Caden Lawrence's Birth Story!

I was leaking some fluid but had no pain all day. Around 1AM, we went to bed and at 2:30ish, I woke up feeling a pop. I was a tad wet, but nothing too bad. I went to the toilet and had a big gush, followed by a little gush after I stood up. I went and told Tyler I think my water had broken. He sat straight up and said, "REALLY?!" so I called the doctor and we made our way to the hospital!

We got to triage around 3AM, and I was 2CM dilated still. My cervix was very high, so checking me took a few minutes and was very painful. We were brought into L&D around 3:30 and I was set up with my IV of fluids and antibiotics. I was feeling no pain yet. I decided I wanted to get up and walk around then I got onto the birthing ball for about an hour. She checked me around 5AM and I was 4CMs. I started feeling things then, but the ball really helped. I stayed on the ball until she wanted to do my next round of antibiotics.

I was exhausted because I didn't sleep during the night, so I was going on being up 24 hours so the nurse recommended Nubain. It made me feel drunk! It gave me some good sleep, but of course - soon as I got the Nubain, all different doctors wanted to come chat and I couldn't tell you what we talked about.The nurse came and checked me again and said I was still 4CM so she wanted to start Pitocin. I did awful with it because Nubain made me so much more exhausted and with the pain I wasn't able to sleep. I got the epidural around 12, and it was the best choice! During pregnancy, I was nervous about the epidural, but I knew it was a great choice so I could get some sleep before we had to push. Tyler wasn't aloud in the room, so my nurse held me while they did what they needed to do. I felt a bit uncomfortable feeling the catheter go in, but it was heaven after that! Tyler came in to see how I was doing, and I fell right asleep.

The Pitocin did the trick, she checked me around 1:30 and I was 10CM! I was shocked. Tyler ran out to the waiting room to let everyone know. We got ready to push and they asked Tyler to hold my leg. Tyler was getting a little squeemish so my mom took over, which I think was all nerves, so he stood by my head wiping me with a wash cloth while we pushed. After pushing about an hour, his heart rate started to rise. Things started getting hectic because there was discuss or a vacuum birth or c-section if he didn't come out soon. I was falling asleep between pushes and they had me on oxygen to see if that would get his heart back to normal. I was stressed, exhausted, and nervous but that was all the motivation I needed to focus on getting him out. I got him down and he was crowning when they called in the doctor. The doctor was with another patient birthing her baby, and that was the worst thing you could have told me. I started to cry and because the pressure was awful and they were demanding me not to push...get real! They had me do little pushes while she was getting ready, and that really helped. Not a minute later did the doctor sit down that he started coming out. My mom held my leg, Tyler was by my head. I could feel him start to come out when I heard Tyler sobbing telling me that he was right there. One push later, and Caden came into this world at 2:43PM! They let me hold him for a minute, then took him to the warmer where he got all cleaned up and got a good heartbeat going!

Daddy stood by his side the entire time. My mom stayed with me, but would walk over to look at Caden every so often. She gets very sqeemish too, so she didn't want to see anything down there while I was giving the cord blood taken and stitched up. We all guessed he was in the high 7lb - low 8lb range but to our surprise Caden was 7lbs 1oz. They brought him over to me for skin-to-skin and that was the best moment of my entire life. No pain, stitches, or fear could have hindered how precious he was.

He is the best thing in this world. I love him to death. I knew I'd love him, but this love is unimaginable. He is so perfect, and tiny. I just stare at him and fall more in love. He's just 3 days old, and already I can't picture life without him. Tyler is doing amazing. I thought he would be great, but he's just amazing. I'm so happy!

I'm going to post pictures soon :)