Thankful Thursday

I have soooo much to be thankful for, not only today but everyday...

1. I'm thankful that Caileb is healthy and growing. My entire pregnancy I prayed the he would be healthy and happy and he has been. Although we had a little bobble in the beginning with jaundice, Caileb is making a great comeback. He was discharged from the hospital Saturday weighing 6 lbs 5 oz. (9 oz,. less than his birth weight) and when he went for his check up yesterday he was 6 lbs 12.6 oz!

2. I'm thankful for my family... I have a wonderful husband, a great, loving, and supportive family (on both sides). They have always been there for us providing love, support and anything else you can imagine!

3. I'm thankful for my job and those that I work with- with Caileb coming 2 weeks early I didn't get a chance to fully prepare my classroom for my interim and I wasn't able to attend my baby shower, but they have all come together to make sure that my class was taken care of and under way and they bought my baby shower to me (well only the gifts not the entire staff).

4. I'm thankful that God is God... without Him I wouldn't be who, or where I am. He has blessed me so much and I am thankful beyond words!

Caileb & Uncie J

A Father's Love

Labor & Delivery

So here we are at home alone and I got to thinking I need to update my blog...

Monday rolled around- I went to work had a very typical day... taught class, disciplined students, had 3 people tell me I was huge and was having an enormous baby (or twins), belly rubbing, restroom break, more belly rubbing, lunch, reading, recess, dismissal, office visit to talk about the day and when "Baby Sid" was going to come... mind you no where in this day are there contractions (and I had had my fair share of contractions prior to this day). I get home and chill out, watch some TV and then go to sleep (fairly early- I missed Dancing with the Stars). At about 11:50 pm I got up for my nightly potty break and got back into bed to enjoy a night's rest filled with tossing and turning and uncomfortable positioning! Just as I get comfortable I peed my pants (or so I thought)- as I jump up and try to squeeze the urine in to keep it from coming I realized that the pee just won't stop trickling. As I make it back to the restroom I announce to Ricas that I think my water broke (although I wasn't quite sure, because on TV it seems that it's a gush of water; coupled with the fact that only 5% of women's water break at the onset of labor). So here we are scrambling around the house trying to throw last minute things into our hospital bags and get everything to the car. When we got to the hospital and got checked in I walked up to LD where the nurse checked my fluids and upon initial exam said that it was not my water that had broken. When she went in to get a better fluid sample the test strip still didn't change colors but she noticed that the fluid contained meconium. Needless to say they finally got the color they needed to verify I was in labor, but with no contractions... so the pitocin began (2 am). At 7 am I was about 2 cm dilated and was beginning to feel stronger contractions, after 2 doses of stadol and no pain relief (just extreme sleepiness) I got the epidural... HEAVENLY! At 5 cm dilated and 80% effaced they changed my contraction monitor to see if the contractions I was having were internally as strong as they showed to be externally- everything seemed to be going well but Caileb wasn't dropping into the birth canal. After about 2 hours of observation I was dilated to 8 cm, 100% effaced (my cervix had completely thinned out) and at a stage -2 (I needed to get to stage 3) Caileb wasn't dropping into the birth canal. The initial plan of action given by the nurse was to let me get to 10 cm and then try to "labor down"- get Caileb to drop while pushing, but my OB came in and said let's do a c-section. So 14 hours of labor and about 45 minutes in the surgery room I finally got to meet my son!

The entire c-section wasn't that bad, but I had a horrible case of the shakes, so after I saw Caileb the I was given Demerol which put me to sleep so I don't recall much of what happened after the birth. I remember people being in the room and them bringing Caileb to me to nurse for the first time, but I was so groggy and numb that I could barely hold him on my own =( So they whisked him off to the nursery to do baby stuff while I slept away in the room, not even experiencing the reality that I was now a mommy.

I'm a Mommy!

Quick post... 2 weeks early and he's here!

Caileb Eugene Gentry
November 18, 2008 6:28pm
6 lbs 14 oz

Pregnancy Photos

I know I've been slacking on keeping everyone updated, but I had parent teacher conferences after school for the past 2 weeks (didn't get home til after 6 or so most nights) and then I've just been in the preparation process! 

I've started going to the doctor every week!  At our 35 week appointment I had my Strep B test, was 1 cm dilated but my cervix was still thick and Caileb was still pretty high.  Last week (36 weeks) things were the same, my Strep B test came back negative (no antibiotics during labor) and they had to take some blood to check to see if I'm immune to fifths disease- which has been going around our school.  I will get those results on Wednesday when I go back to the doctor, but I've been told I was probably exposed as a kid and will have no problems at all!  Dr. Chesney also told us that we could expect to have  a baby in the 7 pound range, but he couldn't be more specific as to which extreme of 7 pounds we could expect!

I've been having sporadic contractions over the past week or so- nothing that really alarmed me that I was actually in labor, but Friday we were shopping in Target and I started having really strong contractions (ones that I'd never felt before)... my first reaction was that it was Caileb moving, but this was an all over intense "push" from the inside.  So strong that I had to just stand really still in the baby aisle.  Ricas tried rubbing what we thought was Caileb to get him to switch positions but nothing worked.  Eventually it passed and we continued shopping. About 20 minutes later while pulling into Wendy's to get a salad it happened again, and again, and then once more when we got home.  I knew something was different so I called my mother in law and realized that I was actually having contractions.  They continued up until about 9:30 or so, which is when I fell asleep trying to relax and see if we were going to the hospital!  Since then I've only had a few here and there, but no hospital trips for us... I'm hoping that there will be some change in my status when we go to the doctor on Wednesday, I'm so ready to meet our son!

Tomorrow I will be 37 weeks!!!  The reality of having a baby is so real, only 22 days left and only 3 more fruit/vegetable comparisons (see babycenter.com weekly updates).

Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.