{camden's birth story}

This week has been a whirlwind of awesomeness. It has all gone by so fast I figure I better sit down now and write it all down before I forget anything. 

Camden Gunner Johnson was born Tuesday, May 5th at 6:35pm. I have to say the laboring process and everything after was really different than Andersen's. I couldn't really compare them. Read Anders' birth story here.

My due date was May 15th. Contractions started Saturday morning, May 2nd, the day of my baby shower. Before I ran out the door to my baby shower I threw together my hospital bag because I figured with Anders I had him a little less than 24 hours after my contractions started. Not so with Camden. All day Saturday and Sunday I had sporadic contractions. So I chalked them up to Braxton Hicks and kind of resigned myself to thinking this was just my body getting ready for my due date. 

Though secretly, I still hoped that he would come Monday, May 4th.....Star Wars Day. (May the Fouth Be With You...heehee.) I am a huge Star Wars fan. But again, all day Monday, I just had little cramps and for hours at a time felt nothing at all. I even went to the gym and hopped on the stair stepper hoping that I could get things rolling. No luck. Midnight rolled around and I was a little sad my little guy's birthday wouldn't be Star Wars Day.

Tuesday morning I noticed the contractions were happening a little more frequently than Monday. But still not reliably enough to time them or anything. Around noon they were timing worthy and were soon about 4 minutes apart but only 20-30 seconds long and not terribly painful. So I kept working on orders that I had to ship out that day. When Garett got home from school around 3 pm the contractions were becoming more intense but still not terrible. We worked on orders and around 4:30 pm the contractions were only 2 minutes apart. 

I figured I should call my doctor and let them know and see if I should head to the hospital. They said go. I hopped in the shower (because I was super sweaty from working the heat press; that thing is a workout!), shaved, washed my hair that I hadn't washed in 3 days and just relaxed as best I could. Garett was loading up the car and secretly freaking out. We weren't mentally prepared yet; we thought we still had almost 2 weeks! Anders only came 2 days early.

While Garett was doing his thing I figured I could straighten my hair. So I started that and Garett came back to the bathroom with an expression on his face that basically said "Woman! Ain't nobody got time for that!". With him coaxing me to hurry it along I rapidly finished and got dressed. I found my checklist and started ticking through the items, yelling random things at Garett so he'd grab them. Then we made sure Anders had everything he needed and that my cousin Tony, who was watching him, had everything he needed too. 

By the time we left around 5:50ish, the contractions were definitely stronger and more intense. Since my water hadn't broken yet Garett was kind enough to lay out a towel and garbage bag on the seat so I wouldn't soil our new car. It was pretty dignifying sitting there like a potty training toddler. 

Thankfully we live literally 4 minutes from the hospital. Garett dropped me off at the door and he went to park the car. I wandered into the hospital to the front desk, asked where I was suppose to go and waited for Garett. We went up and got to our room and I got into the sexy hospital gown and waited to be "inspected". The nurse came in and explained that if I was under 4 cm dilated that they would keep me for an hour and see if I progressed and if I didn't that I could go home. She "inspected" me and said that we were definitely staying because I was 8 cm dilated and she sent someone to call my doctor immediately. This was at about 6:05ish. 

Around 6:15 I could feel that trickling sensation of my water breaking. It was really slow and not a whole lot of fluid. But the contractions now required all my focus and breathing abilities. About 6:25 Dr. Andersen walked in! He's in Payson, UT so he drove about 19-20 miles in less than 20 minutes! Don't worry, we had a discussion about his speeding later : )

As soon as he was in the room and asking if he had time to change I said that I felt the baby shift down and the urge to push was coming. He checked me and I was fully dilated. He broke my water the rest of the way and I positioned myself into the stirrups. It was about to go down.

Garett grabbed my hand as I said I had to push. I don't remember if we waited for a contraction to come but I pushed. And stopped when he apparently was at his widest. Yeah not an ideal place to stop. I was torn between waiting for a contraction (honestly I wanted a chance to catch my breath) or just to give it one more big push to end the burning pressure down there. I think I caught a breath and pushed. Out was his head. I looked down as saw it. It was truly amazing. I wasn't in the pain I was 2 seconds before so I was mentally there and calm and was able to take in what I was seeing. Then they said one more push to get the rest of him out! I took a breath and pushed that guy out. It was over before I think I realized it had begun. 

I wasn't in shock like I was with Anders. I was fully aware and again, because I don't know how else to explain it, mentally there experiencing it like any other moment I would normally experience. I absorbed every second as they handed my baby boy to me. I watched Garett cut the cord. I was concerned as they rubbed Camden and tried to get him to cry. He was really purple. Apparently the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. He cried a bit on my chest but not as well as they wanted so they took him to the warmer/cleaning station and as they did whatever they do, he let out a hearty cry.  

