BIRTH DAY

I must apologize in advance for not keeping up with my blog for 2 MONTHS....OMG, did I just say 2 MONTHS?  Has it really been that long?  I guess I have some back tracking & catching up to do.  As you can imagine, life with a newborn and a toddler is VERY hectic.  I don't really even know where to begin because there have been lots & lots of things to update about...I guess I'll just start by stating the obvious....

Cameron Scott Hoag was born on September 25, 2009 at 4:18 pm.  He weighed 6 lbs. even and was 19 inches long.  The funny thing is that I had a BPP (ultrasound) 2 weeks to the day before he was born and they were estimating him to be 6 lbs. 10 oz. at that time, so the Perinatologist told me that I could expect him to be around 7 1/2 lbs. at birth!  When he came out, I couldn't believe how tiny he was.  I think my OB was even shocked.  I was induced 11 days early due to my gestational diabetes.  I chose 9/25 due to the fact that when you are in a group of doctors, you basically don't get to choose who delivers your baby...it's whomever is on call the day you go into labor.  I had already established a good relationship with one OB in particular (Dr. Robbins) and felt VERY comfortable with him and since I already knew that I HAD to be induced, I wanted HIM to deliver Cameron.  He was only on call during the month on Fridays so I basically had a choice of either 9/25 or 10/2.  I picked the earlier date just because I felt better about Cameron being on the "outside" and away from my crazy blood sugars.  Both my regular OB and Perinatologist agreed that there was no reason why I couldn't be induced on the earlier date. 

I was absolutely SCARED TO DEATH about being induced because I've heard so many horror stories.  I was having anxiety attacks and really really uptight the whole 2 weeks before I was induced.  I was especially nervous because of the "scary" birth experience I had had with Brayden.  I'm sooooo thankful that my fears were unfounded and it was actually a very easy and very fast birth - only 2 1/2 pushes & he was out!!! Just a couple of interesting facts to point out....It only took about 5 hours from the start of my very first contraction;  he was born in less than 2 hours after I got the epidural; I went from 4 cm to 10 cm in a little over an hour;  but most impressive is the going from 6 cm to 10 cm & ready to push in only 20 MINUTES!  Dr. Robbins told me "I was good at this"......really, if I were 10 years younger, I'd probably do it at least once or twice more:-)  I really do have easy pregnancies and BOTH births would have been fast & easy had Brayden not gotten stuck face up & unable to come through the birth canal without help:0-)

My mom, dad, Scott and Brayden were all in the delivery room with me (although I kicked dad out when it was time to push, for obvious reasons...LOL).  Mom kept a journal of everything that was happening so I'm going to use her words as my birth story:

September 25, 2009

Today is to be our Cameron's birthday! Cathy and I are up at 5am...of course the guys are still asleep!! Let them! I wouldn't trade places with them for anything. Cathy and I are getting ready for the big day, and right now I am enjoying the peace and quiet of the early morning. 

It's now 5:50 AM and I'm ready! I'm making coffee, packing a few things for Brayden and all we need now is for the hospital to call and say they are ready for us. 

7:48 AM - WE ARE IN THE CAR and heading to Altanta. 

8:08 AM - Not even to the expressway....morning rush hour is in full swing, wouldn't you know it? I think we would have been wise to go early and take our chances. The check in at the hospital was routine but it seemed to take forever for them to get Cathy settled into bed and ready to begin!

10:55 AM - Pitocin finally started. Brayden is watching Wiggles on the computer. Hopefully the contractions will get started soon. Brayden has been such a good boy so far. I brought the laptop for him and he is set up in his own little "office" area and happy as can be.

11:15 AM - CONTRACTIONS BEGIN....

12:35 PM - Contractions still regular. No one has even checked to see how far she is dilated yet! The nurse just says everything looks good...but Cathy is HOT. Her body is working hard. Brayden almost took a nap but couldn't quite get all the way out. He is tired but sooo good. He is a bit bored...waiting for his brother to appear....but he is still cooperative.

