Bret, Jan, & Isabella: Bret Calder Allen

He is here! Our baby boy finally made it. I had lost all hope! lol My midwife kept telling me that I was going to have this baby early so I kept counting on it. When I was about 37 weeks she said that I better have my bags packed, because the baby could come any time. So I was pretty down when I went to my 39 week appointment and the midwife started talking about what was going to happen at my 40 week appointment. I was dilated to a 2 and 50% effaced. Bret kept commenting on how sad I sounded. I just spent the rest of the day having kind of a pity party. Bella and I just hung out, slept, and watched Pride and Prejudice.
Calder must have been able to sense my anxiousness to get him here, because that night at about 2:30 I woke up with labor pains. They were just random, I was able to sleep for some of the night. And then about 5:30 they were really consistent and I couldn't go back to sleep. So I decided to get up and get ready, call me vain, but I was determined this time to look decent in the hospital pictures. With Bella I was so exhausted and you can tell in the pictures!
Bret called Steve, our home teacher over to come and help him give me a blessing, which I was so grateful for. We left the house about 8:30 and my contractions were about 5-10 minutes apart. We dropped Bella off at her best friend Melayna's house, and were finally on our way!
When I was admitted into the hospital my contractions had slowed down a ton. I don't know if they would have let me stay, except for the fact that I was 100% effaced and dilated to a 4.
The pain was very different this time around. I was able to handle it a lot better. I don't know if it was because I knew what to expect or what. Don't get me wrong, it was definitely painful, but I was able to manage it better. The midwife tried to encourage me to hold off on the epidural for a while, but when she came to check on me she said, "You don't look so good!" and ordered the epidural, Thank goodness! I finally was able to sleep a bit. I thought I was only out for a few minutes, but Bret said I slept for at least an hour. I loved having a midwife because she stayed with us for a long time. She even sat there while I slept to monitor me!
The epidural wore off on one side faster than the other, so I could feel the contractions on my right side pretty intensely. And then it had almost completely worn off when I started pushing. I progressed from a 6 to a 10 in about a half hour. I wasn't watching the clock, but I would guess that I pushed for 20-30 minutes, which was a nice change from the 2 hours I pushed with Bella.
Bret and I were talking a little earlier about how we thought it was cool that my brother in law, Jeff was able to help deliver his daughter. The midwife looked over at Bret and said, "oh did you want to do that?" So Bret was able to deliver Calder. He said it was really cool to be able to do. And then they let him cut the cord, and they let us keep the scissors. I thought that was pretty funny.

Calder was born at 1:49 pm on April 5, 2011. He weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. He is a healthy, gorgeous little boy and we are so excited he is here!