Cale's Birth Story

The week that Cale was born, we'd been to the doctor on Monday AND Wednesday for non-stress tests and ultrasounds. My blood pressure continued to rise, despite bedrest and medication, and my hands, feet, and face continued to swell.  The doctor had been unimpressed with Cale's performances on the monitor--he was just a bit sluggish and not responding ideally to contractions or movements.

On Wednesday, November 16th, they scheduled us to go to Labor and Delivery that following Friday, November 18th, to be put on another non-stress test for an hours worth of monitoring. (CATCH: The doctor told me not to eat anything before we went to the hospital.) We had a feeling that it might be the big day!  We made a selfish (but not regrettable) decision to keep this information to ourselves instead of getting our large family all geared up for a possible delivery. We wanted our last moments of "us" to be peaceful and relaxed; therefore, NO ONE knew we were at the hospital :) We didn't want to be tied to phone calls, emails, or texts with questions or concerns, when we could be spending our last moments of 'just the two of us' together. 

Upon checking in at the hospital, we got all hooked up for another non-stress test. Cale was performing par-for-the-course. I was having plenty of contractions that morning, and Cale's heartrate was remaining a steady 130-135----not rising like they would expect it to do. My blood pressure was high, 140-150/100.  After an hour of monitoring us, the nurse came into the room and said, "You're going to have this baby today!"

We immediately sent out a mass text to family and close friends with a cute little rhyme letting them know that we would be meeting Cale that day!

{(Jump in your car, it's time for some fun. Today is the day, that we are going to meet our son!)}

  Alan ran off to the bathroom to shave off his mustache. This little momma informed him that he couldn't meet his son with that thing on his face ;)

He made two quick phone calls to both of our momma's to make sure they had received their texts, and we spent the next hour and a half just smiling, reflecting, and dreaming of the future. 

Things happened SO quickly after we received the news that I'd be having Cale within a few hours, just general prepping for c-section things I suppose.

Before I knew it we were walking ourselves into the c-section room, and I was putting my gowned body on the operating table. I received a spinal block to numb my lower half---weirdest feeling EVER!  Within three minutes of appearing in the operating room, my physician was pulling Cale out of my belly! To hear his sweet little cry was the most surreal experience I've ever had, seriously. I was crying, Alan was crying, we could hardly form a sentence to each other. Since he was four weeks early, they rushed him off to the special care nursery (later determined that he was best suited for the NICU), but not without a quick kiss from his momma!

My pregnancy definitely wasn't ideal (I would've preferred to keep my body healthier), but looking at my tiny little gift from God, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. No questions asked.