1:40 PM - Midwife broke her water. The baby's heart rate took a plummet and Cathy's BP shot up. They turned her on her side and things seems to get better. I have to say that I was mighty stressed with all the activity. You know they are concerned when the nurse doesn't leave her side through all this. I was sure they were going to start talking about a C-section. She is only dilated to 3 with 70% effacement at this point. It seems to be going slow.

2:15 PM - the pain is getting pretty intense with contractions at 2 mins apart and lasting about a full minute. Not much time to relax in between so Cathy has decided to ask for the epidural.

2:35 PM - She has the epidural in place and once again only one side seems to be numb.  I can't believe that it would happen both times.

3:00 PM - The nurse turned her over on her left side and gave her a bolus of the epi....she is getting a little more relief but still feeling the contractions a lot. The baby is having some de cels but the nurse says that's normal during a contraction or when the baby is moving down the birth canal. I'm hoping he's on his way out!! I'm too old for this drama, in fact I'm NOT DOING IT AGAIN. Brayden is happily playing on the computer and is unaware of most of what is going on in the room around him. At one point he asked "Mommy, how you feeling?"  When Cathy told him she was fine, he went back to his game on the computer. 

3:10 PM - Only to 4cm. Doesn't appear that Cameron is descending and I can tell that the nurse is concerned. The decels are more often and she mentioned that it could mean that the cord is around his neck.  Oh not again!!  That's what happened with Brayden. Dr. Robbins is in surgery but we have been assured that he will be here soon. Cathy needs some reassurance at this point and so do I. One positive...the epidural is working now on both sides and she seems comfortable.  The nurse checked her blood pressure and it was down to 76/61....it came back up pretty quickly to 125/66. They turned the pitocin off and that seemed to make a difference. They adjusted the drip and now have turned it back on. Cameron is giving us ATTITUDE big time. Some babies just don't like to be "forced" out and he seems to be one of them.

3:45 PM - Dr. Robbins is finally here. He checked Cathy and she is now at 6cm. He wasn't happy with the decels but said that we would wait a bit and see if the situation changes. He said he didn't want to do a C section unless it was the last resort. He mentioned the clotting factor and told Cathy she would have to be on Lovinox for weeks if it should come down to that. He seemed "concerned" but calm. That was reassuring to us.

4:05 PM -The midwife came in. I was pretty insistent about having her check Cathy again. She wasn't inclined to do that since Cathy was checked only about 20 minutes ago. Cathy told her she was having some pretty bad rectal pressure. The midwife paused then decided to go ahead and check her.....good thing! 10cm and ready to push!!  Now that's progress. When she checked her she told us that Cameron was posterior.........oh here we go again. Brayden's birth all over again. Dr. Robbins was just outside the door and in he came...he couldn't believe it. He had left the room only a few minutes before and now he was rushing into his gown and gloves! Things happened so fast at this point. Either he or the midwife was able to get Cameron turned down and facing the right way...and Dr. Robbins asked for a good push. Then another good push...and on the third push he told Cathy to give him a small little one...at that point I could see Cameron's little head appearing and with that small little push out he came! I couldn't belive how easy it seemed. Sooooooooo different from watching all the drama at Brayden's birth. What I noticed right away was his perfect little round head full of dark hair..then I took a good look at him and he was sooooooooo little. I had been expecting a big boy and here was this tiny little guy. About that time Brayden seemed to notice all the activity and he became very interested in what was happening. His first look at his new baby brother was priceless. He was grinning from ear to ear.!

All in all it was a wonderful day. Taking Brayden was the right choice.

Introducing Cameron Scott Hoag...born at 4:18 PM...September 25, 2009...weighing in at a whopping 6 pounds and measuring 19 in long....

Here are a couple of pictures from right after he was born.  He came out with a TON of hair (just like his big brother).  It's funny how that works, my mom had 3 bald babies and both of my babies had lots & lots of hair!

Just for fun, I thought I'd add my last "belly shot" right before I delivered.