Casen's Birth Story

He is finally here! We couldn't be happier with the arrival of our little man. He is the sweetest, cuddliest, and most handsome baby boy you have ever seen! After months of anticipation, a week of contractions and false labor, an unintentional natural delivery, we are finally home with our sweet new baby.

Casen's birth story is completely different from Lydia's. With Lydia I was home having contractions basically all day long. I woke up with contractions around 6:00 a.m. and they gradually got stronger and closer together. I was afraid of going to the hospital in case they would send us home, so I stayed in our house as long as I could. It was actually Brian who said, "Enough is enough we are going to the hospital." When we got to the hospital it was 10:30 p.m. and I was dilated to a 6. We were staying!! Hooray! At this point my contractions were kinda painful and they were happening every 15 minutes, so they weren't too close together. They gave me the epidural and life was good! The epidural was perfect. I could move my toes and feet, but I felt no pain. My doctor was just getting home that day from being out of town so the nurses were trying to get a hold of her. In the meantime, me and Brian just slept. I was finally dilated to a 10, but no word from my doctor and my water wouldn't break. The nurses kept moving me into weird positions trying to get my water to break with no luck. I really didn't mind, the epidural was so great that I just kept sleeping. Finally, the nurses got a hold of my doctor and she said to give me some pitocin to help my contractions get stronger in order to break my water. My water finally did break just when my doctor arrived. The nurses woke up Brian and it was time for me to push! Brian must have suddenly felt the responsibility of parenthood or something because they were just telling me to push for the first time, and Brian suddenly got light headed and crumpled to the ground! He passed out right there in the delivery room! The nurses got him some juice and reassured him that it happens all the time. Ha ha, but don't worry he gets teased plenty. Once Brian was up and feeling better it was time to have our baby. I pushed for maybe 20 minutes and our little angel came into the world! It was love at first sight when we saw Lydia for the first time. She was so alert and came into the world with eyes wide open; eager to see everyone and everything. I'm happy to say, she is still the same. :)

Me with Lydia ready to come home.

Lydia just minutes old.

Now for Casen's story. I woke up on my due date with some mild cramping and I knew that it was going to be the day! With Lydia it took a while to get to a six, so I figured it would be the same this time. We went to Ogden to exchange some pajamas at Carter's in the morning, and took Lydia to Chick-fil-A for lunch and let her play in the playground. Afterwords, we came home and took a nap. At around 4 O'clock the contractions were about 7 minutes apart so we took Lydia to my Mom's and and then came home to pack the hospital bag; and I wanted to clean a few more things before leaving for the hospital. It was funny because as long as I was up and moving the contractions seemed to be farther apart and not as bad, but as soon as I sat down they seemed to get worse. We waited around till about midnight then I decided that it was time to go. My contractions at this point were 3 minutes apart, and were pretty intense. We got to the hospital and the nurse checked me, I was only at a 2!!! I couldn't believe it! My contractions seemed intense and were close together, I didn't know why I wasn't dilating. I was scheduled to be induced the next morning, so they didn't want to send me home. So the doctor (my doctor was out of town..again so the on-call doctor) told me to walk the halls for a couple of hours to see if that would help. I was not excited about this, I thought I would be laboring forever. So me and Brian started walking laps. Every time I felt a contraction  coming on I would grip the side rail and Brian would rub my back. (I've had terrible back labor with both kids). We walked for a little over 1/2 hour, and I told Brian that I had to have made some progress, the contractions are getting worse, so we went back to my room and the on-call doctor just happened to walk in at the same time. She checked me and was very surprised to find that I was at a 6! I went from a 2 to a 6 in a little over 1/2 hour! The doctor said that she would come back in a little while and the nurses started to admit us and call the anesthesiologist to come get me the epidural. By now it was a little past 3:00 a.m. The anesthesiologist to my room at about 3:15 he seemed to take forever to give me the epidural. My contractions were still about 3 minutes apart and getting stronger. I just wanted some relief, I'd been doing this since 3:00 in the afternoon. He finished at 3:30, and said I would start to feel the affects in about 15 minutes. My contractions were so bad he started me out with a manual dose. I couldn't feel any difference, he had me roll to one side to try to get the the epidural to take, no such luck though. At this point I was hardly aware of anyone who was in the room, my contractions were getting closer together and stronger. I just gripped the side rail and Brian's hand and just tried to to breathe through each contraction as it came. I then realized that this epidural was not going to work, I was going to have to do this on my own.

Finally, I had one very strong contraction and my water broke all over the bed. After that, there was no break between contractions. I remember saying, "I need to push, he's coming, I need to push." The nurses kept telling me "Don't push, don't push." Since there was no doctor in the room. They called my doctor a minute before and she said that she would be there in fifteen minutes. The nurses said "I don't think you have fifteen minutes." So they called the on site doctor, he started walking up the hallway when I finally couldn't "not push" any longer. I gave one push and well, into the world came our little boy, right onto the bed. One of the nurses picked him up and held up my perfect little boy. After he was born the on site doctor came in and delivered the placenta, then my doctor came in a stitched me up. Casen Brian Rose was born at 3:55 a.m. on October 18th. He weighed 8 lbs. 9 oz. and was 20 inches long. We are so happy he is here and a part of our family. He brings so much happiness into our home.

Here is his coming home outfit. We thought it was appropriate since he was born opening weekend
of Brian's deer hunt.

Home at last!

Hospital Pictures

Photo Credit Kami Leishman (Who else?? :)

Lydia really does love her brother I promise :) It was nap time when we took pictures so she was super grumpy. Plus she was ready for Mom and Dad to come home.

First Family Picture as a family of four!