Welcome Caitlin Marie!

Caitlin Marie Sand was born on February 22nd at 6:30 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 7 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. I was in labor for quite a long time, but it was well worth it! She is a precious little baby and we love her to death. Even the dogs are fond of her. :)





Here is her birth story:

Well, it all started when my dog, Biscuit, had a potty accident in the bed at midnight on Monday night (early Tue). She does that when she gets UTI's. So.. I was up cleaning it up and I decided to get on the internet before I went back to bed. I got to messaging Lisa and I joked that maybe this incident was enough to put me into labor! Well, shortly after logging off of here, I didn't feel very well. I went to the bathroom and thought I was having stomach cramps. I decided to sit down on the couch for awhile to see if it would go away. At 1:00 a.m. it was getting worse and I decided I was having contractions. I told Rian and he got all excited and thought it was time to go to the hospital. He was so funny. At about 3:00 am the contractions were pretty strong and about 5-7 minutes apart so I called L&D to see if they wanted me to come in. They told me since I was a first time mom, to call my Dr. and find out what she wanted me to do. My Dr. wasn't on call, so I got the on call Dr. She told me to wait 2 more hours for the contractions to get stronger. She asked me if I was able to talk through them and I said NO WAY and she told me to try to wait a couple more hours anyway. So, I did. About 4:45 I told Rian I couldn't wait any longer. Contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and very painful. We went to the hospital at 5:00. The nurse who was getting us all set up was warning me that I would get sent home if I hadn't progressed (I don't think they believed me that I was in labor!) and I said.. Oh, I'm not getting sent home, I am definiately in labor! She checked me and I was 3 cm. She called my Dr. and they admitted me. I labored for awhile without medication, but at about 8 am or so I asked for some stadol to take the edge off. I was able to get to 6 cm and then the nurse checked me again and when she reached in, my water broke! It gushed all over her. We got a good laugh over that one! She warned me that my contractions were now going to get a lot stronger. Boy was she right! I couldn't stand it anymore and I was so tired, so I got an epidural. Wow... talk abut heaven. I was so happy I went ahead and did it, it made things so much easier. However, apparently that slowed me down. They gave me some pitocin and I started progressing a little faster. Mostly I just laid there and rested and visited with all my visitors until about 4:30 when they checked me and said I was ready to go. They called in my Dr. and she asked if I felt the urge to push. I said no. She said, good, I have an emergency C-section to assist with, then I'll be back and you can push! The nurse said that was probably a good thing anyway, that way I wouldn't have to push so long. She said that extra time would give the baby time to work her way down on her own, even though she was already right there ready to go! So, at 5:30 my Dr. came in and said, Ok, lets have this baby! I pushed for an hour and Caitlin Marie was born at 6:30 pm. What a long day it was! It was so amazing though. I had the mirror so I could see everything that was happening and I was so glad I did. My Dr. and the nurses were fabulous. Rian did a get job of encouraging me to push. My Mom and my SIL were in there too and they were lots of help too. The only bad thing was that I got a 3rd degree tear, so I am pretty sore now. Caitlin didn't have a touch of jaundice and she hardly lost any weight before we left the hospital. The Dr. said she is doing just great. She had some latch problems because she didn't like to keep her tongue down, but we are working on it. Now.. if I could just get some sleep.

She had her first Dr.'s appointment last week and she had only lost 5 ounces. She is doing just great! She lost her umbilical cord last night (3/7/05). I can't believe she is already almost 2 weeks old!