Kamden Daniel...in like a lamb, out like a Kanon

We woke up Saturday (the 1st) to a normal Saturday. I was still having contractions every 15-30 minutes and had basically just gotten used to it. It was barely different from my pre-term labor, except a little more painful. A friend had offered to cut/color my hair (ironically, the last time she had cut/colored it, was the day I found out I was pregnant)(I know, I should get my hair done more, but that wasn't the point.) So anyway, I went and did that, after starting a ham in the crock pot. After the haircut/color I headed to McDonalds, because for some reason I just couldn't get a greasy burger out of my head (and Burger King was WAY busy.) Then headed home, did some laundry, went to Walmart and Smiths...you know. Typical day. Obviously these contractions were nothing to stop me... just maybe annoying. (Not going to lie... I was starting to feel like "ok, if this isn't going to turn into something then i could really handle it if they'd stop!") So, just to brag... let me recap. On the day I was in labor and had Kamden I went grocery shopping, made a ham dinner, and got my hair done. I'm that awesome. ;) At 7:30ish I went in to lay down while Luke put the kids to bed. When Luke came in the room after kids were in bed I said "Man, these contractions are really feeling strong, but still not regular." That's when he told me that when the kids went to bed, Luke took Kaden downstairs to bed and prayed with him. Kaden's prayer: "Dear Jesus, please let momma have the baby tonight." (is that not sooo sweet?) It was about an hour later, when I was SO sick of random, somewhat painful (gaining momentum in the ouch department, but still extremely irregular) that I decided "I want to KNOW if this is doing anything at all." I just wanted to know if I should have hope, or not! Now, doctors always say to wait til the contractions are 5 minutes apart for an hour to come...but we called the hospital and they said come just in case. So we called a friend to come watch the kids (THANKS BRENT AND CLAIRE) and arrived at the ER (since it was after hours) entrance at 9:30PM. Side story: In the ER there was a young girl with a young 10 day old baby. After I checked in we had to wait for a security guard to escort us to OB... so this girl decided she needed to be miss chatty and asked if I was inducing. No. So then she decided that I needed to know how to have a baby. She assured me that I would need an epidural and that it would be my best friend. She warned me it might make me throw up, because that's what it did to her. Oh and she named her baby Zaidon because she couldn't have a popular name. And then her mom joined in to tell again how much I really needed to get an epidural. I was trying so hard to be a good listener...but I really couldn't care less what they thought. Finally, as a strong contraction hit, I turned and asked if the security guard was here yet... and that's when I heard the mom and daughter say to each other "OH, I THINK SHE'S IN LABOR!" (um... what DID you think I was there for if I was not inducing?) Anyway...the guard went to take us up and then realized she had to have the ER receptionist open a door for us. (At this point I was wondering how someone who works nights could NOT know that?? And was a little annoyed. This night was not starting well...not how I hoped labor would go!) ANYWAY. By the time I was checked in and up to my room (not a delivery room)around 10pm I soon realized this was the real thing.Partly because it felt like my water was leaking, but mostly because the contractions were so painful I couldn't talk through them anymore.This was what they say you should have for an hour before going in. My contractions were still about 7 minutes apart, but when she checked me she said "You're not going home tonight." (It's that moment. The one you hope for and dread. You want the baby out...but the labor/delivery?????) I was a 5.5, so nothing crazy or exciting. When she asked if I wanted an epidural, I was ready to say YES. I'm not sure why but when she told me that I was a 5.5 I suddenly realized that with Kate I had gone from a 5 to a 10 in about 1/2 hour. So I mentioned it to the nurse, all the while thinking "She won't believe me" and "why would I think it'll go like that without an epidural?" But she did believe me and kicked into high gear. Within a few minutes she was ready to move me to a delivery room, but I was in so much pain I realized I needed a wheelchair. (Never thought that would be me!) By the time we got to the delivery room and up on the bed I was shaking. Luke asked if I was cold, but I wasn't. I heard the nurse say to anther nurse "She's presenting signs of transistion!" (which means you are about 8cm). Sure enough she checked me and I was a good 7.5cm. I kept telling them I might be wrong about how fast it might go, but they stepped it into even higher gear to get the room totally ready. At that point they called the doctor, and started begging me to wait til he got there to deliver. I told them I trusted them completely to deliver, and if I needed to push...i WOULD push. It was 10:30 (only 1/2 hour to go from a 5-10!!!) At some point in those 30 minutes I realized there would be NO time for an epidural and that was the biggest mental block for me to get through. After I got to an 8 and the pain was more pressure than contractions I realized the epidural had never helped that part anyway-it felt exactly the same. I had just THOUGHT it'd be 10 times worse. The doctor made it on time, much to the nurse's relief) and after maybe 7-10 pushes he was born! While I was pushing the doctor had told me that he could see hair. At that point, I was convinced it was a BOY (if I hadn't been convinced before!) So when he was born the doctor had to remind me to look and see what he was! I was SO sure... It definitely makes me laugh to remember the doctor saying "Are you going to look to see what it is?" and my inward realization that I really didn't KNOW, and I better look! It was a fun surprise, even if I wasn't very surprised! He was born at 11:03PM (Only one hour after I even realized I was having a baby that night!...I remember saying to Luke at 10:30pm "Do you think we'll have a Sept 1 or 2nd baby? I laugh now, at the thought.) Kamden Daniel was 7lb 2oz and was 19.5inches long. Except it would be a full 24 hours before we named him that! We struggled between Kamden and Kannon. Afterall, he came into this world like a Cannon (hense the title of the blog)...And we struggled between Daniel and Truth for his middle name. Somehow we named him. I couldn't tell you how... but we love it and it fits him! We are so blessed. And he has been a super easy baby so far. Except maybe the run to the walk-in at 13 days old... but that's a story for another time.

