Cayden's Birth Story

Four weeks later and I'm finally getting around to writing out Cayden's birth story.  I'm still sleep deprived and so very thankful that Adalyn is going to the sitter each day so that I can give my undivided attention to Cayden and have some bonding time with him. I've really slacked on keeping up with my blogging. I use my three middle of the night nursing sessions to read blogs on my phone, so I have kept up with the goings on of my blog friends. I just haven't taken the time to keep up with my own blog.

I'll pick up from my last blog post where I explained why we welcomed Cayden 12 days early.  I was expecting my labor with Cayden to be faster than my labor with Adalyn but they ended up both being the exact same amount of time. About 8 hours. Crazy!

I got to the hospital around 11am and by the time I got my IV and paperwork finished, my pitocin was started around 12:15pm. At that point I wasn't progressing very quickly.  I was at 2cm at the doctor's office earlier that day and was still at 2 when my doctor broke my water at 1:30pm. I honestly wasn't feeling the contractions very much. We were excited to find that there was no meconium when my water was broken (as there had been with Adalyn).

I got my epidural around 5pm. I was going to wait a little longer because I honestly thought I had more left in me until I needed any relief from drugs. At the time I was still around 3-4cm and it felt like this labor was going to be long. My nurse came in before 5 to let me know that there were two other ladies in labor that were going to have to have c-sections and there was only one anesthesiologist available so if I didn't get my epidural right then I would have to wait 2 hours (1 hour for each c-section) before I could get it and I honestly didn't think I had two more hours in me. I opted for the epidural early. (And that ended up being a really good decision!)

I got checked right before 7pm (before shift change) and I was still at 4cm. At 7:30 my nurse came in to give report to my new nurse for the night shift (my night nurse was my absolute favorite) and my new nurse wanted to check for herself to see how far I was and I was at 6cm!! That was quick! My new nurse hung around in the room checking my stats and talking with us and the second the door shut when she left the room I felt serious pressure. I told J that I had that sensation but I'd wait a minute since she had just checked me and had literally just left the room.  She came right back in after seeing her monitors at the nurse's station. She said that my stats looked like I had made some progress. I agreed with her that I had pressure and I thought it was time. Sure enough, it was 8pm and I was at 10 and ready to push! She called my doctor who thankfully had hung around her office so she was on the property and was in my room within moments.

My nurse didn't even have me do any "practice" pushes so when the doctor had me push for the first time I thought we were just "warming up". Nope. I literally only pushed two times and he was born at 8:17pm.  I couldn't believe when she told me his head was out and to STOP pushing. WHA??

I was excited to hold my baby right away since we didn't have the meconium issues this time. When he was born he had a super short umbilical cord. My nurse and doctor were both in shock over how short his cord was. It wasn't long enough to reach up for her to put him on my chest while they cut the cord. She had to hold him at the end of the bed and even made a comment that she needed to be careful when cutting this cord. She again coerced J into cutting the cord (she told him he had to for Adalyn too) and promised him that she wouldn't let him cut anything wrong. So he cut the cord (I was so proud of him) even though he's quite squeamish about such things! And then I was able to hold my baby boy!!  It was so wonderful!

It was crazy that I went from 4-10cm in one hour but that is exactly how it happened with Adalyn also!  We did some skin to skin for a little bit but Cayden was "grunting" and ended up going to the nursery just to make sure everything was ok.  Thankfully he was able to stay in Labor and Delivery with us long enough to meet his Grammy Burns and Grandma Nan and Papa (but unfortunately not long enough for them to hold him). And we were able to get some pictures! He finally was released from the nursery at 1am and we enjoyed some alone time with our boy.  Thankfully we both had a bit of adrenaline so we weren't tired when they brought him to us.

Here are some pictures from Cayden's birthday. (I posted some of these in my last post.) He was born on July 26th at 8:17pm. He was 6lbs 12oz and 19.5 inches long.

All smiles waiting for a contraction so I could push. 

 Getting cleaned up. Sweet boy!

 I love this pic!

 Skin time trying to get rid of the grunting.

 Grandma Nan and Papa got to the hospital about 15 minutes after he was born. They had quite a day of travel. They flew from Florida to Toledo that afternoon after visiting my brother's family. Then hopped in their car and drove as fast as the could to Kentucky!

 Grammy Burns waited all day in the waiting room to meet this boy.

 Daddy / son time.