when she finally came to see me at about 5:15 I was at 6cm and she said, "You're gonna have this baby, I'm gonna break your water." I was like, "Really?!" I kind of expected her to send me home!

So she broke my water and immediately the contractions got more painful which I figured would happen to I told her to send for the drug lady pronto- I wasn't missing my chance this time!!! The epidural was put in about then and I was surprised how long it took. I sat on that bed very still for about 30 minutes while she putzed around and made a couple attempts - which made me a bit nervous. Finally, she said she was done and I right away could tell that only my left side was numb. She told me to lay on my right side and it would seep over. I tried that and was in even more pain, feeling every contraction with the right half of my body still. It was pretty strange. I will say though, Gabe's contractions were a lot worse. So even half an epidural is a miracle! Then soon it was time to push. I probably pushed for about 30 minutes - but it definitely seemed like more. Everyone kept saying, "He's right there!" I think they could see his hair like, the whole time. But he just didn't want to come! Finally, at 8:02 Caleb Joshua was born and right away the nurses said, "He's a big boy!" He officially weighed 7 lbs 15 ounces and was 21.5 inches long - thank goodness he was 3.5 weeks early! When they did his tests they said he was actually 37 weeks though. His face was a little bruised and he has a slight cone head but otherwise he's a typical squishy faced newborn! It looked like we adopted our kids because Gabe is so blond and then we have this indian baby! I looked like an indian baby when I was born though too.

So, we stayed in the hospital until this morning at around 11:00 when we were all released. It was so cool taking a baby home with me this time! It was also nice to have Caleb in our room so much. I kept saying to Josh, "Aren't they going to come take him for stuff?" and Josh is like, "Well he IS ours!" They did take him a couple times but overally it was so nice that he could stay by us. Josh had his own hospital bed the whole time (he liked that much better than Rexburg's pull-out chair) and the nurses babied him. He had his own big water mug and I was saying to the nurse, "This isn't fair, he's like a patient but with none of the pain!" and she's like, "Should I check his bottom too?" It was pretty funny. Maybe she thought he was cute...

Well, this is long. Thanks for reading! I better post some pictures now!