caleb's birth story~

**I would love it if you would all share some of your birth stories,

whether by blogging or even in the comments.

I love birth stories.**

Fast forward one year since Anna's birth. (see Anna's Birth Story here.) We've sold our house in LaVergne, and bought a house in Madison closer to my family. (I grew up living next door to my grandmother, my two great-aunts, and my aunt, plus I'm very close to both my sisters, so living out in LaVergne in my first few months of motherhood and no longer working outside the home made for one depressed new mommy.)

I nursed Anna for 11 months, and then she suddenly weaned herself. I found out I was pregnant the day after she turned one. I was very excited. I knew he was a boy from day one. The big name debate was between Caleb and Christian. Glen thought Christian Rivers sounded like a church, so Caleb it was.

He was due on 1 May. That morning, I had a mother-daughter tea at my family's church. I almost won the youngest mom award, but my sweet friend Rachel beat me by a couple of months :o)

I had woken up that morning thinking my water was probably leaking. As with Anna, I had been 5cm for the past week or so. I knew if I called the doctor he would probably tell me to come into the hospital, and wanting to avoid an induction and get to experience the "I think it's time!" phenomenon, I decided to hold off on calling him. At least until after the tea. I mean, who can resist little sandwiches, fruit, and cake? I could have a baby later.

That afternoon I called the doctor. He told me to come on in and if I didn't go into labor by the following morning, I would need to be induced as my water would have been broken for over 24 hours. We got to the hospital and were met by the drill sergeant nurse. My doctor was on vacation, but the on-call came by and said he was fine with me having liquids until midnight. As soon as he left the room, she informed me she wasn't going to let me have anything. (I guess she didn't want to deal with a potentially throwing up patient. I am sooo glad I home birth now!)Not only was she a strict, by the book type, she also had just had a chemical peel, so she was the blistered drill sergeant. That was okay, we kept the lights off.

I really didn't want to be induced. My three regrets after having Anna were being induced, not getting to experience going into labor, and having an epidural. (No flames for women that have epidurals, it was just how I wanted to do things!)

Around 3am I realized (and it really was like an epiphany), "Hey! I'm having contractions that I'm noticing. I must be in labor!" I woke Glen up and told him. He went back to sleep. After a little while, they were getting more intense, so I woke up Glen and called her. She graciously got me a birthing ball that was quite nice. But alas, once again labor was hard, and not knowing how much longer it would last, I opted for the epidural.

Wouldn't you know, right after that, not thirty minutes, I was complete , and Caleb was born with a pushing stage so short I don't even remember it. He had meconium so they didn't hand him to me right away. I remember really noticing the cramping after he was born. I think one of the great benefits of being handed your baby immediately is that your focus is all on that new sweet little person and it helps you not notice the lovely afterbirth stuff.

Caleb Rivers was born around 6:20am, and Dr. Trabue (my fabulous ob that is still my backup doctor and referred me to my midwife, Susie) missed it by mere minutes.

We named our new little guy Caleb Rivers. He weighed 8#14oz. We went home a couple of days later and everything was great. Adjusting to number two was so much easier. And this time I avoided the whole well-baby check event at Vandy ;o)