We're Home!

Parker Cain Redden arrived on Thursday, April 16th at 2:54 in the afternoon. We feel so blessed to have this little guy in our lives already.

The Labor Story:
I had my regular dr's appt. on Tuesday and I was a couple centimeters dilated. I had been having some contractions on Tuesday, but they weren't very strong. Our Dr. told me about an option I had to get labor going a little bit more. The main reason we were considering this is because he was leaving on Saturday and I didn't want to be without a local doctor during my last week. So, we decided to help labor start on Wednesday afternoon by inserting a pill that is a lot more mild than something like pitocin. I also was able to go home and go about my normal routine.

Nothing really happened until about 9pm when I started getting some contractions. They increased in intensity and at midnight I called the Dr. I wasn't experiencing any pain, they were fairly close to one another and uncomfortable. He said I should stay at home and try to get some rest, so I did.

He checked me around 10 on Thursday morning and I was 4cm. He said we could go to the hospital at 11:30 and he would break my water to get labor going. At 12:15 he did as he said and the contractions immediately became painful and much more intense. Keet was there with me and my friend Melissa was there to help me get through labor. I actually worked with her last fall at her salon here in town and she joked once about being my doula during labor and the idea stuck. She isn't a doula but she would be a great one, I think.

I progressed farily quickly, which I was thankful for. I was able to relax through the contractions more easily than I thought I ever would. With Cole I had an epidural for back labor, but this time is was fairly normal labor. The last 20 minutes though were about the most painful thing I had ever been through and I know I yelled out, "I can't do it! I can't do it!" My dr. had left to come back to Stromsburg to work in the office seeing normal patients, and since I was progressing so quickly and felt like I needed to push, he almost didn't make it. He made it though. After about 10 to 15 minutes of pushing, Parker arrived.

Here I am before going to the hospital - don't know why the date says the 15th.

Here we are about an hour after my water broke. It really wasn't this calm - this obviously was between contractions.


Dr. Jameson with Parker.

Keet cutting the umbilical cord.


My friend Melissa. She did some great back massaging at the end - I wouldn't have made it without her!










Parker was awake for about the first 2 hours - completely content!





Trying to get a family photo - Cole is of course feeding his face with popcorn. It was about the only way we could get him to come in the room. He has done pretty well with Parker though - much better than I ever thought.





He was 7lbs 8 oz and 21 1/4 inches long. Bigger than Cole.








On our way home.