Introducing Caleb Howard

[chrissyhowie]

Pushing for thirty five minutes is so ideal! Good anesthesiologists are the best, aren't they? I couldn't stop raving about mine too.

Parenthood is truly the greatest! Congratulations to you and your family! And of course a big welcome to Caleb!

[August Mom]

Congratulations! Welcome to the world, Caleb. I'm glad you posted now. I can't see the picture of Caleb, though. :( I'm sure he's adorable.

[mharling]

Congratulations Kerry!!! The second half of your labor was very similar to mine. I had a great anesthesiologist, dilated from 6 to 10 while I slept for 2 hours and then pushed 45 minutes.

Dh and I were also convinced we were having a girl. As I said in my announcement post, I remember looking at him laying on my tummy and thinking, 'Oh, that's a penis!!'. Somehow, the doctor saying 'It's a boy' didn't really register with me. Seeing a penis did though!!

A big welcome to Caleb!! Would love to see a picture, but it doesn't look like your attachment worked. :(

Mary & Lane 4/6/03
http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b3237413c427 - New 6/18

[blnony]

Congrats! And welcome Caleb! Its sounds like everything went fine and you are doing well.
and 35 minutes of pushing, thats impressive! :)

[sweetbasil]

Well congratulations to your family, and a big welcome to baby Caleb! :)

[mamahill]

Congrats Kerry and welcome Caleb! Sounds like things are fantastic - way to go!

[nathansmom]

Welcome Caleb. Too bad you waited till the 9th to be born. I'm glad things went good for you.

[zen_bliss]

congratulations! i was just going to put out an APB for dcclerk in the lounge today! i'm so glad it all went well (other than the sadistic nurse... maybe you got the same one i had, arrgh!) i can't wait to see photos!

[atlbaby]

Congratulatons Kerry and welcome Caleb!!! Enjoy your new baby boy, and can't wait to see pictures!:)

-Rachel
Mom to Arielle Jill, 10/30/01
#2EDD 10/24/03-Another Girl!:)

[celfsh]

Congrats--so happy for you! Hope you get the avatar thing worked out soon--I'd love to see a picture!

celeste
mom to olivia 9/25/02

[Andrea S]

Congrats and welcome to Caleb Howard.

Andrea
mom to Andrew 8/14/02

[liya]

Hes a keeper!!!!lol..too cute..thanks for sharing..

[Marisa6826]

Congratulations Kerry on such an adorable and bright eyed little man!

Four hours of walking, huh? I don't think I could do that NOT pregnant :)

Hope Caleb treats you well. The first few weeks are tough, but worth every minute.

Congrats once again.

-m

[Dcclerk]

I'm embarrassed to admit that Caleb was born on June 9, 2003 at 2:14 p.m. and I am just posting about it now. I truly am so impressed with the much more together mommies and daddies that can post so much sooner to the birthdate! (In my defense, though, we just installed DSL and my dial-up connection kept crashing. Still, I suspect I wouldn't have had it much more together, anyway.) He was 5 days late and quite a surprise because I was just sure that I was going to have a girl:) All of the old wives tales had pointed to a girl, and in my mind, that was what he was!

I started labor after a labor cocktail of walking many miles, sex, and a pretty vigorous exam. We walked around the neighborhoodI for about 4 hours-- meeting tons of neighbors I had never known I had in the process-- before going to the hospital at around 11 p.m., June 8, 2003.

My husband works at the hospital that I delivered at, but that didn't stop us from starting off with the Nurse From Hell. She seemed to derive sick pleasure from doing those stupid internal exams OFTEN. She was so unpleasant, that my husband who is never confrontational got into a huge argument with her.

Partially to tune her out, I asked for something for the pain. They gave me some Stadol which was effective in moderating the pain, but also killing the contractions. I slept for a few hours, the contractions came back very painfully so they gave me another shot with which I slept again because the contractions were killed again.

Finally, at 7 a.m., after the contractions had come back very painfully and I failed to progress for a couple of hours (they said my body was fighting the contractions), I got an epidural. I have to admit that I am probably the poster child for an epidural. My anesthesiologist was so good that it didn't hurt at all when it went in, I could move my legs at all time and feel pressure, but I never felt any pain. In fact, I progressed from 5 cm to 9 1/2 while sleeping!

I ended up pushing for only 35 minutes and Caleb was born. He was 8 lbs 11 oz and 21 1/2 inches long.

It's funny how instantly in love you become, isn't it? I truly had no idea I could adore anyone this much. We've had some issues... I'll post some feeding/colic questions soon... but overall we absolutely love being parents. (And I can't wait to show him off to you all!)

Edit on July 14, 2003... I finally got the pictures to work. Can you see him now?

[Dcclerk]

Anyone use MSN? I keep trying to edit the attachment and the avatar and can't figure out how to make it work. I think maybe my pictures are too big or something. I have them on MSN's smallest setting (I think it is 480 X 720) which seems to work when I initially edit my profile (I can see the picture then) but then it doesn't work when I post anything. Any suggestions? (I'm having serious avatar envy now that I have my little guy.) :(