Birth of Callister

Okay, so I'm finally feeling like an almost normal human being again: my soreness has faded some and I've finally got some much-needed sleep! So now I can share a few details of Callister's birth. I went to bed around 11:30pm on the night of January 25th. I had a hard time sleeping and kept tossing and turning. Finally, just as I was about to drift off to sleep at 1:30am, I felt a gush of wetness and got up to go to the bathroom, as I thought I had just wet my pants! I always heard those stories of water breaking and feeling like that, and I always wondered how they knew that their water had broken. Well, there was no question! Yep, my water broke! I cleaned up and went out to the living room to tell JayC (who was staying up all night, since he was on the night shift) that my water broke. He was like, "Really?? So what do we do?" I decided to call the doctor on call, and he told me to come into the hospital. I remembered my midwife had told me that if my water ever broke that I would need to go in to be monitored. Anyway, so I knew immediately this birth was going to be nothing like I had planned on, but we'd just have to go with it!

We both took showers, packed our bags, and got Connell and the baby seat into the car, all while I was continuously leaking amniotic fluid. I tried to stay relaxed and positive, but I wasn't even having any contractions yet. It was very foggy and I kept telling JayC how to drive. :) We got to the hospital around 3am, and I had started having some mild contractions, but nothing big yet and they were about 10 minutes apart. They hooked me up to monitor the baby and the contractions started getting a little more intense, but still only 8-10 minutes apart. My midwife came to talk to me around 9am, and things were still going slowly. She was worried about infection since my water had broke hours ago and still no progression, so I started walking up and down the halls. She had a yummy breakfast of eggs and sausage on an english muffin sent up for me to eat, and I walked the halls a little bit more. Oh yeah, we had Connell with us until about 7:30am when my friend Jennifer came to pick him up and take him home to play with her kids. What a life-saver! He wasn't even sad to leave me; he just waved and said, "Bye, Mama!" It was nice to not have to worry about him or have him worrying about me.

About 10:30am, my midwife came back to check on things, and we decided to start me on a tiny dose of pitocin to try to get things going faster. My contractions were about 6-8 minutes apart, and I was starting to have some intense back labor. The baby's heart beat started to dip from time to time, and my midwife told me that could indicate that the cord was still wrapped around the baby's neck, as it was in the last ultrasound I had. They thought it had moved, but apparently it hadn't. She said everything should be fine as long as I just kept trying to progress. I have to give a lot of credit to the hypnobabies program I had been practicing for the last month and a half. I listened to the hypnosis tracks on my MP3 player, and it really helped me relax, and when I had a contraction, JayC would put his hand on my shoulder and say, "Relax", "Release", or "Peace", and it would instantly make my body relax and able to handle the pressure. I couldn't have made it as far as I did without it! Thanks Emmy! Then the back labor got so intense, I would cry through the contraction and I thought I was gonna die! I had a really hard time relaxing and I was kind of in panic mode. I had no idea what to do to help with back labor! JayC helped a lot by applying counter-pressure on my back with his hands, but it was pretty darn unbearable! My midwife checked me and we found out I was dilated to a 5 and 100% effaced. She had the pitocin turned off to help relieve some of the back labor, but that didn't help. It kept getting worse, so I finally opted to get an epidural. It was wonderful once it kicked in!! I was then able to enjoy the rest of my son's birth. I am happy to say I endured 12 hours of labor without pain meds, but the last 2 hours were wonderful because I was relaxed and able to enjoy pushing my baby out. An hour after the epidural, the nurse checked me and she said, "Oh, there's the baby's head! You're having this baby right now!" So then my midwife, Lori, came in and I pushed for about 30 minutes, and baby Callister was born!! They placed him on my stomach immediately, skin to skin, and I got to hold and nurse him for an hour and a half before they measured, weighed, and bathed him. So wonderful! He's a beautiful baby boy, and he has 3 dimples! One on both cheeks and one in his chin. He's definitely our little boy! He's got JayC's nose and he's actually got some hair on his head! I doubted being able to love another baby as much as my first, but that doubt has all been washed away. I love both my boys so incredibly much! I'm so thankful for 2 beautiful, healthy boys that I am blessed to be the mother of! The Lord has truly blessed us!

And now for the most adorable pictures in the entire world!!!!



I love my boys!!!