CAYSEN! 12-13-12

Monday December 10th: The day we had been counting down to for months was finally here. Except one problem, there was no baby. Not only was there no baby, but there was not even a hint that he was thinking about coming soon. I had a Dr. appt and she checked me and I was dilated to a 2 and hardly effaced (same as the last two weeks). The baby's heartbeat sounded great but she wanted to make sure everything else was going well so she hooked me up to the moniters for 15 minutes to track his heart rate and movement. Everything looked great do my doctor gave me the option to schedule an induction for sometime this week or the next, but that she didnt like babies to go more than a week overdue because thats when there seem to be more complications. Since my mom already had her plane tickets for this week and James was going to be on his 7 days off shift at work and we had plane tickets to CA in 2 week (and lets be real. What 9 months pregnant lady is going to choose to wait longer when given the option) So we decided to schedule it for that week. The next time my doctor was "on" was Wednesday (12-12-12). I thought it would be cool to have the baby on that day, so we scheduled it for Wednesday at 5am that way the baby would come by evening...or so we thought.
Tuesday December 11th:  That morning I cleaned our already clean house (since my crazy nesting instincts had me cleaning places I didnt even know existed the previous weeks). Then in the afternoon I picked up my mom from the airport, we grabbed some groceries, and hung out for the day. James arrived home from work and went to play some basketball and we did everything we could think of to keep ourselves busy.
Wednesday December 12th: After tossing and turning all night our alarms finally went off at 4:30 to get ready to go. As I got out of the shower my phone was ringing. It was the hospital saying they had alot of ladies come in last night who were in labor and they were finishing up with them and we would need to be pushed back to come in later that day. We were slightly dissappointed because we had gotten up and showered and were all ready to go, but tried to get some more rest because we knew there wouldnt be much time for rest later on. We ended up heading into the hospital at about 10:30 and after being checked in and hooked up they started the pitocin at 12. James went and rented some movies and stocked up on candy for the day. The first few hours it didnt seem like anything was happening or changing at all. Finally my doctor came in to check on my progress and I was dilated to a 3, but not much of anything else. She decided to use a water filled balloon to help expand my cervix and said she would be back in a few hours to check on me. Things started to feel a bit more like something was happening and I could feel where a contraction was starting and ending without watching it happen on the screen. After my doctor was done with clinicals she came back to check again I was a 5. She took out the balloon and broke my water. Let me just say on a side note I am SO glad my water didnt break anywhere else besides a time and place where I was totally anticipating it. Things started picking up and becoming a little more painful but I kept waiting for more intense pain because I knew no pain = no progress. I was up and about bouncing on a birthing ball walking around my room and doing things to hopefully aide the process. James was such a good support helping me with whatever I needed throughout the whole process.The nurses continued checking my dilation and upping the pitocin, but things were slow moving. By about 8pm I had reached a 7 and I was warned transition was coming and that it was going to get more intense but usually lasts much shorter than the early progress of labor. I once again denied the epidural. (Not because I had something to prove, but because I had read birth stories, heard other peoples birth stories and felt this little boy move around inside of me for months I wanted to feel birth and know what it was like for me. Also, I didnt want to be immobile during the whole process). From 8pm to 10pm was the most intense contractions accompanied with throwing up I was sure I was almost to a 10. My doctor arrived after going to a white elephant party and was coming back to check on me. Lucky for her she had asked us earlier what to bring and my jokester of a husband told her chocolate laxatives and a roll of toilet paper wrapped together and she told us it was the hit of the night. When she checked my progress I was only at a 9. I thought to myself if all those crazy contractions only dialted me one centimeter how much longer and more contractions for a whole other centimeter. Never in my life did a centimeter feel like such a HUGE amount to move! I was stuck at a 9 for an hour and finally at 11pm I was told I could push. I'll leave out the wonderful details of the end of labor, but after 3 LONG and HARD hours of pushing and the baby pushing on my tailbone my doctor said my cervix was starting to swell so I could either push this baby out or a c-section was in my near future. I was exauhsted to say the least, but I guess that was all the motivation I needed because James Caysen Logan was born at 2:09 am. The first things I noticed was all his hair and his long fingernails. He was perfect! He weighed in at 6lbs 12oz and 20.5 inches long. James helped cut the cord and give him his first bath. He was already so good with him. We felt so loved when my mom and James family came to the hospital at 4am just to meet our new addition to the family :)
The rest of our stay at the hospital went very smooth. I LOVED my nurses who were there during delivery and when I was checking out. They were so supportive, clean, cheerful, and helpful with all my questions and needs.
Blogger is being weird about uploading pictures so ill have to do that another time. So pictures and more updates on our life at home to come!