Days 1-4

Typically, mom and baby would be kept at the hospital for 2 days after a non complicated delivery.  Since Cason was 5 weeks early, the pediatrician wanted us to stay an extra day.  But, unfortunately mommy’s blood pressure had been high since I got to the hospital on Thursday afternoon so we were kept 4 days and finally got to go home on Monday afternoon.  We were READY to say the least.  It was nice to have the extra night of sending Cason to the nursery but it really doesn’t help when your hospital room has a revolving door starting at 7am.

Because of my blood pressure issues, we had to limit visitors.  But, we passed the time with visits from family and a couple of friends, nursing, diaper changing, napping, snuggling and taking lots of pictures.  Here are the highlights of our stay in the hospital.
Cason meeting his grandparents 
Cason meeting his aunts and uncles
Sleeping
Hearing Test
Cuddling with Mom
Yummy gifts from friends
Opening his eyes and checking out the world

Another family picture…
Snuggling with daddy
Finally getting to go home
Ready for his first car ride!

First Hours

Cason’s arrival to this world was a bit of a whirlwind. 

I started leaking fluid about 2:15 on Thursday (while at work 45 minutes from the hospital).  My doctor told me to go to Labor and Delivery… I was fully expecting to be sent home.  They put me in a room, ran some tests, hooked me up to the monitors.  Ryan arrived and we both were anxious to figure out what was going on.  The monitors showed I was having contractions but nothing major and Cason’s heartbeat was just fine. 

It took until 10:00 pm to finally get confirmation that my water had broken or at least that I was leaking amniotic.  I was having contractions off and on during this time but could barely feel them.  All that changed around 11:30 when they started coming closer together and very strong.  The pain was something I hoped to never feel.  The nurse said I was maybe dilated to a 1 so they gave me pain medicine, no epidural.  Two doses of pain meds had nothing on the contractions.  Around 12:30 or 1:00 am, the doctor said to go ahead and give me the epidural but otherwise they were still talking about the baby not coming till later that day. 

Cason had a different idea.  I got the epidural around 1am and as soon as that was done, the nurse checked me again.  I was telling her how awful the pressure was, like he was about to come out.  Sure enough, she looked at me and said “The pressure is so strong because you are about to have a baby…. you are completely dilated!”  The doctor on call arrived and by 1:30 we were prepping for delivery.  And thank God, the epidural had just enough time to set in.

I pushed for maybe 30 minutes tops and Cason arrived at 2:17am. 

Here are some pictures from those first hours

Just entering the world Getting weighted – 6lb, 12oz Getting cleaned up First picture with mom and dad Having some tests done since you were so earlyAll bundled up Snuggling with Mommy And snuggling with Daddy.

We’ve taken a million pictures!  More to come!

Cason’s Here

Cason Philip arrived 5 weeks early! 

April 16th, 2010

2:17am

6lbs 12oz

19.5 inches

Our First Family Picture

More about our whirlwind birth story to come!