He's here! He's here!

Lucas "Luke" Robert-Wayne C. was born at 12:14 AM on February 28, 2009. He was 7 pounds, 14 ounces, and 18 inches. DH typed up a birth story. I'll do one ASAP. Here's DH's:

On Friday, February 27th 2009 we had an appointment with Dr. Jason Johnson, Marie’s OB. At the past two appointments Marie had measured 3cm dilated and 75% effaced. When Dr. Johnson checked at this appointment there was no change. Dr. Johnson said that he thought this baby would probably be a little late because nothing was happening. Marie asked him what we could do to try to start labor. He said that walking was good and that castor oil had also been proven to work. We went home a little discouraged and slightly impatient.
We finished several other errands for the day and headed home for supper. After supper, Marie decided that she “needed “ some ice cream and asked me to go get some. She also asked if I would go ahead and buy some castor oil just so we could try to get things going. So I headed to Walmart and picked up some mint chocolate chip ice cream and some castor oil...mmmm. When I got home around 8PM we decided to watch the movie Australia with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. As I got our ice cream and started the movie, Marie complained that she was having some cramps and that it was uncomfortable. She said that they were not contractions, just uncomfortable. We decided she should just eat something and walk a little bit and they would go away just as the contractions she had been having for the last month or so did. We started the movie and were having a nice night at home. Marie kept fidgeting a little with the cramps, but was otherwise comfortable. At about 9:30PM Marie said “now that was a contraction”. I said that they were probably just Braxton Hicks contractions and that they would stop, but we decided to time them just for the heck of it. About 14 minutes later she said she was starting another one. Hmmm...I thought, well we’ll just time these too. About 6 minutes later she was having another one. At this point we paused the movie. This can’t be labor, I thought, the contractions are totally irregular, I’m sure they’ll go away. Meanwhile, Marie had to go to the bathroom a lot. She said she thought her body was getting rid of everything. 6 minutes later, another contraction then 5 minutes later another. The real clincher was when about 5 minutes later at around 10PM when Marie ran to the bathroom and said that her water had broken. At that point I said “do you think we should turn the movie off”. She looked at me and said “uh yeah”. She then said we probably needed to start getting ready to go. She told me to start straightening up the family room because she didn’t want to come home to clutter. So I did that and then went up to make sure we had everything in our bag and Marie went to fix her hair.
At about 10:25 we were in the car with our bag and birthing ball and other accessories. As we were driving, Marie was timing her contractions and they were down to about 3 minutes apart. We texted Dana and let her know we were heading in and she told us to take a deep breath and hold on. We arrived at the hospital by about 10:45. Marie was having very strong contractions and was using all of her Bradley training to try to relax the rest of her body. We got her up to L&D and got her settled and then I ran down to check her in. By the time I got back upstairs, she was having very hard contractions that she didn’t know if she could make it through. A family practice resident came in to check Marie and said that she was already dilated to 7 and almost 100% effaced. She told us to get comfortable because we probably had a few hours yet. Marie looked at me and said she couldn’t do this for a few more hours. I was truly confused because from all of our training it sounded like she was in transition, but it had only been an hour and a half since she started contracting. I tried to utilize all of my Bradley coaching technique, but when she was contraction, Marie didn’t want me to touch her or talk to her. Our nurse Denise was really great. She was really comfortable with natural childbirth and she knew a lot. She came in and as she watched Marie, she said she didn’t think we’d be much longer because we were in transition. Again I was confused as we had only been at the hospital for 45 minutes. We tried to make Marie as comfortable as possible with ice chips and we asked her if she wanted to sit on her ball, but she really just couldn’t move. Around 11:45 the resident came back in and checked Marie and said she was at 8cm. And that we still had a couple hours left. She also said that our doctor was unavailable and that the on call doc would come, but they didn’t know who it was going to be. Marie became very distraught because she said there was no way she could make it another couple hours. At this point, I didn’t know what stage we were at. Marie was having very hard multiple contractions and getting very vocal. She said “he’s not going to wait a couple hours, he’s coming, I can feel him.” She told me to go get the resident again even though she had just checked 10 minutes earlier. I sheepishly went and asked the resident to come back in and she happily agreed. As she checked Marie’s progress, she got a very serious look and said “she’s complete, let’s get ready. She asked the nurse to page the on call doc and the other resident. I’ll admit she looked a little nervous at the prospect of having to deliver this baby. Marie started to say that she needed to push and everyone said to just hold on until they could get set up. A couple of minutes later, everything was ready. Marie started pushing. She was really amazing because I got exhausted just watching her. After several pushes she started to get discouraged because she thought nothing was happening. The team assured her that he was coming and asked if she wanted to feel his head or get a mirror. She said “no, I just want him out”. She repeated this a few times in the next 15 minutes. After a few pushes, I could see his little head trying to come out. Everyone kept assuring Marie that there was progress. Finally, Dr. Lash showed up. He’s a doctor that I work with and whom I really like. He was there for the last 5 or 6 pushes and then there came the little guy. They had been concerned about his respiratory status because there was meconium in the sac, but when he came out he gave a good squeal. They put baby on Marie’s chest and there he was perfect and happy. He was very lively and bright eyed. After awhile, the respiratory therapist just wanted to check him. She put him in the warmer and checked his lungs and sucked out his stomach. A few minutes later he was ready to go back to mom. He was ready to eat and latched on like he’d been doing it forever. Lucas Robert-Wayne Caldwell was born at 12:14AM on February 28th, an hour and a half after getting to the hospital and less than 3 hours after starting contractions.
After that it was all routine. Everyone in attendance raved about how amazing Marie did and how lively the baby was. One of the nurses said “that was the funnest delivery I’ve been in on for a long time”. Our nurse Denise said that she usually has a hard time getting the babies to wake up to eat after 24 hours, but Luke was ready to go immediately. We came home on Mach 1st, our due date. That night we got the rest of the ice cream and went downstairs to watch the rest of our movie. It was like we had never left except that now the baby was on the outside. The gist of the story is that “Australia “was a very good movie.

