Callen's Birth Story

Born August 9th (my parents' anniversary; the day after ours). 7lbs 4 oz 21.5 inches. Gray-blue eyes and brown/golden/ reddish hair. Long fingers and toes, long and skinny. Callen Douglas FINALLY came into the world after a 3 day induction that ended up a c-section. Happy, healthy and perfect.

Don't you love the Facebook version! Although that is how the story ends Callen's is quite the story...but be warned. I am a woman of great detail and I don't like to leave anything out so keep that in mind as you read this. It's mostly for me and for Callen, if he ever cares of his story one day.

At 36 weeks the ultrasound showed he was head down and in position. I was SO nervous at for that appointment and was pleasantly surprised to hear he was ready. I wasn't feeling like anything would be happening anytime soon. At each appointment (38, 39 and 40) I felt the same way. My swelling was getting pretty (looking back at pictures-REALLY) bad but I was feeling good. On July 31st we decided to schedule my induction for August 6th. It was on the fridge with our predictions and all over in my head he would be born on August 7th! hahahaha...

Day 1: Aug. 6th

I went in that night at 7PM. We took some final pictures of my belly, I had a blessing from B and our family friend Charlie and was set to go. Childbirth has always been one of my top fears so I was quite nervous and a bit of a wreck. It was an emotional night. Frantically getting ready and realizing on the car ride to the hospital our life was about to change drastically (in a good way, but different). I was a bundle of nerves. Just 2 days before our 5th anniversary and I told B on the way there how lucky I felt to have the last 5 years to us. He's truly my best friend and it seemed like a chapter was closing. Like the moment before you do something really cool. You can't see how cool it's going to be until you get there but where you are is so comfy and awesome. We arrived at the hospital, took a couple pictures and I proudly walked myself in and told the front desk I was there to have a baby. They got me to my dungeon  room. Construction was happening so the window was boarded up except for about 5 inches at the top. I got into my gown and ready to go. They got the nurses in there filling stuff out and setting things up. They were getting ready to get my IV and draw some blood but realized I hadn't been officially checked in with a bracelet or anything. They quickly took care of that and I got my first ever IV. Deuandra (my nurse for all 3 nights) found my vein the first try and I thought it was safe to look but somehow blood was going everywhere but it wasn't as bad as I thought. Around 11pm they inserted the cervical ripening pill since we found out I was still no where near going into labor. At midnight a mysterious man entered as I was getting ready to sleep. Turns out he's the anesthesiologist and

wanted to have me sign papers and discuss my upcoming epidural. I thought "there's nothing happening just hold your horses." But apparently people want them at 1cm these days. I signed papers and went to bed. Later on I was given a second dose. After the second dose they didn't want to continue so we decided later on Thursday they would do the balloon catheter because Nugget wasn't responding well to the pills and they wanted something they would control. This thing was going to take me manually from a like 1/2 a cm to 4cm. No big deal right?

Day 2: Aug 7th
Oh my heck! The Dr. I had tried putting it in for what felt like an eternity. So painful. And to top it off she kept saying, "sorry weak fingers." Don't say that to a woman getting a device shoved up them. That thing was awful! I had it in for about 4 hours and was in SO much pain! I got some pain meds which helped a lot. After 4ish hours the dr checked on it and finally took the thing out. No wonder I was in so much pain! It was just bigger than two golf balls!! Never again! We were so thrilled I was finally at a 4 but a manual 4 so I was put on pitocin to get things moving. My kaiser Docs changed at 8am and 8pm everyday so by now I'd had quite a few people. Not to mention I was on the end room and had heard not one but 2 babies cry in the room next to me. So beyond frustrating! We had all predicted he'd be here on the 7th. Watching that day come and go was not fun. I tried walking around, bouncing on the ball, praying but I seemed like they were all lying and I really would be the first person pregnant FOREVER! I had some really great, supportive nurses and some docs who told me it's very common to end in a c-section with how long it was going. The anesthesiologist was even joking around with the hospital to not visit room 6 cuz nothing was happening there. Lol it was true! 

Because I'm pretty certain I inherited my amazing pregnancy from my dads mom. I wanted to make sure I don't also have her labors that don't progress. So I was willing to go the distance to prove it. As long as I was ok and Nugget was ok I was in this for the long haul. I had doctors who were nervous about breaking my water too soon so we waited and waited. We had decided my body needed a reset so we wanted to take me off my pitocin and let me walk and try to labor on my own. Then the doctor came in and and said they were going to break my water.

