Caleb Gilbert Aplet
Baby Caleb Gilbert Aplet is born! Finally the day has come when little Caleb decided that he would make his grand appearance, and finally take his place amongst our family. Caleb was born at 2:34 PM on Saturday, January 14th 2012 at Sutter Davis Birth Center. He weighed 7 lbs, 2 oz and was 20 inches long.
We have a wonderful birth story to share with you all, and we definitely will. I would like that story to be in Heather's own words. In fact we will try to do another video blog entry since it takes less time than writing. Between nursing, attending her bits, and trying to eek in a sliver of sleep, time is something that Heather has very little of right now.
Stay tuned for that post. It's pretty amazing!
For those of you that don't know Heather's side of the family too well, "Gilbert" was the name of Heather's father who passed away In September of '09. He was a man that loved babies, especially his grand babies. Caleb would have no doubt been his favorite. So, we decided to make Caleb's middle name "Gilbert" in memory and honor of her father. Something that we think is pretty special.
Pictures
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39 Weeks Pregnant
Monday night I started feeling sick. I had a headache, couldn't sleep, upset stomach, etc. I spent the whole night trying to get comfortable and trying to kick my awful headache. At about 4am I threw up, but I was able to sleep after that. I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday morning at 9:30 and initially Mark was not going to go with me. (After my rough night – he decided he'd better) So we got to the appointment, my blood pressure was 160/102 (really bad) the non-stress test went fine, but when I told them about the headache that I had the night before and the vomiting – they had us go over to the birthing center/hospital for additional testing.
We got checked in at the birthing center at about 11am and weren't able to leave until 6pm last night. When I got there, they put the fetal heart monitor on me (and I think that they had found my heart rate – which was 90, not the baby's). Anyway, 90 is really low for a baby's heart rate and the nurse thought he was in distress, so they called more nurses in and scared the crap out of Mark and me. They made me get on my hands and knees with my head down while they tried to locate his heart rate again.
After that, I was strapped to the monitor non-stop. They did a pelvic exam on me (which is something that they weren't going to do because of my group b strep status), but I was able to find out that I'm only dilated to 1cm and my cervix is not ready for labor. After they had monitored me for what seemed like forever, they came back in and wanted to do a contraction stress test. This is where they give me Pitocin to induce contractions so that they can watch our baby's heart rate and see how he will respond to labor. If his heart rate decelerates during a contraction, it means that he is in distress and they would need to induce us right away.
Mark and I were so emotionally conflicted. We were feeling completely out of control with everything that was happening. It felt like all of doors to a natural childbirth were closing. We made the decision to do the test. If our baby was in trouble, we needed to know. I could never forgive myself if we didn't do the test and something went wrong. He did beautifully! Then the midwife and doctor suggested that we could either start taking measures for induction before we left for the evening, or we could come back in the morning to start the induction process which includes another non-stress test, amniotic fluid ultrasound then insertion a drug called Cytotec to soften/ripen my cervix. We decided to do the latter. I was exhausted, and felt that in order to make the best decisions for myself and the baby, I needed to get some decent sleep.
We went home, cried, and tried to come to terms with the events of the day. We hadn't made peace with the idea of being induced, but if the doctor and the midwife believe it is the route we need to take – then we must trust their knowledge and experience. So, we went to bed early and prepared for the unexpected. At the appointment today, we had another non stress test, which was beautiful. We had our amniotic fluid index ultrasound, which also went great. Then, quite unexpectedly the midwife came in and told us that based on today's results… they did not believe that we needed to start induction. They will give us until my due date. So now we are back to the waiting game. (Which is fine with me for right now) If I haven't gone into labor by my due date, I will be induced for sure and I suppose I am at peace with that.
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38 Week Update
As of tomorrow I am 38 weeks pregnant. It sometimes feels like I have been pregnant forever, but in other ways – I can't believe that in a few short weeks we will meet our newest addition face to face. I have to say, I have been pretty blessed during this pregnancy. I never had any "morning sickness" to speak of. Heck, I never even felt queasy during the first and second trimesters. I did have an inexplicable desire for citrus fruit and was obsessed with grapefruit and cuties for several months. I developed heartburn/acid reflux during the second trimester and that was not fun at all. Also, my hormones responsible for my mood were a little more active as my family can attest. I became a rage-a-holic during our annual summer outing this year in Tahoe. I was completely out of my mind and making scenes in parking lots. (No joke – sorry Laura)
We started our birthing classes November 8th. We would make the journey to Davis every Tuesday for six weeks. Our class was a pretty good size. We had nine other couples in our class – all expecting their first child. The first day we went around the room and talked about what our experience has been like so far and if we had any new pregnancy symptoms. Mark had to tell people during the 4th class that he has begun nesting. He was going on a cleaning spree that I have not seen before. I couldn't help but feel a little guilty as I'm not nesting yet. :)
We learned so much during our classes I started to feel a little bit like we were cramming for a year end final exam. We would watch birthing videos and I swear to God I would have tears in my eyes after each one. (What the Hell?!?!) I was back to being an emotional basket case. I felt bad for Mark during some of the classes, he must have felt like he was taking massage therapy 101. We learned about positive positioning, stages of labor, medical interventions, different birthing options, postpartum care, and we got to sit and talk with one of the pediatricians on staff. We toured the birth center and got to see the large birthing/labor rooms and the private recovery rooms. We also got to meet the head nurse of the birthing center which was great. She made a very poignant statement, she said studies have shown that the last memories to fade before we pass on are the birth of child and the death of a parent. I nearly lost it in class that day. I think about Dad a lot and wish that he was here to meet his grandson. I know that he will be with me when I deliver and will be watching over us, but I miss him and I always will.
