Birth Day

Kaleb Joshua Tieman

7lbs and 15ozs

20.5 inches long
6-12-2010 at 12:37am

The Story - warning, it might be pretty long :)

On Thursday, June 10th, Jared and I got to the hospital pretty late at night, around 10:30, so my labor could be induced. After some paperwork and settling into our room, they finally started my labor officially around 1am, on Friday June 11th. They started me by using this gel that goes on the cervix and it's supposed to soften and thin it out so that things start progressing...typically they do 3 rounds of the gel, but they ended up doing 4 on me, because my stupid body just didn't want to cooperate.

I tried to sleep some during this time because my contractions weren't very strong, i could feel them but they weren't causing any real pain. I think i was just too excited to sleep, plus the nurse was in and out of my room every hour or so, so getting sleep wasn't happening for me! We got some visitors around 8am that day, which was kinda nice, something to keep my mind off the fact that nothing was happening! Finally around 11am, they said i was progressing slowly, but at least i was progressing...enough that they were comfortable to start the Petocin drip. At this point the nurse said we probably had a good 8 hours ahead of us, but she said things should really start moving....wrong!

By now my contractions were really consistent and getting painful. They were bearable I guess, but they offered the epidural and i TOOK it! It was wonderful!! I actually got a little sleep here and there after the epidural, but things really weren't moving any faster. Around 2pm, Mckernan came in and broke my water hoping that would finally make me progress faster. They called my labor 'textbook', because i began progressing after 6pm an additional centimeter every hour. Well a textbook labor really sucks then!

Sure enough at 10pm, i was at 10cm dilated. Baby was still pretty high tho, so they thought if I tried pushing a little bit that maybe he would come down with my contractions. He would come down a little with each push but go right back up. He was pretty much just stuck behind my pelvic bone....I don't even think he was crowning at all! I had been in labor so long that my epidural started to wear off, and i was really starting to hurt...luckily they got me a refill and I wa good to go again. I was so exhausted from the lack of sleep, and a little mad that they were having me push and it wasn't doing ANYTHING! I felt like i was just wasting my energy! I pushed for more than 2 hours and it was basically hell!

Mckernan came in ad decided that he needed to come out asap, so he busted out the vaccuum. He got the vacuum on and seriously started pulling SO hard, it was a little freaky looking! He finally got the little man's head and shoulders out and told me to pull him the rest of the way out. So I reached down, grabbed the little slimy dude and plopped him on my chest. It was a HUGE mix of emotions, but i have never been so tired in my life! Kaleb came out on June 12 just after midnight at 12:37am, rocking out to some Led Zeppelin music!

I was in labor for almost 24 hours, had 2 pretty bad tears and plenty of stitches, but it was all worth it. Kaleb had a serious conehead and a nasty war wound from the vacuum...seriously the pictures below don't do it justice. He had some fluid in his lungs, so they had to take him to the nursery. We didn't get into our recovery room until almost 3am, and I barely got to see my little guy. They finally brought him around 4:30, and until we left the hospital on Sunday I don't think i got any sleep. It was the craziest few days, but the best at the same time. I had an amazing husband who supported me the whole time. It's truly amazing having this sweet little guy finally out and being parents!!

Super Tired, but trying to put on a happy face

you can see where the vacuum was at...poor guy

another shot of the battle scars

one happy and super tired family

1 day old, and so ready to go home!