Progress Report

I'll do my best to update throughout the day... so here we go:

7:30 a.m. Dr broke her water and contractions starrted soon after!

9:10 a.m. Nurse is putting in the IV and T is less than happy. Thinking the next hours will be tough if the IV caused this kind of reaction. Uh oh! I'll be back later to update some more.

10:05 a.m. Nurse checked and she's still hanging out at 4 cm. Did I mention this baby WILL come today?!

11:45 a.m. Just finished taking several laps around the maternity floor. Really trying to avoid Pitocin, but think it may be a next step. Her husband and friend left for lunch; Paul and I are here with her just trying to find the balance of paying attention to her needs without hovering. Hard to do.

1:35 p.m. Paul and I ate in the hospital cafeteria and are back in the room. T is still ~ 4 cm and wants to start Pitocin after some more walking. She knows once it starts, she'll be tethered to the IV and just the idea of that irks her... but she also wants to do whatever is necessary to get Caleb moving faster :)

2:30 p.m. They just changed her IV because the first was giving her troubles. Pitocin is starting in 5 - 4 - 3 -2 - 1

3:35 p.m. The contractions have certainly stepped up a bit. There is a distinguishable pattern and each time one hits, T's face is overcome with concentration for the duration and then she's "back with us." They are checking on her every 30 minutes and administering more Pitocin. Everything seems quite calm right now... maybe this is the calm before the storm?? She's a champ - I can see how high the "contraction-o-meter" (as Paul and I call it) goes and she breathes and focuses right on through. We're dealing with a seasoned pro here.

4:40 p.m. Dr checked and she's at 4.5 cm now. Her contractions are ok but they're going to dial the Pit up just a little bit in about 5-10 minutes. That'll make her uterus get into a better rhythm and get ready for some good laboring :) I think we're still positioned for a regular birth -- no indication (or threats) of c-section at this point. T is texting, talking and watching tv in between contractions so those are all good signs. Paul and I are going strong on not-a-lot of sleep... we were pretty excited last night and didn't sleep well at all. The couch in the labor room is comfy. Good thing!!

5:15 p.m. More frequent contractions - the monitor sounds like a dang plane is taking off inside her. Apparently Caleb is moving around LOTS. That's great - hopefully he's getting uncomfortable inside and will want to come outside and play! T's now on a birthing ball (or exercise ball for the non-pregnant population in this world) and seems to be more comfortable on it - well - as comfortable as one can be while in labor, I suppose. Now in the room: two nurses, T, her husband, her friend, Paul, me, and T's middle daughter. Daughter's #1 and #3 and T's dad will be here soon. A full house for sure.

6:50 p.m. Contractions are consistently 2-3 minutes apart and by the look of things... more painful. No real change in dilation, but his head is planted fimly on the cervix now and the cervix is softer. Definitely the right direction. She's got quite an audience at this point, but as she explained to me prior to labor, she doesn't really care who's in the room because she's focused on doing her job. Excellent :)

9:00 p.m. They gave her some pain meds and both she and Caleb are feelin' better right now. For T, it took the edge off and allowed her to relax some - which allowed her to progress a bit. At this check, she's now 70% effaced and about 5 cm. They expect her to dilate more now that she's thinning out. After talking with the dr, the nurse said since she's showing progress, they'll let her continue on this course. They'll check her again in about an hour or so and if she's made more progress, they'll let 'er ride. They'll likely let her go until midnight and reassess at that point if needed. So I guess we're looking at a baby with a 2/21/11 birthday or 2/22/11 :)

10:15 p.m. She's at 7 cm now and the guess is that things will start to happen a bit faster.

The final update:

10:51 p.m. Caleb Ian was born!!!!!!! He was a whopping 9 pounds 10 ounces and 21 inches long. Here's a little teaser until we can get some real pics posted soon...

He is just perfect.

Due Dates and Some Definitive News!