My baby showers were awesome. On November 12th, my sister, Laura threw me a spectacular baby shower. She really went all out. We went with a whale theme for the baby's room and she took the underwater/whale theme to the limit. Mark and I were completely blown away. I was totally emotional at the shower. I almost broke down into tears when I was thanking everyone for coming. My workplace threw me a shower on December 2nd. I was so touched by how many people came and wanted to share the afternoon with me. It was really amazing. The managing partner of the firm bought us our 5-in-1 bassinet. I was taken by surprise and almost started crying at work. Man, I am such a baby!
We had been smoothly sailing along until our appointment on December 19th. Before I became pregnant my blood pressure was borderline high, but had never crossed the 140/90 line of fire. During the first and second trimesters, my blood pressure had been normal but on December 19th when the nurse took my reading – it was elevated above the line. Since then, the obstetricians have scheduled to see me twice a week. I go on Tuesdays for a non-stress test (NST) and on Fridays for a combination NST and ultrasound. They want to be sure that our baby is receiving adequate nutrition as high blood pressure can affect the transfer of blood and nutrients via the placenta. Everything is looking fine, although at my December 23rd appointment, the doctor had me go on bed rest. I was really upset, I only had 3 more days of work that I wanted to complete, but as long as the baby and I are healthy – that's all that matters. So now it's just a waiting game. I was told today that when women develop high blood pressure during the third trimester, they suggest that I deliver by my due date. So that means if I haven't gone into labor by the 14th… they will probably schedule me for an induction. Both Mark and I really don't want to go through that process – so keep your fingers crossed that our little boy gets this party started before the 14th!
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It's a Boy!
Hard to believe but Heather is in her 20th week of pregnancy. It seems like just the other day we discovered she was pregnant. The 20th week is significant because it a major milestone in development. One where we get the option to know what sex the baby is.
Heather went in for her ultrasound today. This is a rather long appointment, one and a half hours long to be exact. Most of it poor Heather had to endure with a full bladder. We were hoping the technician would bring us news of a girl child, but the images are pretty clear. It's a boy. The technician even went as far as drawing a line to his wennis just in case you couldn't see for yourself.
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OMG We're pregnant!
Yes thats right we're pregnant! Finally I get to tell everyone now that we are officially out of the first trimester. That's a difficult secret to keep let me tell you.
On May 9th 2011, Heather came home from work all happy and glowing. She whispered to me, "I think we have some news." I knew immediately what she was talking about. After all we had been trying for several months to have a child. I just wonder how she knew so definitively before taking a pregnancy test. I am chalking it up to motherly intuition.
We bought a home pregnancy test just to see if Heather's intuitions were correct. Our first test read nothing. No plus no minus, nothing. So does that mean she's not pregnant? I'm not sure how difficult it is to pee on a stick but it must pretty hard, because as it turned out, Heather missed the stick completely! Oh brother!
We weren't sure if the test stick was still usable or not. We decided to retest with the same stick and see what happens. The second test came back positive and we were both pretty excited. Then we started thinking. Was the sticks integrity compromised after the first attempt? Would the long exposure to oxygen cause a false positive? Crap! the instructions make no mention about a mis-fire in the troubleshooting section!
We decided not to get to excited just yet and retest in the morning.
Heather retested in the morning and it we got the unmistakable "+" sign. Now it's time to get excited!
(8 weeks)
To tell or not to tell
We debated at length if we should tell our friends and family or if we should wait until we cleared the first trimester. After all, if anything were to happen, it would most likely happen during the first trimester. We decided to wait on making a big announcement.
We really did try to wait to make any announcements. However, after a few close calls where we almost spilt the beans, we decided we just aren't good at keeping secrets. Especially from our family. We decided that we had to tell our families.
We made some simple announcement cards and presented them to our mother's on the weekend. As you can probably imagine, they were both very delighted with the news. Watching them pull the cards from the envelopes, you can see in their facial expressions that they knew instantly what the big bold letters on the cards cover reading "Surprise" meant! The moment was—to quote a popular credit card slogan—"Priceless"
First Ultrasound
On June 10th 2011, we had a doctor appointment to do our first ultrasound. This would be our 8th week so the baby was a only 2 cm long. I wasn't sure what we would see if anything. To my surprise we actually got to see the tiny heart beating on the black and white ultrasound monitor. I have to say, it was pretty amazing to watch. I had no idea the tiny heart was already beating at just 8 weeks. If I wasn't such a manly man, I probably would have teared up a little.
(12 weeks)
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