Introducing Caellum!

 Introducing Caellum Anson Hebdon! He was born on April 18th at 6:43am at 7lbs 5 oz and 19 3/4 inches long after only a 4 1/2 hour labor and delivery! We're so excited to have him join our family! He's the sweetest little baby and is my best nurser so far. He latched right on after I held him for a little bit and hasn't had any problems since with eating. I haven't even had a chance to get engorged, which has been wonderful! The picture above is right after he was born, his first cry. :)

 Daddy, Caellum and me right after he was born. I was still in shock that it was already over! I had geared myself up to be in labor the whole day like with the other boys, but before the day had really started, he was here! What a wonderful experience!

 So thankful that he has a perfect, healthy body!

 Sleeping in his bassinet at the hospital.

 I caught this smile while he was sleeping on the last day of our hospital stay. So precious!!

Caellum at a week old. Look at that face! He's so stinking cute! I can't decide who he looks like yet, be he's definitely one of our boys. :)

The birth story:

   A very strong contraction woke me up at 2am on the morning of the 18th. I was startled, cuz up until then, I had only had braxton hicks, and only very minor ones that were high in the uterus. This one started in my legs and spread all over. This was new for me to experience normal contractions all on my own, because even though my water had broken first with Callister, I never had strong contractions without pitocin, which then had made me have back labor. No back labor this time, and I did it all on my own! I went out to JayC in the living room since I had another contraction and I figured I wouldn't be getting back to sleep for a little while. They kept coming, so I started timing them. They were about 3 to 4 minutes apart already! We figured I'd better get ready for the hospital, so in between contractions, I packed my bags and got everything ready while JayC called one of his work buddies to stay with the kids while we went to the hospital. (He was on the night shift, so was up anyway on his day off.) I still figured the contractions would stop and I could go back to bed, since the baby was still early. They slowed down to about 9 or 10 minutes apart, but then became more like 3 minutes apart again. So we got in the truck and drove the 10 minutes to the Fremont hospital in Yuba City.
  Once we got to the hospital, the nurse had me change and then checked to see how dilated I was. She was shocked to find I was already dilated to a 6! I was shocked too! Things were moving! Since I had previously tested positive to Group B Strep, they had to hook me up to an IV of antibiotics and they told me I had to stay on the bed to try to slow things down. I was supposed to have 4 hours of the antibiotics before the baby came. Well, the contractions were manageable for a little while, but then they got really intense and close together. I started thinking about getting an epidural and mentioned it to JayC. He told me I didn't need it, like a good boy. :) The nurse decided to check me again and I was dilated to a 9, so I didn't have time to get an epidural even if I wanted one! I felt a lot better about it, since I knew this baby was going to be coming soon since I was in transition. All the nurses started running around trying to get stuff ready and my midwife came in. She had been taking her time to get ready for the day when the nurse had called her to hurry up! Funny. So they were all scurrying around and I started feeling the need to push. They told me not to push yet, cuz I wasn't completely dilated to a 10 yet. Another contraction, and then I really felt the need to push. I was given the okay, so I pushed. My midwife said, "Ok, with the next contraction, you're gonna have this baby!" That's probably the best thing I had heard anyone say in my entire life! ;) So I pushed with all my might and then I felt wonderful relief and heard the beautiful sound of my baby's crying! I was done and he was here!! I couldn't believe it! I had done it without an epidural and I had been able to feel everything for the first time. It was a wonderful and horrible experience all in one! (I did get a little bit of pain relief in the IV that helped take the edge off, but it didn't help much.) I'm thankful I could experience what real labor feels like without being completely numb. That probably sounds weird, but I feel like with the last 2 labors, I had been cheated of the experience of natural labor and delivery. This one definitely made up for all of that! I'm so thankful for another healthy, beautiful baby boy to join our family. I did have to get stitches like with the other two, but I can handle that. I love that I was aware of and remember every little detail of everything during and after delivery. Everything was a blur with the others. Caellum and I had to stay in the hospital for 48 hours so they could monitor him for strep. Thankfully, he doesn't have it and is doing awesome with eating and everything. We're thankful to be home with his crazy brothers and daddy and I'm thankful my mom is here to help for another week and a half. Life is great and I am very blessed!