Cam's Arrival Story

We're coming up on Cam's two week "birthday" so I figure it's time to share a little bit about how he came to be here. Leading up to his birthday, I was sick. Very sick. It started right after Christmas and I had to go through 3 rounds of antibiotics, one that I'm still finishing, to get better. I had days of begging him to stay put so I could recuperate and have enough energy to deliver him! So with that little background, we'll get into the delivery weekend. And as a warning, it's long as that's how these things usually go, but I promise there are some entertaining pieces to it and I'll reward you with a photo at the end. Although, I won't ever know if you just skip to the bottom to get the photo reward.

Friday, January 21st:
I thought my water might have broke, but was advised by the on call Dr. to sit tight and see what happened. I decided it wasn't anything that warranted me going to the hospital yet.

Saturday, January 22nd (Due Date):
I woke up feeling more sick than I had the day before, and I still wasn't sure about the whole water leaking business, so we decided to just go up to the hospital. We wanted to be safe rather than sorry. My Dr. (who was on call for the weekend) put me on a new antibiotic and confirmed that I was not leaking any fluid. Back home we went.

Sunday, January 23rd:
The feeling of being overdue is a strange one. All the while I was pregnant, I had a feeling he would be late, but when it actually was past my due date I was bummed. I immediately felt determined to get the baby out. I spent the morning cleaning (big surprise, huh?) and chilling with Gibson. Around 3pm having no new progress, I decided to step it up a notch. Literally. I started walking our staircase two steps at a time. Carl was certain I was going to hurt myself. After about 20 minutes of that, I worked up a nice sweat, but that was it. We had discussed going to Target to do some walking and to get me a Decaf, Non-fat, No whip Iced Raspberry Mocha, my beverage of choice during the pregnancy, but I told him I wanted to play our Michael Jackson Dance game for the Wii. He was pretty insistent on going to Target, but allowed me to get in 3 songs first.

Inserting side note story here that isn't key to the arrival of Cam, so feel free to skip this next part in parentheses or if you want a giggle, read on.
(Let me jump back. Carl had purchased a journal and decided it would be his "Cam journal." He started writing in it on Friday, assuming that I'd be going into labor any minute. I've never seen him obsess over something so much- mostly in a cute way. He wasn't sure what pen he wanted to use, what format he should go with or even if he should write on both the front and back of the pages. He finally settled on all his decisions. So I'm walking the stairs and he's writing in his journal. I get done with my attempt to get Cam out and sit down. Carl tells me we HAVE to go to Target. I told him I wanted to wait because I wanted to play the MJ Dance game first. He then replies saying that he already wrote in the journal that we went to Target and got Starbucks, so we really had to go. It was in pen, and that means it's permanent. I finally got him to agree to letting me play the game first and promised we would still go afterward. Heaven forbid we mess up the sacred journal! ;) )

Ok, so 3 songs later, I was, again a sweating mess. However, I was a sweating and possibly contracting mess! I started timing them casually and sure enough the 30ish second pains were coming just about every 5 minutes. I got reminded by my dear Carl that I had promised we would go to Target, and I agreed to go thinking that if these were contractions, the best thing to do would be to walk and keep them coming.

We get to Target, get our beverages and start walking. We had a few small things we needed to buy, so we grabbed those and then it started. The strong contractions. I had to stop multiple times in our walk holding onto a shelf or Carl for balance. We quickly moved to the checkout (where there was a freaking line for the first time ever!) and left. We grabbed a pizza knowing that there was a good chance we'd have to leave for the hospital soon and there was no way I wasn't getting my last meal!

We called the Dr. and she said I could either come in or labor at home for an hour or so. We decided to stay home and continue timing the contractions which were close to 3 minutes apart by this point. At 7:45p we headed out to the hospital. We checked in at 8:10p and I was put in a Triage room. I was dilated to 3cm and was already in quite a bit of pain. I attempted to walk around the hospital to move things along, but that didn't last for more than 20 minutes as the contractions were getting stronger and much more painful. By the time I was checked again around 10p, I was at a solid 4cm and was able to be admitted at that time. I am not one to tolerate pain well, and had made it clear to the nurse that I wanted an epidural as soon as possible. She worked very hard to get me in a room quickly, and I was extremely thankful for that!

It seemed like when I got in my room at 10:30p to the time that the epidural was administered at 11:30p took forever. I thought it was the longest hour of my life, and it quite possibly was up to that moment. Prior to the epidural I didn't want Carl to talk to me, look at me, touch me, nothing. He was so patient and understanding. However, after the epidural, I was a peach. I allowed our parents to come in and say hello and Carl was allowed to look at me again :)

I progressed along quite well after that. Not long after that, I was at 6cm and they broke my water, and there was unfortunately meconium in it. This basically meant I couldn't hold him right away, that he would have to be checked out by the Pediatrician immediately. By around 4am I was dilated to 10cm. The only other issue was that they were fairly certain Cam was posterior and were hoping to get him to flip. I endured the next 2 hours in a myriad of positions to coax him to flip, and thank goodness he did.

Just before 6am, it was time to push. And it was then that I realized waiting that hour for the epidural was like a freaking walk in the park. I'll keep the details to myself here, but after about an hour of pushing and 10 sutures to follow, a perfectly healthy Cam arrived at 6:40a on January 24th, 2011. (Just 20 minutes before my Dr. would have switched out with the next on-call Dr.!) He was a whopping 8lbs 14oz and 22 inches long. The nursing staff all commented on how big his hands were. Since I couldn't hold him right away, I just recall asking Carl if he was cute. Naturally, he responded with a yes. Although, I'm not sure there is any other appropriate response when your wife just had a close to 9lb baby and is in the midst of being sewn back together. :/

So that's the story of how Cam joined the Happy Household and we're still enjoying every day with him! This past week, we had a newborn session with the amazing Pazy Portraits and although we are waiting for the full gallery, here is a quick sneak peek into what we'll receive.

Lastly, moral of the story is, if you are pregnant and ready to get your baby out, just dance Michael Jackson style and your sure to have your baby in a matter of hours :)