Caleb's Arrival 05/27/11

Yes, I realize now I am a bit of a drama queen. May 26th was Caleb's due date and I was fretting so much about him being late and having to be induced and I felt like such a failure. Yes, pure silliness I know but you can't always control your emotions. By Thursday at lunch I was resigned to the fact that I would have one more week of being pregnant and would have to be medically induced to have the baby. I wasn't happy but I was content in having at least a timeline. Thursday I felt fine. Picked Abby up at school and came home. I was on the computer working on DBC and at 4:04pm I had my first contraction. I brushed it off as a fake one, not getting my hopes up for nothing again. From 4:04pm to 6:15pm they kept coming about every 17 to 20 minutes. They weren't painful though so I figured false. From 6:49pm until 8:24pm they started coming about every 10 minutes. I was still skeptical because they really weren't that painful. I could talk and walk and everything even in the middle of a pain. I called the hospital and they said to give it more time. Since my cervix had been stimulated by the Dr on Wednesday it could have brought on fake contractions which may very well go away. So we waited. From 8:24 until 10:30 contractions came every 5 to 7 minutes. By 10:30pm they were quite painful. We decided to go to the hospital. I was still trying not to get my hopes up. We got to the hospital and I was examined at about 11pm. I was 3 centimetres! Yeah, he was on his way. At this point the contractions were so bad I couldn't function. By 12am I was asking for the epidural! I actually don't feel bad about this. Even with all of my talk about having a natural birth I was in so so much pain I just couldn't take it. And at this point I just wanted my son, I didn't care about doing anything "the right way." Just get my kid! By 1:30am I was in my delivery room and drugged. The epidural only froze my right side (funny cause with Abby it only froze my left side). So, unfortunately I could still feel everything on my left. It hurt, a lot. Hubby and I tried to relax and we basically just waited. We listened to his heartbeat and talked. Hubby had a nap and I played games on my cell phone. By 7:45am I was fully dialated. Now, it was just waiting to see if I felt the urge to push. At 8:30 I started to get the urge. It took me 4 contractions and 20 minutes. Once I realized it was now soley up to me I went into Mommy Warrior mode. Apparently 20 mins is a short time for pushing but I was a champ and got him out!! I could hear hubby choke up when his head came out and then again when his body emerged. Hubby cut the cord and then I heard Caleb cry! I just kept saying over and over in my head "Praise God he's alive, he's alive, he's alive." They passed him to me and I could barely hold back the tears. I must have repeated "he's alive he's alive" in my head about 100 times. I was so happy and shocked at the same time. A part of me was still not quite believing things would go well. But they went perfectly. 17 hours and 46 minutes of labour. We spent Friday at the hospital. We were home by Saturday around 1pm. Caleb is really only put down when we're having dinner. Big Sis is totally in love and is such a huge help, getting me my phone or a diaper or trying to be quiet when he's sleeping. She is so excited and can't wait to take him to school and show him off. He's such a blessing and we are so happy.