Halloween 2009

Waiting for the trick or treaters

Passing out candy with Daddy

Nana sharing her candy

Mommy and Daddy's Choice

Happy Hallowiener!

Caleb's Birth Story

We were scheduled for an induction on October 27th at 7:30am. After much anticipation we arrived at the hospital and got checked in and settled into our room, 168. Our nurse, Christy got everything started from paperwork to monitoring to the IV(3rd time is the charm by the way!). The pitocin was started and at about 9am Dr. R came in and broke my water. They were right about having a lot of fluid...the flood gates were open. Sometimes babies can have trouble adjusting to the water being broken but Caleb was looking great on the monitor. He handled it like a champ. So now the waiting game...I was feeling the contractions but they weren't really bothering me at first. Dr. R came back in to check and see how things were going and found that Caleb's hand was over his head because she could feel his pinkie. Not really a good thing at this point, but he still had lots of time to move his hand out of the way. The contractions really started picking up and I got my epidural around 2:15pm. Thanks Dr. H for an amazing epidural! When Dr. R came back in to see how things were progressing, she found more of Caleb's hand...he was moving it the wrong way. She tried and tried to move it for him but every time I would have a contraction it was just come right back. We tried changing my position several time to see if we could convince him coming out hand first wasn't the best idea. We even tried putting me kind of upside down to see if he would "backup" and try again. We were not successful in getting him to move his hand. At 6pm he had gotten his arm past is wrist in front of his head. I was dilating but at this point, one-he would definitely get stuck if he tried to come out arm first, and two-it would most likely damage his arm. So a c-section was our only safe option. We headed to the OR at about 7pm with our new nurse, my good friend, Beka. At 7:16pm we got to see our little guy...Caleb Anderson. He did amazing! His apgar scores were 9 and 9 (its out of 10 and no one gets a 10). The apgar scores tells us how he is adjusting to life on his own. Josh then went with Caleb to the nursery where the grandparents got to see him for the first time. I stayed in the OR for a little bit longer so they could finish the surgery and then went to the recovery room. After being there for a little while, Josh and Caleb were able to come back and visit me. I was able to breastfeed Caleb for the first time. He ate like a champ. Josh and Caleb went back to the nursery for bathtime and they brought me to my new postpartum room, 126. They finally brought Caleb to my room at about 10:30pm. After I got some more snuggle time with him, the grandparents all got to hold him for a few minutes. They left for the night and it was just our little family. We spent the next few days in the hospital trying to figure this parent thing out. We came home from the hospital October 30th at about 1pm. What a surreal experience. Thank the Lord for our healthy little boy!

39 weeks and 2 days
A little blurry but we were excited to get going.

Getting admitted and settled in

Apparently the contractions aren't very strong yet

Nana here for labor support...ok really she was here for Caleb

Not fun anymore!

Epidural Time

G-Mom and G-Dad ready for Caleb's appearance

Our Labor nurse, Christy

Getting ready to go to the OR

Welcome to the world baby boy!

First family Photo

In the recovery room

After his first bath...not so sure what we are doing to him

Welcome to the gun show, Ladies!

A friend in the nursery knows that I really didn't want a "halloween baby", so she played a little joke on me, usually they get just a white shirt, diaper and blue hat-not my little guy he got a whole halloween outfit. (It made the other babies in the nursery jealous!) Thanks Miranda!

Back together again

Our delivery nurse, Beka

Daddy and Son
(there is the blue hat that they usually get)

Tiny Toes

Look at all that hair.

Our little family

After a couple days and a only a couple hours of sleep

Daddy time

He does this funny thing with his legs(his left leg is not propped up)

Cute going home outfit, laying on a blanket made by his great great grandmother

His first impression of his carseat.
He actually likes it now, sleeps the whole time.Loading up in the carWelcome Home Caleb!

Caleb Anderson M.

Here is a sneak peak of our little guy. We will post his birth story with more pictures later. Mommy, Daddy and baby are doing great. Hopefully we will be able to go home Friday the 30th.

Caleb was born October 27th at 7:16pm via C-section.

He was 8lbs 11oz and 21 inches long!

Homecoming King

LA's brother, John, won Homecoming King at The University of West Georgia! WhoopWhoop!

Congrats John Robert! We are proud of you!

Our son...JACK-

O-LATERN!

Here is Josh working hard on his artwork.

Pumpkin BellyI was scared that my belly would be stained orange after this, but it washed right off!Josh and Jack

Football buddy

Josh has been calling me his "football buddy" this football season. We really do enjoy watching the foosball together on the weekends. He promises that Caleb won't replace me as his football buddy, but I don't believe him. Maybe we can all be buddies! GO BEARS!

We even got a shirt for Caleb!

So what does Plan B involve?

Plan B:

• Back to my weekly doctor appointments and NSTs. They know me by name now, I guess that makes me a regular, I see them more than I see friends!
  
• Back to work, so much for maternity leave. I don't want to waste anytime before he comes, I want to save it for when he is here.
  
• Another round of house cleaning. This house was clean from top to bottom, dang...this one is going to take a lot of motivation.
  
• Packing again...Josh keeps getting stuff out of our hospital bag...quit it already!
• Shopping...I was planning on being delivered before it got cold or my gut got any bigger. I was given some bigger colder weather clothes, but they make me look like a tent on the top(Josh asked me if it was like our 2 person tent or our big 4 man tent...he might have gotten some crazy eyes from me on that one!) and they don't even cover the bottom of my gut. I found some good buys at Ross and Target!
  
• Lots and lots of Palmer's coco butter with vitamin E. I made it this far without stretchmarks, but my skin is throwing in the towel. Remember, I was measuring 40 weeks when I was just 35 weeks, my belly just can't take it anymore! Sadness!
  
• Lots and lots of waiting. This one is particularly hard on me...I was ready...am ready...WE ARE READY!
  
• Lots and lots of praying. We are praying for mature lungs and a baby that comes by himself, and not needing a csection. We would rather not have to decide on another induction. God's will be done! (oh and while you are praying...ask for a bonus of him not having a Halloween birthday...that's just kinda creepy!)
  

I figured I needed to post a picture of my NST, because I am doing them all the time. This is clearly not a good angle! Just me, tilted to my side, with a contraction monitor on top and the baby's heart rate monitor on the bottom. I am holding a little button that I have to push every time he moves(which is a lot!)

Josh has been with me for 3 of the 11! His job is to sit in the corner and catch up on some magazines(like Oprah, fit pregnancy, etc). Usually the background noise is Caleb's heartbeat, but when Caleb does some big moves, the monitor picks it up with a swooshing sound until he is still again(bc of the water he is in) and Josh hates it. Its not exactly the best noise, but it doesn't bother me like it does Josh. They make me laugh, Caleb aggravating Daddy already.