Caleb Emory Yocum

Our sweet baby, Caleb, made his debut on September 29, 2010 at 3 weeks early. He was born at 11:24 a.m. and was 6 pounds, 5.4 ounces, 19 inches long.

The story of Caleb's birth is below, so if you don't want to know...feel free not to read on! :)

I suspected my water was leaking the night before, so we headed to Labor & Delivery to get checked out after having dinner with some friends. They ran several tests that turned up inconclusive, but then they ran one final test before sending me home, and it was definitely positive for amniotic fluid. I was so excited that this was the real deal and I wasn't going to have to tell everyone I'd just imagined it. :) They got us checked in and hooked me up to an IV and antibiotics since I'm a group b strep carrier. We spent the evening trying to rest, and my dad, mom and sister Kelsey joined us a bit later. (Dad only hung out for the completely non-invasive parts. :)) They started pitocin to get things rolling around 4 a.m., but nothing really happened until around 7 when they got the pitocin high enough.



Labor was going along fine, they checked Caleb's position with an ultrasound machine and declared it perfect, and they broke my water around 9 and said they bet he was born within an hour. About 40 minutes later, I was feeling a lot of pressure so the doctor came to check me. I was fully effaced, but only dilated to a 6, and the pressure I was feeling was because Caleb had turned his head the wrong way. In past deliveries, once I become fully effaced and dilated to around a 6, we only have a few minutes left, so this was what I expected.... this however is SO not what happened! The doctor suggested that I get up in the bed on my side to encourage Caleb to turn, and turn he did, but he turned completely the wrong way and ended up sunny side up. FUN!





Then things got a little hairy. We spent the next hour or so with the doctor trying to physically turn Caleb during my contractions. This was so painful and since I didn't have pain meds or an epidural, all I could focus on was relaxing through the contractions an ignoring everything they were doing at the end of the bed! Then the doctor asked again which baby this was for me. Someone told him it was my 4th, and he sat back and said, well, this baby is going to have to turn on his own. After a few contractions, I ended up at a 9, and he said I could start pushing if I pushed easy, so I did because it helped. I got through several contractions that way, and then I remember the doctor saying "check this out" and everyone swarmed to the foot of my bed...that was a very surreal moment. I was pretty focused on what I was doing but I remember thinking how weird it was that everyone moved so quickly. Turns out Caleb was turning like a corkscrew while I pushed, and a few moments later he was born! His poor face was pretty bruised, but he seemed to be doing okay. Then, because of Caleb's position during his birth, I started hemorrhaging pretty badly. Thankfully, my delivery doctor acted fast and inserted a catheter to empty my bladder... OUCH!!! Seriously, I didn't yell or anything during Caleb's delivery, but I screamed when he did this! I'll bet the other women on the hall were thinking "what is her problem???" And then, by reflex, I kicked my doctor in the shoulder!! LOL!! He didn't even flinch and kept on fixing me. As soon as he was done with the catheter, my bleeding slowed significantly, so I'm very thankful he acted so fast.









By this point, they'd gotten Caleb cleaned up for the most part, but he had started grunting. They had me do kangaroo care with him for an hour or so, but his grunting never slowed, so they took him to the NICU for observation. I was a little worried, but really believed his poor little body was just in shock from how quickly he had been delivered and from being a 37 week baby. After about an hour, they had me try to nurse him because his glucose levels were pretty low, but he was so worn out, he just kept falling asleep, so then they squeezed formula into his mouth from a bottle. This didn't wake him up either, but he spit up about half of what they were directed to give him. I got to stay with him nearly the whole time he was in the NICU, holding him and observing all they were doing. Even with all of the poking, prodding and x-raying, he never really cried. He would just suck on his pacifier and let them work. He is just the sweetest baby. Thankfully, the tests revealed that he just had a bit of moisture on his lungs, and after the bit of formula, his glucose levels came back up and he nursed perfectly each feeding after the first one. Later that night, they brought him back to my room. His hospital stay didn't get much better from that point though... The next day, I pointed out to a nurse that I thought he might be tongue-tied, and sure enough, he was! So they sent over an ENT and clipped his frenulum ...the piece of skin that holds your tongue to the bottom of your mouth. He didn't even whimper! The next day, I mentioned to a nurse that he still hadn't had a bowel movement... not even one! After checking him out, circumcising him (because we had that scheduled already) and trying to stimulate him to go without success, the pediatrician decided they needed to do a barium x-ray, where they put barium into his bottom up to his colon and do an x-ray to check that his organs were formed correctly. Poor little guy was perfectly formed, but they found meconium plugs...basically the meconium was thick like play-dough and he couldn't physically pass it. Thankfully, the barium and another solution they used were enough to get him cleaned out, and that seems to be the end of the insanity of his first few days of life. Through it all, I was amazed at his relaxed nature. No matter what they had to do, he was easy going and rarely fussed about any of it! We are so blessed with this little guy.













All of this bought us an extra day in the hospital, but once we got home, things seem to be adjusting pretty well! His brothers absolutely adore him, and Carter seems to be doing better with each passing day. We are blessed beyond measure!!

Here is our sweet boy at 8 days old:






This picture is going to hang above his crib:








I'm so excited to see this little boy grow along side his big brothers. I know that God has such amazing things in store for our little men. I pray that they are world changers for Him!!