Callie's Birth Story

Callie Jane Harper. 

April 19, 2013

9:27 PM

7 Lbs. 6 Oz.

19 inches long.

SO beautiful.

I finally decided to get my bum in gear and update this dang blog! I've been terrible about it the past few months because nothing too exciting has been going on, but now we've got this gorgeous new babe, and I have to brag. 

On Wednesday (2 days before her birth) I had a doctor's appointment.  He checked me and discovered that I was 4 cm. dilated.  He informed me that if I wanted to be induced I could, and that it actually would be a good idea because I was progressing so quickly, and that my cervix was favorable for induction.. whatever the heck that means. Haha.  We told him we had Cam's sister's wedding next week that we would love to go to, but that we were prepared to miss it if need be.  He left the room, came back and informed us that he set a time for FRIDAY. TWO DAYS. 48 HOURS. We left the office feeling a wee bit overwhelmed and couldn't quite wrap our heads around the fact that we were going to be parents. Time seemed to fly by, with our gigantic to-do list, but we enjoyed one last date Thursday night, before our parenthood began. 

Thursday night.  I felt like I was 7 years old, and Santa Claus was coming the next morning. We were supposed to call the hospital at 5:30am to set a time for us to go in, so we did, and to our disappointment, they told us they would have a better idea at 10:00, so to call back then. WHAT??? When we called back they said THEY would give us a call later to tell us when to head up.. Longest. Wait. EVER.  They finally called around 1:00 ish and said to come us as soon as we could. 

We got to the hospital around 1:30pm and after a longgg wait and at least 5 million questions.  The doctor came in to break my water. Actually, it was a medical student who was assisting Dr. Evans. He graduated in just a couple weeks so I thought, "what the heck." Well, he couldn't break it...and was fishing around for a while.. So the doctor broke it, they started me on pitocin, and the waiting game began. 

The doctor told me I could get the epidural whenever I wanted, and my nurse tried to convince me to feel a few contractions and get the hang of them first before I get the epidural, but after that first contraction I wanted the juice. The anesthesiologist came in right away and the epidural wasn't bad at all! That's the part I was the most nervous about, but getting the IV hurt like 20 times more. 

My legs started to get tingly, and thennnnn.... I took a nap. Bless epidurals.

Thanks to a special monitor, I could see when I was having a contraction.  I was having pretty strong ones, really close together, and the nurse was concerned that it was stressing the baby out too much.  I needed to have some oxygen for a while just to make sure the baby was getting plenty. 

They came in to check my cervix every now and again, and every time they checked I was getting closer and closer. I was progressing really quickly and I knew that my sweet girl was going to be here very shortly!

I was only in labor for about 4 hours, and at about 8:00pm I was ten cm dilated, and it was time to start pushing..... 

I was pushing for about 20 minutes or so, when I started to get really uncomfortable.  She had me grab my legs, and I felt them.... The nurse shifted my position, and she saw all this liquid dripping down my back....Yep. The epidural got disconnected from the catheter, and all of that magic liquid was now on my back, and not going in to my body.  I really began to start hurting, and she called the anesthesiologist to come back in to see if he could help me.  My nurse told me that if I wanted to hold off on pushing for a while until he came that I could.  But I wanted to push. Plus, pushing helped relieve SOME of the pressure from my contractions.

Before I knew it, I was feeling EVERYTHING. The medicine had completely worn off, and I was in pain. NOW I understood why they call it "labor."  This was not my cup of tea, but I was so grateful to have my wonderful husband by my side the entire time.  I'm a lucky girl.  Can't say it enough.

I continued to push, oblivious to everything else around me. All I remember is my husband telling me that he could see A LOT of dark hair. It was then time for the doctor to come in.  Once he was in the room the baby was coming fast. It helped that I could feel everything, and because of that my pushes were more effective. 

The anesthesiologist finally showed up, but it was too late.  The baby's head was already out, and after one huge, final push, I heard that tiny little cry.  They immediately set her on my chest, and I instantly fell in love. Instead of taking her away shortly after that to clean her up, they left her there for a long time while they stitched me up.  I FELT EVERYTHING....so having her close to me the entire time was the perfect distraction.

I was extremely emotional, and couldn't believe that this perfect little thing was just inside my body! It's mind blowing.

It took a while to get me, my baby and my room cleaned up, and my poor parents and Kassie had to wait so patiently for 2 hours before they could come in my room.

After they left, around midnight, the nurse wanted me to change so that they could move me to another room.  She helped me to the bathroom, and the second she sat me on the toilet (all dignity is gone after you have a baby)... I passed out.  I lost quite a bit of blood, and I wasn't ready to be moving around yet.   She pushed the "help" button in the bathroom and seconds later 3 additional nursed ran into the room. She had me smell ammonia and that woke me right up! After that fun little episode, I was exhausted.  She decided to wait and have me sleep for a bit before they moved me.  They had me change rooms around 3am, and that is where the sleepless nights began. :)  This was quite the experience, and didn't quite go according to the plan, but meeting our precious little girl made it all worth it. 

And now it's time for picture overload.

Heading to the hospital!

 

Keeping ourselves occupied. :)

Such a proud daddy!

Patiently waiting

Meeting grandma and grandpa for the first time!

Aunt Kassie!

Apparently she didn't want to go home..

We love being parents to our sweet Callie girl and are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends that have loved on our baby girl and spoiled all 3 of us with meals, sweet messages, and prayers. Love you all!