 

After they cleaned him up they gave him back to me! I got to experience skin on skin contact with my baby. I missed out on this amazing feeling with Anders because they took him to the NICU right away. 

Then I figured Garett should have a turn. I mean he is the daddy; he should have a turn too : )

I sure love this handsome devil!

While Garett was holding Anders I got my after "inspection". Everything looked good. I tore a bit but didn't need stitches. I have to say the worst part for me after is when they push on your belly! They push so hard and you feel stuff coming out of you and it hurts! I literally pushed the nurse's hand away as she was pushing because it was so uncomfortable. I think it was natural reflex....I apologized after. She laughed because it wasn't the first time that happened to her.

One thing I love about natural labor/delivery (no epidural) is the ability to get up right after. I walked myself to the bathroom and got cleaned and changed just fine. Another difference I noticed between my two deliveries was my pain level after. 

With Anders I felt like my lady-bits were hit by a semi-truck and left as road-kill. I was on narcotics for 2 days and Motrin for a week after. I couldn't go number 2 for a couple days and when I did it was like delivering another small child. 

With Camden; nothing. I took zero pain medications because I felt zero pain. Unreal, I know! I was not expecting that AT ALL! I was fully prepared to feel like a mangled mess down there. I even made padcicles (I'll talk about these in a future post) to ease my suffering. I was tender for a few hours and it stung a bit where I tore but that was it. I used a few of my padcicles just because they felt amazing whether or not there was pain haha. After using a couple of those I felt completely normal down there. 

I believe I can attribute that miracle to two things: fitness and the rapid birth. I am working on a post outlining my pregnancy fitness routine. But the two things that I personally think made all the difference in my after-birth pain levels is squats and spinning. I did thousands of squats this pregnancy. Thousands. And all different types so I could reach a wide variety of muscles down there. Then I also was on a bike 2-3 times a week my whole pregnancy and a year before. Anyone that rides a bike regularly will tell you that the first couple of weeks of biking are not pleasant on the lower regions. You are sore and it hurts like a mother sometimes when you hop back on the bike. But once you spend time on the bike I really think it "calluses" your private region. It gets tougher and can with stand harder/longer workouts. Maybe that makes no sense but in my mind it does and I will discuss it more in depth in a future post.      

Anyway, back to Camden. We then were taken to our post-delivery room downstairs. Garett and Camden went to the nursery and I got another "inspection" then went to find my boys. I wanted to walk but since there weren't 2 nurses around at the time to witness my ability to hold myself up the one nurse made me take the wheel chair the 20 steps down the hall to the nursery. I took a million pictures but I managed to select a few to bombard you with.

I treated myself to a "Gownie" hospital gown. It's the same one they wear in "What To Expect When You Are Expecting" and Pam wears one in "The Office". When I saw it in those shows I thought "no hospital has that cute of a gown" and I freaking love it because it has polka dots. I had forgotten about it until I just happened upon it on Pinterest back in February. Find it here. 

I kind of got buyer's remorse when it arrived. I thought that it would just get dirty and stained. But after the fact I am so glad I had it!

A) it's cute and B) it's functional. I did just wear a hospital-provided gown for the delivery; that way my cute one wouldn't get bloody and gross. After, when I was cleaning myself up I put on my cute gown. Everyone wanted it and asked where I got it. It is all snaps so there is no trying to tie it up. And it has snaps all down the back instead of like 3 ties, so you get full coverage and there is no backside hanging out. 

My favorite thing about it were the snaps in the front. Amazing. They make breastfeeding and pumping so easy. And it was super comfortable to sleep in. All in all, I loved it and it was worth the money to me. Plus I can use it for future hospitalizations (not that I forsee any besides more deliveries). I just threw it in the wash when I got home, hung it to dry and now it's ready to go for next time, looking good as new!

Now back to Camden again. They did a few tests in the nursery and the pediatrician decided to have him sent to the NICU to be monitored more closely because his red blood cell count was too high. Ugh. I thought we had avoided the NICU this time around. 

So up in the NICU they monitored his counts and because they didn't go down any after a few hours they decided to do a procedure where they would extract blood going through his umbilical cord and replace it with saline solution; which would, in theory, thin out the remaining blood and lower the red blood cell count to a normal level. 

The procedure worked and around 4 am Camden was sent back down to the nursery and brought to our room shortly after. That morning my mom brought Andersen to hospital to finally meet his little brother! It was so cute. My heart melted just a bit. 

Not the best quality picture (lighting in hospital rooms are horrible) but it's the only one we have of the four of us!

We are all healthy and home now! We feel so blessed to have Camden join our family!

   

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