Here are some links to some slideshows of him:
Lucas1, Lucas2

FYI: I'll be MIA.

FYI: I'll be MIA for a couple of weeks. We're traveling to my home town for Christmas this year. So, no worries if you don't hear from me. Everyone have a wonderful Christmas! I know our personal little angels will be with us. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile_flowers.gif)

We're pregnant again!

Trying to make a long story short here. Doc called on Thurs. to say I tested + for lupus anticoagulant and if i get PG again I need heparin shots 2x a day to keep PG along with the progesterone pills I'm already on. Said to call ASAP when get + HPT. Two days later, Sat., i got + HPT. On-call weekend doc wouldn't help until Mon. Freaked out all weekend. Got beta and Heparin on Mon. 15 DPO beta = 253, very good. Getting used to shots. Still freaks me out though. Another beta on Wed., 17 DPO = 483, very near a double in 48 hours. Great news! 4W5D today. Nausea, hunger, tired, HPTs getting darker and darker. Doc says it looks very good this time. Will follow-up w/ doc on Mon. to see what to do next. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile_fingerscrossed.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile_pray.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile_fingerscrossed.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile_pray.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile_fingerscrossed.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile_pray.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile_fingerscrossed.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile_pray.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile_fingerscrossed.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile_pray.gif) it's a sticky one!

P.S. Adoption process on hold unless the worst happens with this PG.

Thanks to those who donatied to Olivia's memorial fundraiser.

(IMG:http://www.justgive.org/Images/gift_certs/justgive_logo.jpg)

Dear Doug, Marie, family, and friends, We were asked to inform you that Marie Caldwell has made a donation on behalf of Olivia Marie Caldwell to Missing Angel Foundation using JustGive.org. You can be sure that this gift will have a valuable impact on the charity it supports and on the important cause it represents.

About Missing Angel Foundation:
Operates a non-charge commercial-free remembrance website for the posting of childrens' memorials. Raises money for stillbirth research.



Regards,
JustGive Team
http://www.justgive.org


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There are some who donated who I don't know. I want to make sure that everyone gets thanked. if one of your frineds or family members donated, please copy this message and email it to them.

Above is a copy of an email I was sent by the organization the funds raised were donated to. We just want to be sure that people know their money really went to a good cause. If we get anything from the NSS we'll post it here too.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for doanting to this worthy cause. It was in memory of Olivia, but will benefit all still born families as the funds raised will help prevention and treatment research.

Thank you.

Doug and Marie Caldwell

My Article in Nat'l SHARE Newsletter

Not sure if this is the right place for it, but I just wanted to mention that a few months ago i submitted an article to the National SHARE Newsletter and they emailed me a few days ago to say that they're printing it. It's about Mother's and Father's Day. I don't really remember what i wrote, but I remember pouring my heart into it. It'll be in the next issue. My name will be underneath it - Marie Caldwell.