Cameron's Birth Story

I will warn you now, if you are not interested in the labor and delivery process, you should just skip this post.  I have not posted any pictures, so you're not missing anything if you stop reading now.  Ryan is uploading more pics to the computer later today, so I'll post them separately to spare anyone who doesn't want to read about childbirth.  Not that this is particularly gross and gory, but some people just don't want to read about it.  So there's your disclaimer.  If you're still reading, here's what happened...

Monday I went in to my Dr for the regular 38 week check up, and some extra testing due to my BP.  I was monitored for a few hours, and it was determined that I could not safely stay pregnant.  Baby O had to come out.  So off we went to the hospital for round 2- this time though, we'd be bringing home baby.  We were oddly relaxed about the whole thing.  I guess the first fire-drill style trip to the hospital got us prepared for the real deal.  We decided not to call anyone until we had talked to the Dr on call, and had a plan.  The last thing we needed was 100 people camped out in the waiting room asking for progress reports while I was in labor.  So we sat around on monitors for several hours (again) so that the OB on duty could monitor my progress.  I was going to have a midwife do my actual delivery, but I had an OB watching me, just given my BP situation.  This sounds kind of crazy, but I felt like that offered me the best of both worlds.  (Or maybe I just liked the extra attention.) 
Finally it was determined that at 7 pm they would start Cervadil and that would go for 12 hours.  At 7 am they would start me on pitocin to kick-start my contractions.  I have heard terrible things about pitocin, and frankly, was not looking forward to that.  As luck would have it, 2 hours into the Cervadil, I started contracting on my own.  They were coming hard and fast- 1-2 minutes apart.  They had to pull the Cervadil for fear of causing fetal distress.  So by 9 pm Cervadil was out, and they were going to see what would happen.  My contractions were close enough together that they could not start the pitocin at that point.  By 11, contractions were so strong, and rolling one on top of the other, they let me get my epidural.  (Dr. King, I love you and am forever grateful for your awesome epidural!!)  I finally got to rest a bit.  The downside was that the epi slowed down my contractions a bit.  By 2, they were trying to decide what to do with me.  I was just really messing up their plans I guess.  The options were to start pitocin immediately, start the pitocin at 7 as originally planned, or break my water and see what happened.  As they were having this discussion, my water broke on it's own.  So that settled that little debate. And I settled in to see what would happen.  At that point, I was only 3 cm dialated.
By 6 am, I was 9.5 cm and they thought I could start pushing by 7.  Except that 7 is when they do the shift changes, so they then waited it out for a "fresh" set of nurses.  By 8, I was ready to rock.  The bad news is that my epidural wore off about 15 minutes into the pushing.  Baby Cameron was born at 9:49 am on Tuesday, August 17.  He weighed in at 7 pounds 5 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long. 
My midwife was awesome.  She got us everything we asked for in our birth- we wanted delayed cord clamping, immediate skin to skin, and dad to cut the cord.  Check, check, and check.  She even let me help deliver little Cameron when it was time!  It was the most amazing experience.  Everything seems like such a blur now.  I feel like that whole experience happened 50 years ago.  I believe this is what my friend Helen refers to as the "gentle blanket of amnesia that motherhood wraps around you".  There are a few moments that do stick out in my mind.  The first is when my midwife said "OK mom, here he comes.  Do you want to help?"  I know Kourtney Kardashian did this and it was all the rage when that episode aired (I don't watch it, but I couldn't help but hear about it), and in that moment, I totally just sat right up, and reached down and pulled my little boy out.  I never ever thought I would do that, but I am SO glad that I did.  It was just the most amazing feeling to know that I was the first set of bare hands that felt my little baby.  He was completely alert and just looked at me like "OK, what now?"  So we snuggled, just like I'd asked him to. 
They eventually had to take him to clean him up, do his Apgars, and all that other fun stuff.  The most terrifying moment of the night up until then was when I heard the alarm go off signaling that my epidural was wearing off.  But when I saw them grab the phone for the NICU, I swear I almost jumped off the table to see what was wrong.  As it turned out, he was fine.  He just didn't give a good hearty scream like they like to hear, so they gave him a little boost of oxygen to make sure he was OK.  OK doesn't even begin to describe it.  He's just amazing. 
We do have a million pictures, and I will post some later.  We've blown through 2 memory cards already, so I just sent Ryan to the store to get another one, along with more diapers, of course. 
He's just such a sweet, sweet baby, and every time I put him down I look forward to picking him back up again.  And yes, it has been almost a full week since I have truly slept.  But I wouldn't trade one second of time with him for an extra night of sleep.  Not in a million years.