Wednesday, May 6, 2009

We are parents at last!

Many of you have heard we had our baby, and we are of course, very happy. As we look back on the last few days, I really don't know how we (mostly Steph) did it. Here's the short version:
Contractions started 3 am Monday, and continued all day that day. We were planning to have a home birth, and our midwife checked in on Steph several times during the day. She was dilating, but not much. In the evening, things started kicking into high gear and by 3 am she was dilated to 6 cm, and her water had broken. We were getting ready for our little guy to show up. But he didn't. 12 hours later there was absolutely no progress, and the baby was not dropping into place. We didn't know what the problem was, but the midwife helped us decide to head into the hospital to try to get contractions going with medication. Nothing else was working. We headed in at about 6:30 pm., and the medication worked to get some quality contractions going. Within a few hours she was fully dilated and the baby was in place - ready for pushing! Steph worked so hard and pushed with all she had, but the closest we got after over 3 hours of intense pushing was just barely being able to see a little of the baby's head. The little guy was stuck and Steph was all out of steam. The only option left was a C-section, though we really hadn't wanted that. Still, after it was all over at 4:45 am we were left with a beautiful baby boy, and Steph is recovering well. In the end, it doesn't matter how he got here, the point is he's here! God is so good, and we can't wait to show off our strapping young lad. I'm at the hospital right now, and can't get the pics of my camera at the moment, but those will be coming soon - I promise.

Vital stats: 8 lb 9 oz, 21 cm long. Caleb . . . Vanderzee - middle name coming soon :)