Stephens' Stories: Meet Campbell James

He's here! Campbell James Stephens made his debut at 1:42am on Monday April 7, 2014. His due date was April 12th, so he was 5 days early. He weighed 7 lbs 5.8oz, was 20 1/2 inches long and his head was 13 1/2 inches around. He is perfect and we are blessed with a healthy baby and easy labor and delivery.

Here is the birth story with details so you can skip if you don't want details :)

I started experiencing early labor signs around noon on Sunday April 6th. I wasn't sure if it was real labor right away but at around 2:30 that afternoon, I was certain that Campbell would be coming soon. I was having contractions but they were not consistent quite yet and I also had back pain. We called my mom and she came over around 4pm to stay with Austin so that we could leave for the hospital when it was time. I ended up calling the on call doctor because I was having fever-like chills. I didn't have a fever according to the thermometer but my body felt like it was fighting something. The on call doctor said to go ahead and go to the hospital if I was nervous about this and wanted to get them to check me out. So at 6:20pm, after a very painful contraction, we left for the hospital. We kissed Austin and said we were going to meet baby Campbell. MiMi and DiDi took very good care of Austin and Savannah while we were at the hospital (thank you!). The contractions were about 8-10 minutes apart by the time we got to the L&D floor of the hospital. The took me to a "observation" room and hooked me up to the monitor to be sure that I was in active labor. We were in that room for about 1 hour (6:30-7:30pm) and I was almost 3 cm dilated. At that point, the contractions were about 5-6 min apart and were becoming more intense. I was in active labor. We were then taken to a labor and delivery room. I immediately got my IV and was starting to receive penicillin (since I was strep B positive). I went ahead and got my epidural around 8:30pm because the nurse, Amanda, ensured me that it would not slow down my labor. Amanda was so great - we really liked her and she was with me the whole night since her shift was 7pm-7am. From 8:30-10pm, I just laid in bed as my body numbed. I was comfortable now due to the anesthesia; my right leg felt like it weighed 100 lbs but my left was fine - such a weird feeling. My doctor, Dr Roberts, was not going to be able to come up to the hospital to deliver Campbell so Dr Story, the on call doctor, ended up delivering. Due to Campbell's heart rate being a little low and kind of erratic, I had to wear an oxygen mask all during labor just in case (I had to do this with Austin as well). Dr Story decided to go ahead and break my water at 10pm to see if that would help Campbell's heart rate and speed up the process. Also, my white blood count was low (hence the chills) so I had to keep having penicillin in my IV for about 12 hours after he was born. So between 10pm and 1:30am, David slept (JK he didn't sleep the whole time but he did sleep at least 1 or 2 hours of it). I rested in comfort (thanks epidural) and went from 4cm-10cm). Dr Story checked me at 1:00am and I was 9cm. We called my mom who thankfully lives only 5 minutes from the hospital so that she could come meet Campbell that night. MiMi had gone to our house to stay with Austin. At 1:25am the nurses prepared everything for delivery and Dr Story came in around 1:35am. I was ready to push at that point. I pushed 2 (or 3) times and Campbell was out!! It was crazy how fast it was. He was very cooperative. My mom had come in to say hi right before they prepared for delivery and then she and Stacy both waited in the waiting room. David went to tell them he was here and she thought he was coming to say that we were about to start pushing but he was like "no, he is here already". Ha! It was confirmed that he had lungs due the screaming. They cleaned him a bit and then immediately placed him on my chest. They weighed him, measured and diapered him and gave him back to me for an hour of skin to skin and breast feeding. This baby came out of the womb knowing how to suck and it just came naturally. Hooray! My mom came back in to see him and Stacy popped in the room too. She went home at 3am and around 3:30 we moved to the postpartum room on floor 2.

We stayed at the hospital until Wednesday 4/9 around noon. Austin came to meet his baby brother on Monday morning with DiDi and LaLa when he was only about 9 hours old. It was very difficult to capture any pictures of the boys because Austin was acting, should we say, rambunctious. He came on Tuesday afternoon to see us as well. He wants to hold and pet Campbell and is slowly learning to be gentle. I am trying to be very careful about him touching Campbell's face and hands due to germs especially since he is still in school 3 days a week. I think MiMi got a couple of pictures in the hospital of Austin with his baby brother so I will post those next time. Memorial Hermann Memorial City hospital believes strongly in the rooming/bonding time. They don't take the baby to the nursery so he was in our room the whole time except when had a bath, his circumcision and his newborn assessment. I basically didn't sleep at all on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday night due to baby noises, feedings, and nurses coming in to check on me. Oh well! Who needs sleep? We were ready to head home with our little guy and get settled in as a family of 4. Here come the pictures.....

baby bump at 38 weeks 5 days

Baby bump at 39 weeks - last pic before he arrived!

Meeting our little guy

His lungs work!

Snuggling with precious guy

Sweet baby Austin - he had a stork bite on his right eye

Sweet baby Campbell - he has a stork bite on his left eye (you can't see it here) Do they look alike?

Snuggles - stork bite on left eye

Hanging with daddy

Great Aunt Carrie came to visit!

Aunt Ricki and Uncle Stephen came to visit!

Sweet boy - we think he has darker skin than Austin did (or does)

Dressed and ready to go home!

Dad - hold me more comfortably, please?!?

About to head home - wearing my "drools burnt orange " onesie that Aunt Ricki gave Austin (same thing Austin wore home from the hospital)

Day we came home - introducing Campbell to the lamb chair

DiDi surprised us with yard greetings!!

Happy big brother Austin! (bribe involved to capture this smile)

baby Longhorn feet

Look at those big hands!

1st visit with Dr Pielop at 5 days hold - hiding from him in the cold dr's office. He was 7 lbs 0.8 oz when we left the hospital on Wednesday and was 7 lbs 4.4 oz on Friday when we visited Dr Pielop. Yay!