Well here we are, the final edition of Baby Watch. I already put up one quick post announcing the arrival of our little baby boy Caden, but I wanted to come back and put up one more post with some of the highlights of the past few days, and some final thoughts. I know I promised this would be up sooner but you will just have to trust me when I say the past few days have been hectic to say the least.
As scheduled Erin and I checked into the hospital last Wednesday to prepare for her induction on Thursday morning. Having just been there the week prior we were experts on the whole hospital deal. They gave Erin some medicine to get her ready for the next day and we got the last full night of sleep for the week. On Thursday morning they started the medicine Pitocin that would kick start Erin’s labor. They also put a monitor on her that measured the contractions and the babies heartbeat. Over the next several hours her contractions begin to get stronger and closer together. She got her epidural after things started to get really painful for her and then we waited, and waited, and waited. Then around 8:00 PM the doctors said it was time to start pushing!
Having been to the education class and having seen the scary videos they show you, I figured I was as prepared as anyone for what was about to happen. Boy was I wrong! Over the course of the next two hours I experienced just about every emotion you can. It started with excitement about what was going to happen, slid over to fear over what could happen, and ended with pure joy over what did happen. The two hours that Erin spent pushing the baby out were the proudest I have ever been of her. Never once did she scream, cry, or call me names. She had a job to do and was nothing but strong, focused, and determined. I have often told people over the past nine months that “we” were having a baby. I can tell you here and now “we” didn’t do anything, Erin had a baby and I am just happy I was allowed to hold her hand when she needed it.
At 9:56PM Erin made her final push and baby Caden was born. It was the moment Erin and I had been anticipating for so long and it was AMAZING! It must have been because it was my wife, my baby, our family, but this was nothing gross and scary looking like the videos from class. This was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. The doctor placed Caden on Erin’s belly and I told her it was a boy. I got to cut the umbilical cord and the nurses moved the baby to another area to clean him up, while the doctor cleaned Erin up. And that was it, we had a perfect little baby boy!
Erin, Caden, and I spent the next two nights in hospital visiting with everyone and getting used to our new little boy. On the day we were supposed to go home they told us that Caden needed one more night in the hospital under some special lights because he was just a little bit Jondus. Luckily the hospital was nice enough to let us stay in our room another night so we could continue to feed him on a regular basis and visit with him whenever we wanted. Then on Sunday afternoon we brought our little bundle of joy home and it has been awesome. Everyone said our lives would change, and they have. Anything that was important to be before has just been knocked down a peg if not forgotten about completely. All I want to do is hold my little boy and love on him, and that is just what I plan to do.
So that brings us to the end of Baby Watch and the start of something new. I don’t plan on any more regular posts, but I doubt this is the last you will hear on the subject of Caden. I hope everyone enjoyed the updates over the past few months as much as I have enjoyed doing them. As Aunt Carol says, this has to be one of the most documented pregnancy and births in history! I have uploaded a bunch of pictures from the first couple of days. You can find them in the Caden Christopher Carlson album on the Greatlandings photo site.
PS – For the record it was my friend Greg who guessed the birth date exactly with Lori coming in a close second. Nice job!
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