I will always remember the day I found out I was pregnant and the reactions of our family and friends. It was such happy news. Robert & I had just gotten through a rocky first year of marriage after which we had separated for two months. We were able to work things out and started trying to repair our relationship. Two months later, we found out we were pregnant!
At the time, I was working full time as a Store Manager at Hollywood Video. It was tough when morning sickness hit. I recall one morning walking up to the front door to unlock the store for a line of customers and I had to stop, turn around, and run for the toilet to throw up. Unfortunately, the bathroom was at the back of the store. I threw up all over the door and the handle before I could get in. I got some pretty strange looks from the customers when I finally let them in.
Things trucked along. At our first doctor's appointment, the doctor could not find the heartbeat. He said he was sure things were fine, but we would go ahead and do an ultrasound to make sure. He told me sometimes with multiple births, sometimes it is hard to find the heartbeat. But he wasn't saying this was necessarily the case. I remember how freaked out Robert and I were. We were terrified at the thought of twins!! The next day we had the ultrasound and it was confirmed that there was only one baby and he (though we didn't know the sex at the time) was perfectly healthy.
At 20 weeks we had our ultrasound and we found out it was a boy! After some debate, we decided on the name Caleb. It's a name I have always loved. Then, the Friday before Easter, our Caleb gave us a big scare. I was sitting in the office at work counting down registers when I felt my underwear get very wet. (sorry for the TMI) I went to the bathroom and discovered I was bleeding very heavily. I FREAKED out. I was 7 months pregnant! I drove like a madwoman to the hospital and was immediately ushered up to Labor & Delivery. Robert was on his way home from a show he had ref'd at. I called him and told him what was happening. They hooked me up to monitors and reassured me that Caleb was doing fine, but I was having contractions (though I couldn't feel them). They managed to stop the contractions and the bleeding slowed down and eventually stopped. I was reassured that Caleb was perfectly fine.
After that, I went to get non-stress tests every week along with my check-ups. I was releived that my doctor was watching Caleb so closely. With those tests, they took my blood pressure. Towards the end of my pregnancy, my blood pressure started to climb. My doctor decided to induce labor 2 days before my due date on, June 8, 2004.
I slept for maybe an hour the night before. The anticipation was killing me. Once we were up in the room and I was changed into the lovely hospital gown, the doctor came in and proceeded to break my water. That was a traumatic experience. Thus began a ridiculously long day of waiting for my body to go into labor. I had to walk around the maternity floor all the while feeling like I was peeing my pants and dragging my IV pole with me for the pitocin. My in-laws showed up and then my dad, even though we had told them nothing was happening yet. Finally at 4:30 that afternoon, I started to feel the contractions. I would like to say I handled them well, but I did not. I broke after about 4 hours of hard labor and really lost my concentration and was a sobbing mess. I went for the epidural, as I was only at 2+ and barely progressing. Once I had the epidural, I drifted off to sleep. That was around 9pm. I woke sometime around 11 and felt like I need to push. The nurse checked me and it was time!! I pushed for 40 minutes until he finally graced us with his presence. He was the most beautiful baby boy I had ever seen. I will never forget what it was like to hold him the first time, to touch him. It's so amazing to know that God gave us this amazing little person. He was 7lbs, 9oz and 21 1/2 inches long. Now he weighs 47 pounds and is 49 inches long!! My tall stringbean. Happy Birthday to my Caleb. (in about 8 hours) 
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