Baby Case is Here!

On Thursday, December 16, 2010, Case Winslow Beckham joined our family! He weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces and measured 20.25 inches long. It was a long day of labor - 11 hours - but worth it all in the end!



All throughout my third trimester this boy kept flip-flopping, but preferred to stay in the breech position. One week I'd be all excited because he was head down, then the next he'd be head up. I'm not kidding when I say that he flipped nightly...it woke me up each night.

So as we neared the end and he was staying head up, we were trying to figure out how to get him here. I really wanted to avoid a C-Section, so I was going to have my doctor try external cephalic version - where two doctors put their hands on your belly and literally turn the baby head down. This happens in the hospital and you have to be induced immediately after to get the baby out soon before they get stressed or flip back. I couldn't go into labor on my own because once I had contractions, my doctor wouldn't be able to attempt the flip.

So last minute we scheduled a "flipping induction" for the morning of Thursday the 16th. On the day before I had a sneaking suspicion that he might be head down, but I didn't want to get my hopes up.

Lo and behold, when the nurse checked in at 5:30 am Thursday morning, he was head down! We were so, so thrilled to not have to go through the turning and risk an emergency C-Section. As the nurse was checking me, he was moving his head around and trying to flip back. So they put a big elastic band on my belly to prevent him from turning back.

Just like with Graydon, my uterus kind of let me down with taking forever to get me completely dilating (even though I started dilating at 29 weeks - frustrating, I know). So I went through six hours of painful pitocin contractions that were sometimes constant - no break - for six hours. I finally gave in and got an epidural, which helped me relax. At 5:15 I started pushing and at 6:27, Case was born! 11 hours of labor. Isn't the second one supposed to go faster?

Things at home have gone better than I expected. We are, of course, exhausted with being up at night and trying to entertain Graydon, but we are happy to to be at home all with each other.

Just before leaving the hospital

Daddy and his new boy

My amazing doctor who sat on the bed with me through my 1 hour and 15 minute delivery!

If you didn't believe me, here's proof of our big boy!

The big boy in my belly right before we left for the hospital! It was huge!

Finally getting some quiet time


My awesome nurse, Stephanie