Long, long ago when this pregnancy started, February 13th was the official due date. Then it was adjusted to February 14th somewhere along the line. It was cool telling people he was due on Valentine's Day - an easy day to remember. Now that he's late, it's cooler to say he's a week late today (going back to the original due date) because the farther you go out from the due date, the more bad-ass you really are. So, we are officially at 41 weeks today. Seven lonnnnnng days overdue. Put a fork in it because T is done, her husband is done, and we are done.

We all met at the hospital this morning because T's doctor was on call and doing rounds. He'd said earlier in the week she could stop by for a check and monitoring if she wanted... and we ALL wanted to do that. He checked her and she's now measuring 4 cm. A little progress. But as she conveyed her done-ness to him, he told her to come back tomorrow morning at 6:30 and agreed to break her water. Hopefully it will speed up the now-sporadic contractions and put her into active labor. He'll let her go for about 12 hours or so and even help her along with some Pitocin if need be (they can't start her out with that because she's VBACing) - and if she can get through labor with just that, great. If she doesn't progress as he anticipates, Caleb will be born via c-section tomorrow night. Nobody wants this - but everyone has come to terms with it.

So.. it looks like Caleb's birthday will be 2/21/11. Perhaps 2/22/11 if she's in active labor and takes a while to deliver. In either case, we have a plan and we're all in a better place today because of it.

The saddest part of this is that Paul's parents have been staying with friends in Las Vegas just waiting for us to come home so they could visit us and the baby. They have to be back in Colorado on the 27th so they're leaving Vegas tomorrow and headed back to Denver. We won't see them and we're both so sad. This was lesson #1 in flexibility. Babies have their own schedule and you will be at their mercy sometimes. Lesson learned.

Still No Baby (or should I call this "5 Days Overdue"??)

I know, right? What's going on you ask? Nothing. No major or frequent contractions like the other night. Just another centimeter or so of dilation to bring it to 3-plus-ish. We do want him to be born when he's ready, but with every passing day I have more and more concerns. Like how he and T will both do with him being so big. Like how the chance of having a c-section grows.  Like how Paul has only two weeks off work and he only has one left. And since this is my blog and I can be completely honest, like how much debt we're accumulating each day we're not home. Obviously worth it in the end (that's a no-brainer) but it's not all sunshine and roses. I can feel a bit of fear, frustration and desperation creeping in.

My chin is up, my smile is on. I know the wait will soon be over.

Apologies for misspellings. It's not easy doing this update from my phone.

A Quick Post Before the BIG Post

Ok a quick catch up... Paul got here on Saturday the 12th. I picked him up from the airport (so happy to see him!), and by the time we went to get something to eat on the way back to Red Bluff, he didn't feel too well. We got on the freeway, and immediately got off and he opened the door and no sooner puked on the side of the offramp. DAMN! I'll keep it brief and say it was not pretty. About an hour later, he did it again. We got to Red Bluff, got a hotel room, and I left him there to (hopefully) sleep it off while I went to T's for dinner with her and her family. I know it sounds mean to leave him when he's not feeling well, but (1) he's good at taking care of himself and (2) we didn't want me or T to get sick if it was contagious. (side note: face masks are cool!) He felt a bit better on Sunday and completely better by Monday.

On Monday night, we went over to T's for some chili and cornbread (yummy rainy day food) and just hung out for a while. She was having "non-contractions" as she put it but nothing that screamed "it's time!" so we went back to our hotel. We were there for a matter of minutes when her husband called and after some back and forth between him and the hospital, we thought it was best if we just went there. We got there some time after 10 p.m. where they stuck her in maternity triage and monitored her and the baby for a while. She was dialted to only 1.5 cm so we all walked around for a 1/2 hour and they checked her again. This time she was just over 2 cm but no other changes... so we walked for an hour. At 2 am, there weren't really any changes but they kept monitoring her. You could see the contractions on the contraction-o-meter :) but Caleb's heartrate was unchanged each time. He was just cruising through... no hurries for him, obviously! Although the contractions were only 2 minutes apart, with no other changes they sent us home about 4:30 a.m. By the time we dropped her off at home, we got back to the hotel around 5:30 or 6 a.m. (can't really remember - REALLLLLY tired).

