Brad and Cailyn: April 2012

Thursday, April 12th, 2012 - 5:11pm:

Cailyn had her first contraction...Brad was at the office. At a little after 6, Cailyn texted Brad to let him know that she had been having contractions for the last hour. Brad came home a little after 7.

Since the contractions were not yet very frequent or intense, we decided to eat a small dinner and then head to the community center to do a bit of walking. Cailyn walked and labored until about 8:45 and we arrived back home around 9pm. We changed and began to settle in for a night of laboring through contractions together.

The contractions remained fairly manageable until a little after 10pm. At which point, they seemed to get more intense and were much more frequent. By 11:30pm, contractions had come consistently at less than 5 minute intervals for over an hour, which meant it was time to head to the hospital.

Brad ran back and forth between Cailyn (in the upstairs bathroom) and the car to get bags loaded, while still helping Cailyn through contractions. Then it was time to help Cailyn downstairs. Another contraction. Then to the door and shoes on. Another contraction. Then outside to the car. Another contraction. Then it was off to the hospital...fortunately, it was only a few minute drive, and so the car ride only included one contraction. Then unloading the car. Another contraction. Then walking into the hospital. Another contraction. Then standing at the OB desk to check in. Another contraction. The observation of that contraction was enough for our midwife to decide it was going to be straight to a delivery room for us.

(We later learned, that we were one of four couples to check-in for delivery within a 20 minute window. Needless to say, the early morning hours in the OB were awfully eventful.)

As we got "settled" into our delivery room and continued to labor through contractions, the midwife came in and checked Cailyn. The midwife determined that Cailyn was 4cm dilated and was grossly ruptured (which meant her water was broken...and as it turns out, we are fairly certain her water broke at about 11am).

We continued to labor, largely just the two of us in the room (we assume partially because the nurses seemed to have confidence in our ability to labor together, and partially because of everything else going on) until about 6am. At that point, the nurse again checked Cailyn's dilation, and much to our disappointment, she was only 6cm dilated. Looking back on it, this was the key moment in the delivery remaining natural. Both of us questioned whether it was going to be "doable". Cailyn had endured much pain and on top of that, both of us were approaching 24 hours without sleep. However, after some tears and a brief discussion, which culminated in Cailyn being able to think clearly enough to know that if she took medication it would slow down the process, we decided to labor on as is.

At a little after 7, we decided that Cailyn would again get into the jacuzzi tub to labor (this was her 3rd stint in the tub...and the nurses were awesome about it, because there was a problem with the hot water and each time she wanted to get in the tub they had to bring water in trash cans from a utility closet down the hall). Much of the reason we decided to have her get into the tub again was because it was the laboring method that allowed both of us get the most rest (Cailyn would sit up during a contraction and then lean back in the tub and fall asleep...meanwhile, Brad would put his head on the sink and sleep).

Cailyn labored for about an hour in the tub, and then a little after 8am things changed. Her contractions got noticeably more difficult, with Brad having to remind her to breathe at the height of them. She had four or five contractions like that, and then at about 8:15, after finishing a contraction, she calmly looked at Brad and said, "She's coming." Brad didn't know if this was just wishful thinking or the words of a woman in transition. Cailyn assured him that he should go and get the midwife (we hadn't had a nurse or a midwife check on us in probably an hour), and so he did. Connie (the midwife) attempted to check Cailyn while she was in the tub (which was a rather humorous process), she thought maybe she was fully dilated but needed her out of the tub to verify. Cailyn had one more contraction with Connie standing over her and then Brad and Connie helped her out of the tub. Brad worked to dry Cailyn off, while Connie made another check on the dilation. Sure enough, she was fully dilated and ready to push. Connie suggested that Cailyn move towards the bed to get ready to deliver, to which Cailyn informed her that another contraction was beginning and she was not going to be able to move. So, standing in the bathroom, Cailyn pushed through one contraction. At that point, Connie realized that things were going to happen right there. Connie asked the nurse for a second glove (she only had one on her right hand) and instructed Brad to sit on the stool behind Cailyn and support her from the hips. And so, with everyone in position (at least as much as they could be), Cailyn pushed twice more and out came Laurel into Connie's hands. She immediately handed Laurel up to Cailyn and Cailyn, in the midst of a bloody mess, waddled over to the bed...holding our baby girl...umbilical cord still attached.

And so, some 15 hours later, at 8:22am, weighing 7lbs. 1oz. and measuring 20 inches long, Laurel Joyann had arrived. All that remained was a bit of cleanup. While that went on, the three of us simply bonded and enjoyed one another for over an hour. It was a tough process, but one we will never, ever forget.

Since arriving home from the hospital, we have continued to snap pictures of our beautiful bundle of joy.

This afternoon, we even worked to hold our first "official" photo shoot...of what i am sure will be many, now that daddy has a new camera AND something extra special to take pictures of. I do have to say, it was a challenging shoot, between a constantly changing light source and a constantly moving baby. But there were a few pictures that were pretty decent. I will work to get a few more of them up soon, along with some pretty good ones we have shot around the house over the last few days.

But here is easily the best picture from the shoot! This one will probably show up again some places!