Introducing Caleb Charles Kliewer!

Caleb Charles Kliewer was born Thursday morning at 11:01 a.m.

weighing 7 lbs., 8 oz. and measuring 19.5 in. long

Jacob is the proudest big brother you've ever seen and although he can't quite say "Caleb" yet, or even "C.K." as Daddy likes to sometimes call him, he gets very excited about his "Baby!" Every morning so far when he wakes up, Jacob runs down the hall to our room and peeks into the bassinet or crawls into our bed where I'm feeding Caleb and exclaims, "Baby!". Sometimes he says "my Baby". And when we ask him, "Where is Caleb's nose?", he knows exactly where to point - he's very excited about learning his body parts lately, he knows and can say eyes, nose teeth, and belly button (or "bebo" as "The Belly Button Book" calls it). He can also identify his hair, mouth, chin, cheeks, elbows, fingers, toes, and sometimes tongue. We are constantly amazed at the things he all of a sudden says or does seemingly out of the blue. He only has to see something once and he usually tries to copy it. It's an extremely fun and exhausting stage! But back to Caleb......

Last Monday morning, after the seemingly 100th thunderstorm of the month and a full night of contractions strong enough to keep me up all night (barometric pressure plays a large role in putting women into labor - I had timeable contractions during every storm that month) yet not strong enough that I thought it was time to go to the hospital (although most people would have called by then, but we were hoping to be the first to deliver at the new hospital when it opened at 7:00am Monday morning, so I waited to be sure that's were they would send us), I found myself very low on sleep and still without a baby. So I called my midwife and we decided inducing was appropriate at this point. We canceled the 41 week ultrasound and instead just hooked me up to moniters on Wednesday for a "non-stress-test" to make sure baby was still doing well - everything looked great, primed and ready to go into labor at any moment, but despite all the contractions I was having every day Baby was quite cozy where he was. So we did make it to our scheduled appointment Thursday morning to induce.

BIRTH STORY:

Marilyn, my midwife, broke my water at 8:30am, monitored me and Baby for about 1/2 hour, and sent us walking through the halls. That lasted about 45 minutes and I got a little light-headed and hot and sweaty from the rapidly increasing volume and intensity of contractions so we went back to the room. They hooked me up to the monitors again saw that, yes things were progressing very quickly, and called Marilyn back from the Womens Center (connected to the new hospital) were she was seeing a few patients. She verified I was far enough along that I was ready for the whirlpool tub. As soon as I got into the warm water I felt more relaxed and able to handle these rapidly intensifying contractions.....but not for long. Less than 30 minutes later they got me out of the tub and back to the bed to push, and about ten or 15 minutes after that a beautiful, slimey baby BOY was placed in my arms. That's my favorite part....the part that makes it all worth it....holding and SEEING my baby for the first time.....feeling him on the outside of my tummy, all warm and wrinkled and crying the most beautiful sound in the world! And not knowing the gender until that moment made it more exciting too. My sister (and probably a few friends) will moan at this, but I definitely want to wait to find out again next time - unless we know we're having twins or there's some circumstance that would make knowing helpful enough to be worth it.

In a way it was nice to have the whole thing over with in only 2 and 1/2 hrs, but I wouldn't wish for it again. My body didn't have enough time to build up the endorphins needed to handle the increasing pain levels like it did during Jacob's labor and delivery. I'm sure that my memory has blocked out much of the pain from my first experience and I'm remembering more fondly than I felt at the time, but I realize now how much I enjoyed the labor with Jacob. Having more time to work through the contractions with my amazingly supportive husband at my side, holding my hand, and softly coaching and encouraging me is one of the best moments in my life. I felt a little gypped this time that I didn't have that special time connecting with my husband who helped me handle the pain more gracefully. There was even a point where I was rethinking my decision to do this with no epidural. It just went by so fast I could barely take it all in. If my friend, Lisa, hadn't been there through the whole thing taking pictures I might have thought it was just a whilwind of a dream! But regardless of the pain level or how gracefully I did or did not handle it, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat for this precious baby boy! Caleb is perfect and beautiful and he's MINE! By "mine" I of course mean "ours", Jeff and I, but this time we can actually pick out features from me - about the only looks Jacob got from me are my eyelashes. We are SUPREMELY BLESSED to have two beautiful, healthy boys, and we pray they will grow to be strong and bold servants of the Lord, and that God will guide us as their parents in teaching them to know and follow His truth in every circumstance of life.

With a very happy heart and tears in my eyes,

Kimberly

More pictures from the hospital to follow in a later post.....