CJ's first Xmas

CJ was 2 weeks old at Xmas...Jeff and I were a little concerned with him being around lots of people. But Jeff's extended family members were dying to see him and I did want CJ to have a memorable Xmas celebration. At the same time a coworker had bought a My First Xmas red footsie for CJ and I had received a red and white beenie from the Kaiser volunteers...he just had to wear them on Xmas day!

Everyone adored him and wanted to hold him Xmas day...too bad he didn't really open his eyes...sleepy guy!

A visit from CJ's grandparents

My parents were a little disappointed when they had expected CJ to arrive close to Xmas time, which my mom would not be able to get time off for. But since he arrived 2 weeks earlier, they were both very excited to be able to come and visit their first grandson. They came to the bay area to visit 4 days after CJ was born. First thing they did when they walked in the door was ask where their grandson was, asked to hold him, and immediately tookk this picture!

CJ was born December 10, 2007

If you are looking at this post, you are probably wondering how labor and delivery went. Well let me tell you, it was probably the most painful thing I've experienced. CJ's expected due date was December 22, 2007, but he arrived 2 weeks early. I wanted him to come early, and I even told my mother-in-law the Saturday before on December 8th that he would come that week as I somehow had a feeling...little did I know it would be just a matter of a couple of days.

The first sign that labor was emminent was the loss of the mucous plug, which is a bloody slime that plugs the cervix. I had read that labor can begin from hours to up to a week after you lose your mucous plug. That was at 5:45 AM on Sunday, December 9th. Then at 7 AM I started feeling what felt like menstrual cramps. They would come and go and so I didn't think too much of it and tried to go back to sleep. A couple of hours later, I realized....this must be contractions, especially since they came as close as 5 minutes apart by then. That Sunday was Pug Sunday so I went anyways knowing that I was probably in early labor and sat most of the time watching the clock, but the pain was getting to be more and more unbearable. By 1 PM my husband took me to Kaiser to get checked. It turns out I was in labor, dialated at 1 cm but I couldn't be admitted as they usually don't admit until you are 4 cm dialated. I went home, took some Tylenol PM as recommended by the midwife, and tried to go to sleep, but the pain was getting more and more intense.

By 8 PM, I was having really bad pain in my pelvic area and was not comfortable laying down or lying on a bed...the only thing that felt okay was bouncing on a yoga or birth ball. Jeff called Kaiser for me but they still didn't feel I might be ready yet. Jeff's parents came over and helped take Sammy to Pug Club Med as we knew we wouldn't be able to care for Sammy. By 11 PM I said I couldn't take it anymore...let's go to Kaiser now.

At Kaiser, I was checked at triage again, but this time the nurse said I was 2 cm dialated and the baby's head was very low in the pelvis...that's why I was in such pain. On top of that, they checked my urine and found I was dehydrated and I even vomited. For those reasons, I was admitted. When they asked me about pain medication, I told them that I wanted the epidural once I was 4 cm dialated as I didn't want to bear the pain anymore. I even told Jeff's mom that I couldn't believe she gave birth to Jeff and Matt naturally. Hours later, I was 4 cm dialated and they gave me the epidural almost immediately. Once the epidural kicked in...it was such a relief...I could see on the monitor that I was having a contraction, but I could no longer feel it! I was able to get a few hours of sleep to prepare me for the pushing to come. In the meantime, I was given petocin through IV to help the contractions along.

By the wee hours of the morning, the midwife was surprised I wasn't moving along as fast as they had anticipated. I was stuck at 6-7 cm for a few hours, and they even punctured the bag of waters to see if that would move things along. Nothing seemed to work. At the same time, I was experiencing pain again...why wasn't my epidural working! My midwife then told me that I might have to have a cesarean if I was not moving along after another hour. I was freaking out by then and she could see it in my face. I asked her if she could wait an additional hour. She told me that meditation may help, and that's what I did. And guess what...it worked, I went to 8 cm after another 1-2 hours! Yahhh! She was happy for me and told me to meditate more to get to 10 cm...she even drew a picture of little CJ on the white board, "This is 8 cm (as she drew a circle with a happy face which was his head), but you want 10 cm (as she drew another circle which was his body, followed by arms and legs). I kept meditating and soon enough the contractions were becoming quite painful again...I even had urges to push.

Another hour at 2 PM, my midwife came back and checked me again...I was 9 cm dialated and baby's head was very very low...she stretched it another centimeter and wa-la! I was 10 cm dialated and ready to push! Pushing wasn't too hard as I had already had the urge to push, I just had to go with it! After my first push, his head was already appearing...the midwife said some women take 2 hours to get to that point. After 13 minutes of pushing...CJ was born. He cried very loudly and was put on my abdomen. It was so touching to see his birth that I cried...Jeff and I had made this precious little baby. And after all I've been through, I would still do it again.

CJ was officially born at 2:12 PM on December 10, weighed in at 7 lb 7 oz and was 20 1/2 in long.