It's been almost 6 weeks since my little Cal was born so I figured I better write down his story before I forget the details.
Cal's story began way back around May of 2012 with a phone call between my sister Becca and I. Both of us had three children and thought maybe it was time to have a fourth. I knew I was ready to have #4 and I thought it would be fun if we could have them at the same time. Both of us had two boys and a girl so the plan was that both babies would be girls and they'd be born the same month. Every month we would check up with each other to see if the other was pregnant. After 9 months she called me to announce she was finally pregnant and due Nov. 5th. I was thrilled that at least one of us finally got what we wanted but frustrated that the babies weren't going to be born the same month as planned. My frustration and sadness only lasted about three days when I too found out I was pregnant and due Nov. 10th. I decided I wanted to deliver in Utah so I called Becca's OB to see if he would take me on at the end of my pregnancy. I expressed my concerns about delivering on a reservation and he said he'd be happy to do that for me. After that I started having dreams of Becca and I delivering on the same day in the same room with the doctor hovering over us taking bets on which one of us was going to go first. With each contraction both of us would start laughing hysterically because for some reason it was fun to be in pain. I must say that being pregnant with a sister somehow makes it a little easier because you always have someone to talk to about how miserable you are and they don't get annoyed with all your whining and moaning because they are going through the exact same thing. I'll never forget the times we hung out together near the end and would laugh at how pathetic we looked hobbling around and wanting to cry every time the phone rang because that meant we had to get off the couch and answer it. 20 weeks into the pregnancy Becca found out she was indeed having a girl and a few days later I found out I was having another boy. My first thought was "How am I going to tell Lily." She wanted a little sister SOOOOOOOO bad. I was so worried about her that I couldn't even bare to tell her because I was afraid that if she cried that I would start crying because I knew how badly she wanted a sister. I made Jacob tell her later that night and yes, she cried. Becca's son Cody was also upset because he had wanted a little brother so the two of them came up with a plan to switch the babies once they were born. They were going to sneak into the nursery and switch the name tags and that was going to do the trick. With only 4 weeks left I was in Utah again and Becca who only had three weeks left decided she was done and that she was going to have hers any day which was very possible as her last one was three weeks early and she was dialated to a 4. I told her she had to stop thinking those thoughts because if she popped early it was going to destroy the plan. She had to wait for me. My mom also begged her not to have the baby because she was leaving for Canada and would be gone for the week. On Monday Oct. 14th Becca had an appointment. I was getting ready to go home to Arizona and my mom was headed to Canada. Jacob and I kind of had a slow start to our morning and at about noon we thought that maybe it was too late to drive the 8 hours home so we decided to stay one more day. I hung out with Becca the rest of the day trying to talk her out of forcing herself into labor. At about 9:00 that night I left her house. As I was walking out the door I told her to not go into labor and that I'd see her in a few weeks. I went back to my parent's house and at about 9:30 my water broke. I sat there for a few seconds thinking "What the heck was that?" I told myself I had just wet my pants because there was no way in heck I was having a baby that early. That has never happened to me before. The Dr. has always had to break my water for me. I changed my pants and started getting the kids in bed. That was not the end of it. It just kept coming. "No, no, no" I said over and over again. "This is NOT happening. I'm going home and I"ll be back in a few weeks to have this baby." Once I finally accepted the truth. I went downstairs and pulled Jacob aside telling him that I was pretty sure my water had just broke. He said "Well let's go the hospital then." and I said "I don't want to go to the hospital. I'm tired and I'm going to bed." I called my mom who had just arrived in Canada to tell her what had happened. For some reason when I started telling her the tears began to flow. I felt so guilty that this was happening since she just drove 12 hours to Canada and had begged Becca not to do this very thing. She just started laughing. I didn't think it was very funny at the time. I told her to stay the week like she had planned knowing that she wouldn't. I went down and sat on the couch next to Jacob and told him I was going to bed. He looked at me like I was crazy. In my mind this still was not happening. My dad then overheard our conversation and told me I was being ridiculous. I finally agreed to go. I didn't know how I was going to tell Becca. In fact to be honest I was down right scared to tell her. I thought for sure she would kill me. After all my talk about how she was going to ruin "the plan" then I go and ruin it instead. I started having minor contratctions but after a couple hours they stopped. They had to put me on pitocin to get them going again. I was mad because not only was I looking forward to a labor with out pitocin for once but also I could have been at home sleeping. I kept reminding Jacob that he could be home sleeping as well. A few hours later I got the epidural. It was probably the worst one I've ever had and that's saying something since Jake's didn't even work. It didn't go in easy and my back hurt forever afterward. It was a long sleepless night of just waiting. I started to think about a few things that made me feel like maybe this was meant to be.1) Before we came to Utah I decided to pack a bag for the baby so I would have everything I needed just in case 2) We were supposed to leave that day but had decided to stay for no real reason at all 3) my OB just so happened to be on call. Then I remembered that I had just had an ultrasound a few days earlier because they were worried he wasn't growing anymore. The ultrasound predicted he would be about 5 1/2 pounds. The more I thought about it the more it freaked me out. Was he going to be ok being born 4 weeks early? What if the ultrasoud was wrong as they usually are and he is a lot smaller. I was used to big babies. How was I going to care for a premie? My worries were put to rest at 6:50am on Tuesday Oct. 15th. when sweet little Calvin Leon entered the world weighing 5lbs. 8oz. and 17.5 inches long. He was perfectly healthy. He felt so tiny in my arms. I felt like I was going to break him. He had the tiniest little head with the sweetest little face. I felt so blessed in that moment. I am so grateful to have had 4 healthy babies with no complications. Cal is growing so fast and although that kind of makes me sad I am excited to get to know him better and see his little personality unfold. Will he be outgoing and full of life like Lily? Will he be shy and tenderhearted like Jake or will he be a total goof ball like Ashyman? I can't wait to find out.
PS. 8 days later Little Faith J was born and Cody and Lily decided they liked their new siblings and didn't want to trade after all.
