Caelin's Birth Story

My husband and I found out I was pregnant the first time in late October, 1998, due mid-July. We were elated and so were our families. However, in January, I miscarried. It was a long, painful process; there was some retention of tissue so it took longer to (physically) heal than normal.

At first, I was really determined to try again as soon as we got the okay from my OB/GYN. Then as things progressed, my husband and I decided to wait a little longer to actively try. Well, God had other ideas for us. The first month that we were given the OK, we conceived our daughter.

It was a wonderfully easy pregnancy with no morning sickness at all. I was a nervous wreck for most of my pregnancy, though. We had chosen not to find out the sex of the baby, however everyone thought I was having a boy. Even strangers would share their opinion. Everything progressed normally and my due date of March 6, loomed closer and closer.

Well, my due date came and went. After four days, they gave me a non-stress test (NST) and everything was fine. I guess she was really comfortable and didn't want to come out. At seven days post-date, I got another NST and again there were no problems. They scheduled me for an induction on March 17, 11 days post-date, which was fine with me!

Again, God had other plans. On March 15, I was waiting up for my husband. He was working nights at the time. At about 11:30 PM he got home and we got ready for bed. At midnight, March 16, as I was going to the bathroom, I had my first contraction. Being a first-time mom, I had no idea what it was; I thought I was having slight cramps. Anyway that one went away and we went to bed. An hour later, I had another one and thought to myself, "Oh, so that's what it is!"

I couldn't sleep after that so I went into the living room. I knew we would be up for a while so I wanted my husband to get as much sleep as possible. After resting on the sofa for a couple of hours, the contractions were still pretty far apart. I told my husband what was going on and then called my mom at about 5 AM. My mom came over and we walked the neighborhood for a while to get things going, while my husband finished packing our bags. At about 1 PM, I called my doctor's office because I couldn't stand it anymore. The contractions weren't really regular or close; in fact they never did get regular or close together, but they sure were strong though!

My OB said to come to the office so they could take a look at me. We got there at 2 PM. She did an internal and promptly said "Get to the hospital now!" She said she didn't even want to check how far dilated I was because my bag of waters was bulging out so far she was afraid she would rupture it. So, off we went to the hospital.

We got there at about 2:30 PM and I was already seven centimeters dilated. I requested an epidural because the pains were all in my back and it was impossible for me to breathe through them. I got the epidural around 4 PM and it did slow the contractions down a little so they gave me a little Pitocin to boost them up.

At about 6 PM, the doctor ruptured my membranes and then everything kicked into high gear. At 8:30 PM I was ready to push. The epidural had worn off at this point, so I could really feel the urge (and the pain) to push. I was glad there was no one else on the floor at the time because I was not pushing quietly; my friends and family in the waiting room said they could hear me from there!

After only three contractions and some serious pushing, my beautiful daughter was born at exactly 9 PM. She weighed eight pounds, twelve ounces and was 18¾ inches long. She was perfect, if not a little wrinkly from her extended stay in the womb. We named her Caelin Marie. To this day, we still marvel at how wonderful she is!