Cailyn Camille, March 27th

posted 11th Apr

I know it took me a while...but here it goes.
I woke up at 3:30am on Wednesday March 26th to a very strange sensation. I thought I had peed myself in the bed.. but as I woke up a little more I realized that it was my water breaking. I immediatly yelled "Ben.. BEN! I think my water just broke". Now, my dearest husband is not the easiest person to wake up, and even when he does wake up he's so delirious and out of it that he's pretty much worthless. He rolls over and says "what.. what.. huh??!" I said "MY WATER BROKE! GET ME A TOWEL BEFORE I SOAK THE BED!". He jumped out of bed, stepped on the dogs bone, almost fell over and stumbled into the kitchen. I'm not sure what he was doing in there.. but I was still yelling for a towel when he ran back into the bathroom and pulled it off the rack. At this point he was still half a sleep, so I rolled off the bed and waddled into the bathroom with the towel between my legs and sat on the toilet. Now.. I sat on this toilet leaking fluid for half an hour while Ben called my mother and told her I was going into labor, and gotour bagsready to go. Everytime I stood upoff the toilet I had to sit back down because I would leak all over.We finally decided that we needed to just get to hospital because I wasn't having contractions & felt very strange. So, I stuffed arag in my underwear, hopped in the truck & said"step on it before I soak your seat!". Thank goodness the hospital is only 5minutes down the street.
We arrived at MetroHealth hospital at around 4:15ish andI waddled into the ER. Everyone in there was staring at me because I was soaking my pants as we walked in thedoor. Needless to say it was a bitembarassing.. but at this point I was getting so excited I didn't care. We signedsome paperwork, and Ben was grinning from ear to ear as the nurses came with a wheelchairto take me up to Labor & Delivery Triage.
The nurseinstructed me to undress & get on the table... I was still leaking fluid all over the floor. lol. They hooked me up to afetal heartrate monitor & contraction monitor. I was having some mild contractions, but nothing I could really feel. Thedoctor came tocheck & make sure it was really my water that broke so they couldoffically admit me. Well,she barely put the ducky thing in and moreamnoitic fluid came pouring out all over her & the floor & the bed.Who knew it could be so messy! I was only about 3cm dialted & 30% thinned. I was informed that they would have to administer pitocin to stimulate labor contractions since I wasn't having any. I wasn't too excited about that because of what I had heard about being induced with this drug. But, I didn't have a choice because after your water breaks if you dont deliver within 24hours your baby is at risk for infection. Bad jew jew.
I was wheeled into my labor room, and by 5am I was all hooked up to an IV with saline & pitocin. Ben & I were starting to get excited.. I was advised to take a nap. Yea, right. I was way to excited for that, but I sure did regret that later! The nurse kept coming in and asking "are you in pain yet?". When I would reply "not really" she would turn up my pitocin some more. Ben & I watched "Evan Almighty" on the nice flat screen in my room. What a nice hospital I might add!
Finally by about 10am the contractions started to hurt, so I thought I was making progress. The dr came in to check me. I was only dialted to 5cm, but I was 80% thinned! I thought that afer 5cm things would go a little faster. Well, the contractions kept getting stronger and closer together but I was still dialating very slowly.
At around 1pm the nurse asked if I wanted an epidural. I told her I wanted to do this without one. She then offered me an IV drug called Nubaine. After some stipulation and another hour of contractions that were anywhere from 1-4mins apart, at aroubd 2pm I gladly accepted the drugs so that I might get a little nap. An hour later, they were pretty much worn off. I was sad, but then at 3:30 my mother arrived at the hospital! I was so glad to see her smiling face! It seemed to make everything better for a little while. She rubbed my feet while ben held my hand as I practically squeezed it off during every contraction. (poor guy). He was such a good labor coach!
Several hours went by. And by several I mean about 8 more hours of contractions 1-4 minutes apart that hurt like hell.. and just kept getting worse. By 9pm I was in so much pain I was crying and they were worried that I would be so exhaused I wouldn't be able to push so they encouraged me to get an epidural so I would relax & my cervix could dialate the rest of the way (I was at 8cm still). So at about 10pm I got an epidural. The nurses had to put a chair behind Ben while the dr was putting the needle in my back. They said he was looking pretty pale. hahaha! My contractions hurt so bad that I didn't even feel the whole procedure. 10-15mins later, from my waist down was completely numb and I felt great, but very sleepy.
A little before 11pm I started feeling very strange & shaking all over, the nurses reassured me that I was just going thru transition and that in a minute it would be time to push! I got excited and scared all at the same time. Everything started to happen really fast. The dr checked me, and I was 10cm & 100% effaced, ready to go! I swear the pushing part was the best part of my labor! I pushed with all my might for about an hour. At 12:19am on March 27th, 2008 our little princess was born! 6lbs 6oz and 20.5in long. She came into this world face up (sunny side up they call it), which is a little backwards, but that's ok! She let out the cutest little cry on my chest, daddy cut the cord, and then she started to scream when they took her to check her out & wash her off. I will never forget that moment my baby came into this world. It will be the most cherished seconds of my life! I love her more that I have ever loved anything in this world. She is perfect in every way!
We took her home from the hospital the next day, she was doing wonderful, breastfeeding like a champ! But thenSaturday night when we decided that she was turning into a banana baby! We took her to the ER & they tested her bilirubin levels and she was at about 15. So we took our little jaundice baby home & had a special light delivered to our house the next morning. Cailyn had to be on the biliblanket for a little over a week, but now she's doing great!
Yesterday she had her 2 week appointment (I can't believe it's already been that long). Her dr said she's perfect, healthy & has quite the personality. She's gained over a pound and currently weighs 7lbs 8oz. I guess mybreastmilk is fattening! haha She's being more & more active everyday.. and is so much fun! I can't wait until she starts interacting with me. She's my little angel

from my album: Babies