He's here!

Kael Dean Van Wagoner was born on July 15th at 4:34 in the afternoon. We were originally scheduled to be induced Monday, but I chickened out, citing the fact that my mother-in-law wouldn't be in town until the next day. Really, I was just not keen on the idea that I couldn't eat breakfast because of the C-section risk. But at my next appointment my doctor asked if I'd like to reschedule for Thursday. For some reason I said yes. (Probably had something to do with the waddle/limp I'd acquired, and that I was 5 centimeters all week...)

At 3:30 Thursday morning, I hadn't slept more than an hour when the hospital called to postpone my 5:30 am induction. "Go back to sleep! We'll call you when it's time to come- sometime after 7." At 9:00 I called to ask if I could eat some breakfast.
"Sure! Eat a light breakfast, and be here around 10." Uh- okay.

I was super nervous on the way to the hospital. Still wasn't convinced I made the right decision.

We broke my water around noon, and an hour later I got an epidural. We were planning on starting pitocin at 3, but contractions kicked in on their own. About an hour into labor my blood pressure dropped a few times (reaction to the epidural)and I started to faint, (awful feeling!!!) but they gave me something that got me back to good each time. Then it was baby's turn. Every other contraction brought a drop in his heart rate, and I kept turning to help it back up. At one point it stayed down really low for four minutes, the first two of which were spent with me asking why I needed an oxygen mask, and trying to decipher the weird look on my nurse and Zach's faces, the last two were spent trying to ignore the look on the faces of the ten people that ran into the room, then rolling onto my hands and knees, and then crying when all I could think was "This is what I get for being impatient and forcing my kid out of the womb." Zach said later that the few times he saw that happen on his OBGYN rotation, a crash C-section followed. They gave me a shot to stop contractions, and we waited an hour for them to come back, all the while wondering if the same drop would happen again.

It didn't.

Zach got to deliver. After five minutes of pushing, 8 pounds and five ounces of Kael came out into the world. They unwrapped his cord twice from around his arm, his leg, and his neck, and then exclaimed at the figure-eight knot tied in the middle of it. He gave a good cry and I experienced more relief at seeing him placed on my chest than I'd ever felt.

Zach helped me feel better about our decision to induce. Had he been left to grow in that mess another few days, there would have been even less room for that cord to go. And the heart rate drops that we monitored so closely and remedied with turning might have gone unnoticed had I labored in the car on the way to the hospital. I know a lot of people have been praying for me and this baby for a long time- even Mia would mention us in her unassisted prayers, which always left me feeling gently impressed. I know those efforts were noticed.

Here's Kael in the fouth Grandma Gale edition of Van Wagoner baby quilts.

Grandma Coralee is here helping with the girls and housework.
I'm having better luck with nursing this time around.
Baby is getting used to us, and we're getting used to him.



Anya and Bree were both claiming him as "my baby, Anya." "No- that's MY baby, Bree." "No that's MOMmy's baby, Anya." And Bree keeps demanding that I put baby in this or that chair and give him this or that toy or food. We've got some precious video of them with Kael during his first moments home- I'll post a little later.



Mia is extremely helpful and I'm trying to figure out a way to reward that sweet girl appropriately for the amazing attitude she has about the needs of her family.

We're doing good! Thanks to everyone for their well-wishes and prayers!