Day 3: Aug 8th (Our 5th Anniversary)
 So the afternoon  of the 8th my water was broken and we were both doing great. That evening I started having contractions and was really uncomfortable. I was puking and living on the toilet and
didn't feel good. Mom and B suggested it was time for the epidural and I agreed. Although I want nearly as far as I wanted to be. I got the epidural and was in HEAVEN! It totally took the edge off and I could finally relax. My anesthesiologist was fabulous and so was his nurse. B was pretty proud to say he watched through the window reflection since he wasn't allowed to watch. I was feeling good for a while until late that night I started having contractions. They weren't terrible but enough that I couldn't sleep through them. B sat with me and helped me breath. At one point a nurse came to check on me and I guess I was feeling super hot. Since my water was broken so soon I had an infection and so did the baby (chorioamnionitis- infection of the amniotic fluid). I was put on antibiotics and so was baby for a couple days while we recovered. The nurse checked me again later on and I was at a 7 then a couple hours a 10 and then an hour and it was time to push!

Day 4: August 9th (My parent's anniversary)

I couldn't believe it! I made it and was getting excited/ nervous. It was about 3am and it was time to push. My nurse, Deuandra, was awesome! She got everything ready and kept me focused and helped me count and figure out what I was doing. She helped me try different positions and let B and my mom help as much as possible. The Doc(s) came in every once in a while to check on me and make sure I was doing ok. There was a clock on the wall in front of me and I watched one hour go by. I watched another hour go by and I was still where I started. I was pushing as hard as I possibly could. We had tried everything. The MD wanted to turn my epidural down so we gave that a shot. I had the anesthesiologist back in there SO fast. (don't mess with a birthing mama's drugs). I watched as the third hour passed. I was so frustrated. We had kissed the idea of a c-section goodbye and now I was
having a serious conversation about it with my MD. I was so exhausted from being up all night. I told them to give me 30 minutes to rest up and I would try again. We tried again and still nothing. At this point I was fine and Nugget was doing great but something had to be wrong. I signed the paperwork and they started to prep B and I. My mom was there but they only allow one person in. SO hard (for both of us) since I've always wanted her there. The original anesthesiologist (from the first night) gave me what he called "the good stuff" and was pretty excited. Things were feeling about as smooth as they could be until everyone started running around like crazies. They kept saying they needed to get me to the OR right away. I keep asking what's going on? Where's B and they said the baby's heart rate made a sudden drop and they needed to get me into surgery in case something was wrong. It was quite scary and a bit stressful. Especially since they left B behind. They told me he'd be in as soon as they were nearly ready to go. They got me in there with the team running around all over the place, shooting me up with heaven knows what and told me baby was totally fine. I think they must have

been worried after I was in labor for so long. I remember when they took me from my labor bed to the surgery table I said and/or thought that there was no way I'd fit on that thing but somehow you do. They were finally ready to go and called B in. He came in all suited up and they asked him to sit next to me and they would let him know when he could stand up. The anesthesiologist. asked us where the camera was...ugh hello first time parents no one said a camera was allowed in the operating room?! They didn't allow videoing of regular labor so we didn't even think about it. With no time to run get it the amazing anesthesiologist let us borrow his iPhone and let B email Nugget's first pictures to us. We were so touched by that and really glad we got to at least take some pictures. I was told I would feel a lot of pressure as they brought him out but truth be told I really couldn't feel much. I was so beyond tired and so nervous about the surgery I just had B sit there and hold my hand and talk to me. I hear the doctor ask someone to shove him back in my pelvis and next thing I know I see a nurse hold our skinny little guy in a big sheet thing and they whisk him over to the station to measure and make sure he's crying. 

Callen Douglas Dye was born at 8:57AM on August 9th, 2014.

I knew going in that B was just over 10 pounds when he was born and I was convinced that was the problem. When they brought him out I asked how big he was and they told me 7 lb 4 oz! I said he should have fallen out! lol but they told me he was 21.5 inches long. If you saw me pregnant you knew I wasn't that big. That was the problem! He was squished in there so weird that he kept getting pushed the wrong way. They called it occipital/occiput? transverse (OT). He had puffy eyes and a big ole red line on his head where you could tell I had been putting pressure on him for hours. (It stayed around at least a whole day) They left a portion of the cord for B to cut because they knew how badly he wanted to cut it. Callen had quite the grimace on his face and got really upset. When we heard him cry we said "He has a little man cry!" it was so fun

to hear his little voice. I asked him to be brought to me asap. They held him close to me and he instantly calmed down. Talk about amazing! Such a surreal experience to finally hold that little guy after all that work. But it was totally worth it! I wanted more than anything to have a happy, healthy baby and I was blessed with that. I never ever ever EVER wanted to have a c-section. It is still so frustrating that I did. But I count my blessings for modern technology and the doctors that helped me deliver a healthy baby. I missed all the fun stuff they do at the beginning that I wanted to be there for and left with a scar I didn't plan on having but I also left with the most beautiful blessing! Despite all the craziness I brought home a happy, healthy little guy and I couldn't have been more on cloud nine.