Mid July 2011- Found out we were gonna welcome another sweet baby into our family. Due date was set for April 10th. And this time, the sickness started even earlier... so on Zofran I went! My little miracle pill however, was not quite the miracle it was with Eli. It cut down the number of times I got sick a day, but did not take away the throwing up completely like it did with E. So the sickness started by week 5 and decided to hang around til about week 28. We found out on November 11th we were going to have another lil man to love and snuggle, we couldn't be happier to give Eli the "brudder" he wanted and knew that they would have SO much fun playing together! I won't lie though, I did have a very small moment of sadness, knowing this was our last baby that I wouldn't have a little girl to put in tutus and bows. But that sadness quickly faded thinking about my boys wrestling and playing together, rough housing and playing in the mud. And Eli was so excited to hear he was getting a brother :)
Besides getting sick a couple times a day, the pregnancy was going well. I was feeling much better than I did with Eli, harldy had any swelling! But this time I started feeling anxious about not having things ready, I guess I was nesting. I didn't experience this with Eli. Then came Sunday, March 4th. I woke up that morning feeling crampy. As I got up and moving, getting ready for church, I told Andrew "I'm gonna have this baby today!"He laughed at me and told me it was in my head. I didn't have braxton hicks with Eli nor did I experience contractions until they induced me... so I was clueless what the beginnings of labor felt like. Therefore, I convinced myself they were braxton hicks contractions and we carried on about our day. As the day went on, they were getting a little stronger and more consistent... but I kept telling myself "I'm not even 35 weeks yet, it can't be real labor." After hanging out with Jon and Christina all evening, and secretly timing my contractions, I told Andrew on the way home that I think we need to go to the hospital. We called up Grammie to come stay with Eli while we went to get checked out. Andrew was still in denial, but I was quickly realizing something big was going on due to the fact that my contractions were getting pretty strong and 2-3 minutes apart. We get to the hospital, get checked in around 1030 PM and they start fluids (hoping I was dehydrated, not in labor). They ran a test and sure enough, I was in pre-term labor. After hours of trying to stop it, the contractions continued to gain intensity and remains just as consistent... AND I was dialating. Then came the unexplained bleeding. So a sono tech was brought in to make sure the bleeding wasn't anything severe. All checked out ok, so they continued to attempt to slow down/stop labor. After about 21 hours of contractions and little to no meds to help, the doctor decided to break my water since everything else was continuing to progress. We were going to welcome our lil man into the world and boy were we scared. Would he be ok? Would the delivery go smoother than with Eli? Will he have to go to the NICU and if so, for how long? It was a lot to take in, but all I could think about was "When are they getting here with my epidural?!?" The contractions were 1000 times worse than with Eli, and I had pitocin with Eli! I'm not sure whether it was because I had been contracting for so long or what, but there was no breathing through these! After the epidural was put in, it was smooth sailing. The doctor came to check me a little over an hour later and said it was baby time. No sooner did he get his scrubs on and my legs up and Caleb was already crowning! This kid wanted out!! Two VERY small pushes later and he was out and SCREAMING! It was music to my ears, like he was telling me "i'm gonna be ok mom." (His lungs were the concern with being so early) I was able to hold him skin to skin for a few moments and family was able to come in to take a quick glimpse before they took our little Caleb down to the NICU for oxygen. And the long, tiring, emotionally draining hopsital stay began...
Caleb Ryan Bridges born at 9:16PM. 6lbs 3oz and19in long
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