more "normal" life for us...

I think in the last 3 days we did more than a normal (busy) week! First, last Thursday (Aug 30th) Kaden had his last x-rays of his arm and was given the go-ahead to go without his splint/cast. Can you say HAPPY BOY??? He was so excited, and I'm not gonna lie, I was too! On Friday (31st), we went to a friend's house before my OB appointment to play. The kids were riding bikes outside on the somewhat sloped driveway (more sloped than ours) and suddenly we heard a scream. I wasn't sure immediately if the scream was a happy squeal or a bad scream...it didn't help that I was sitting at the top of the driveway and the scream came from the bottom- behind our van. Pretty soon, as I got up to go check, I saw Kaden coming toward me silent from a lack of air... he was hysterical. From that point on he held his arm (same arm) and cried off and on. I debated: was this real? Did it just scare him since the cast was off? etc... and I couldn't do much because by the time I had him calmed down it was time for me to go to my OB appointment. So i headed to that, leaving the kids with my friend (thank you Lauren!) and was informed that I had not grown bigger, gained weight etc, and so they needed to do an ultrasound and if there were low fluids we would be inducing. Also, the Dr went ahead and stripped my membranes and told me I was a good 3 and almost fully effaced. I was a little nervous. I hadn't told them I had a kid back home with a possible broken arm and for the life of me couldn't figure out how I would be induced AND get his arm checked out. Thankfully the ultrasound showed my fluids to be a 7.5. If it had been a 7 we would have been sent to the hospital to induce! I was relieved. Meanwhile, Kaden was still babying his arm, so I made an appointment with his pediatrician (seeing as it was friday before a 3 day weekend, of course!). We knew she would send us to the hospital for xrays but wanted to avoid the wait of the ER. Luke came with me to the appointment because, being 38 weeks pregnant, I was not sure I would even be able to go help with the xrays. It turned out to be so good that Luke went (thank you Sherilyn for coming to stay with Kate for us!) because as brave as Kaden was and as hard as he tried to do what they wanted, there was one position that just hurt him soooo badly. He would become almost hysterical, but they HAD to have an x-ray... My heart hurt for him. But Luke was able to stay with him for each xray, and I wouldn't have been able to. side note: when we checked into the hospital for his x-rays, the lady checking us in did a total double take. She looked at the orders for x-rays, back to her screen and back to the orders and said, "Diiiiid....he just have x-rays yesterday?" Yes.. he did. They were for a better reason. She was totally amazed. Then when we got to the radiation wing the x-ray tech came to get us and was like "Hey buddy... didn't I just do x-rays on you?" Oh my. It was then that I started praying that no one turn us in to family services or something!! It is just so crazy. Also, I told Kaden he is not allowed to get popular at places like hospitals and jails! ANYWAY... Meanwhile, I start having contractions. Nothing big. Just more notice-able than normal. not too regular...not to painful...nothing crazy. Didn't think anything of them, except that they were there. We finally got all the x-rays needed (not as easy this time around, this break seemed to be a lot more painful than the last one) and were never actually TOLD his arm was broken, but were told that we needed to head down to the ER to get a splint. They almost made us check in down there, but thankfully they just treated him as an out-patient (the ER was FULL... we were glad to skip that wait.) By this time it was almost 5pm and he was tired of being at doctors, and hungry, and we weren't in much better moods. (Even though on the way home Luke commented to me that he was glad I was handling it all so well.. all I could do was laugh. It was just too crazy.)He ended up with a cast from his wrist to his underarm that is not removable this time. I'm just glad we are past the hottest time of year, for his sake. So that evening Kaden (while praying with Luke), before bed, prayed: "Dear Jesus, Please let Momma have the baby tomorrow, because she wants to. Amen." Sweetest prayer ever.... see next post for answer to his prayer :)