Tuesday (yesterday) we met T and her husband at Costco and walked around in there, then went over to the mall and walked around there too. She was still having contractions now and again, but they had certainly slowed from the night before.

Today... we all get to go to the OB at 10 a.m. today. Paul hasn't been yet so I'm excited for that, and I'm also excited to see if there is any progress. Perhaps there will be a good reason to update later today?????? We all hope so!!

Rethinking Inconveniences

Yesterday I wrote about the minor (very, very, mind you) inconveniences of living in a trailer for a week or two... not a lot of space and lack of wi-fi in the trailer. I'm happy to report that I am, at this very moment, inside the trailer and connected via wi-fi. I wouldn't depend on this for work since the signal seems to come and go, but for updating the blog? Perfect!

I've also rethought (is that a word?) about the inconveniences of a trailer and realize this isn't an inconvenience at all. Yes, space is tight - but I thought about an alternative:

Paul and I were, at one point, considering pursuing surrogacy in India. Without debating all pros and cons at this point, I'd like to say that I still believe Indian surrogacy is a viable alternative for many people. It's obviously not the road we chose, but I strongly believe that having that option is, quite simply, a good thing. Now, had we chosen to go to India, I know that the "inconveniences" I've experienced on this trip thus far would be nothing... over there, I would be limited to whatever I could cram in a few suitcases. Up here, I followed my mom and Bill with their trailer in my SUV and have it stuffed from top to bottom, front to back. I have all the conveniences of home (home cooked meals, if I choose; television with cable; laptops - yes plural - with internet access; a car I can use at any time, for any reason) and am in a state where surrogacy is well-established and our rights are guaranteed. I can't even imagine all of the "inconveniences" we'd experience in India.

I'll shut my trap now :)

The Waiting Game for a Wi-fi Junkie

I'm in Northern California waiting and waiting and waiting for Caleb to make his debut. To be more specific, I'm "living" in a fifth wheel trailer with my mom and stepdad, waiting for Caleb to make his debut. The plan is for Paul to come up next Saturday and join the waiting game if something doesn't happen sooner and at that point, we'll get a hotel room.

I don't want to sound ungrateful when in fact I'm really, really thankful that my mom and Bill have come up here with me and graciously brought this little home on wheels for us to call home base for a week - or two. BUT (you had to see that one coming, right??) - it's small for three people. Each night I convert the dining area into my bed, and each morning I convert it back to an eating/seating area and stow my bedding up on their bed. I carefully tuck my shoes, computers, phones, chargers, and misc stuff in little places here and there making sure none of it intrudes in their living space. I'm really trying to be a considerate guest. The other BUT is that the wi-fi in this RV park doesn't work in the trailer! I am working up until Caleb's born and had this neat picture (in my head, of course) of working up here in the comfort of the trailer at the table. Wrong. And me looking for wi-fi is like a junkie trying to find the next hit. So far, I've worked from a picnic table outside in the sunlight - making it incredibly difficult to see the screen, the laundry room (it's near the park's office and since it's inside the mosquitoes can't get me), the women's bathroom (also near the office, praying that someone wouldn't come in and think I was totally nuts - and thankfully no one came in), Starbucks, and McDonald's. And I only worked part day on Thursday and all day Friday - can't wait to see the new places I'll have to find this week! Eh... small inconveniences in the scheme of things.

On the Caleb front, I went with T to the OB appointment on Thursday and the report wasn't exactly what she wanted to hear: no dilation. As in NADA, ZERO. ZILCH. No action. Same as the week before. The next appointment is this Thursday morning. That will be 3-4 days pre-due date and hopefully it'll be a totally different story at that point!