Cameron's Birth Story

It all began Wednesday, April 28th, when I had a doctors appointment that Adam was actually able to go to. It was my 38 week appointment where the doctor checks everything. The doctor informed us that I was dilated to a three and that he would see us the following week for my next check up. Adam asked all of his questions and then we were out of there.

With Daxton, I was dilated to a four for five days. He then was delivered five days before his due date. My mom decided to book her flight four days before Cameron's due date, which was Monday, May 2nd. As I relayed the message from the doctor to my mom, I joked that this baby was going to come five days early so he would get here the day before my mom got here. 

Fast forward to Saturday, April 31st. We realized that it would probably be one of the last weekends where we would do something as just a family of three. We slept in, went to brunch at ihop, and then took Daxton miniature golfing. It was such a fun day and I felt pretty good! We ended up eating a late dinner at Olive Garden so by the time we got home, all of us were ready for bed. After we got Daxton all ready for bed and tucked in, we got ourselves ready for bed. It was midnight and that's when it really began....

My water broke. That is the weirdest feeling in the world! I wasn't quite sure what it was at first so I'm sure I had Adam worried. I called my mom to let her know what was going on. Then I called the nurse hotline to see how long I had before I needed to be in the hospital. They told me it was no big rush, that I should take a shower, eat something, and then I could started heading that way. I told Adam that and he wasn't ok with waiting that long.

I had most of the things we needed packed already, but Adam went around and gathered the last minute things before I had even agreed to go right then and there. Hesitantly, I got dressed, we grabbed mine and Daxton's bag, and headed out to take Dax to our friends house.

Yellow mask from where his skin wasn't exposed while he was under the lights

I have to admit, during this time I was more worried about Daxton than anything. He was already asleep and now we had to try not to wake him up and take him to a new place and then leave him?! I knew he was going to be ok with our friends but it was still one of the hardest things I have had to do. I was hoping the whole time that he wouldn't think that we just abandoned him. When we got to our friends house, Dax woke up, of course. He started crying when he realized he was in a different place. That's when I broke down. It was the most heart breaking thing. He knew we were leaving and he knew he wasn't coming with. Adam and I tried for about a half an hour to calm him down before we decided that it wasn't doing anyone any good to stay. I was sobbing, and as we started walking out the door Daxton started crying harder which made Adam get emotional. We were a mess!! We later found out that Dax cried himself to sleep after we left. Adam had to calm me down on our way to the hospital. But we all eventually got through it. Sorry Tim and Jessica, but thank you so much for taking him! 

  

Anyway, we arrived at the hospital around 1:30 or 2 a.m. My contractions had started up around 1 a.m. So they weren't super bad when we got to the hospital. They got me all checked in and back behind a curtain where they checked how far along my labor was. I was only dilated to a 6 when they checked me in (which was nothing compared to the 8 I was when I checked in with Daxton) so I assumed we would have several hours before delivery. While we were in the room, my contractions started to get much more intense and closer together.  

They eventually wheeled me into our labor and delivery room and got me all hooked up with IVs and such. I got my epidural, which worked wonders for me last time so I was pretty excited about it! After I was all hooked up, drugged up, and layed up, the nurse told us that she was going to monitor me from right outside the room and that Adam and I should get some sleep if we could. It was probably 4:30 a.m. at this point so both Adam and I were exhausted and wanted sleep so bad. I noticed that my epidural was doing some funky things and only my right leg was numb but my left leg wasn't. They kept telling me that I just needed to lay on my left side so the medicine would slowly get to that side too. The monitors on my belly weren't picking up what they needed at the same time. They were either picking up the baby's heart rate or my contractions but not both. Because of that, my nurse kept having to come in our room, turn me to my other side and adjust the belts on my stomach. I was still pretty uncomfortable at this point. I feel like the epidural worked for maybe 10-15 minutes and then started wearing off. 

After a few times of the nurse going back and forth from our room, Adam woke up from his little nap and got up to check on me.  I was still uncomfortable and feeling more of the contractions than I did with Daxton, but I wasn't in a ton of pain. I remember that Adam went in to the bathroom and was gone for maybe two minutes. While he was gone the nurse was checking me out and that's when I got super uncomfortable. The nurse got worried for me and kept asking how I was doing and what was going on. I had no idea why I was getting so uncomfortable and even in some pain. I thought it might be contractions but then I had the urge to push. By the time Adam came out of the bathroom, I was pushing and I'm sure it freaked him out. I think I was still laying on my side for the first couple pushes until the nurses turned me flat on my back. He said that our room went from one nurse to like six nurses in seconds. At this point I was in a ton of pain and having a little bit of a hard time breathing. That's when the oxygen mask came over my face. I remember hearing the words OR and surgery which made me start freaking out even more. I later figured out that the nurses were talking about the OR and surgery because the doctor who was going to deliver Cameron was actually in the OR doing a c-section when Cam was born. The nurses kept reassuring me that I was doing good and to keep pushing. After maybe ten to fifteen minutes of pushing, the nurses delivered our healthy baby boy at 5:40 a.m. on May 1st!

Adam was able to cut his cord and he was a great photographer! Cameron was put on my chest but I was still trying to recover from delivery so I only had enough strength to rest my hand on him while being grateful that I could now catch my breath. 

After a couple of hours they wheeled us up to our recovery room. I think Adam stayed with Cameron and I for just a little while before he took off to go get Daxton. They came back a couple hours later and Daxton got to meet his new baby brother for the first time. The nurse was so nice and waited for Dax and Adam to come back before she gave Cameron his first bath. 

Daxton is constantly saying, "Aw, baby cute!" And when he asks to hold Cam, he asks if he can hold "it". Haha! 

Cameron had to go under the lights for jaundice at about 24 hours old. His levels would not come down so I was in the hospital with him until Thursday evening when we got to take him home! We had to go get his levels checked again the next morning to make sure he was still doing good. His levels went up over night so the doctor told us we had to take him in to the nicu. The nurses told us that he was up to almost an 18 when they tested him Friday night. But with triple phototherapy, his levels came down dramatically and we were able to take him home for good on Sunday night, a week after he was born. 

Now we have two healthy boys at home and are adjusting to this new life of two kids and a family of four. We are so in love with this sweet baby and are extremely blessed to be given the chance to raise and love on these two sweet boys!