Callen Mark has arrived

Callen Mark came into this world yesterday (July 3) at 8:57 am. He was 8 lbs. 12 oz, and 21 1/2 inches long. And very good looking much like his father.

What happened

Mandy was admitted to the hospital to "jump start" the process. We were one of 9 couples having a baby. It was a very busy night for the nurses. Mandy was given something for her cervix which was 2 cm. dialated. The side effect of this was severe cramps. At 2am the nurse came in the checked. She was already at 7 cm. And she announced Mandy was in active labor. This wasn't obvious because of the cramping.

I got up and thought..."this is it!"
2nd thought: "what do I do...I don't remember what I am supposed to do!"

3rd thought: "don't freak out, don't freak out".

Everything progressed rather rapidly. We had not expected the medication to knock her into labor. The doctor broke the water at 4, and then did another procedure to "finish out the cervix" at 5am. This is when the pushing began. The doctor said "now the work starts".

"What?" (my thoughts again) "work....what are you talking about? This is what we have been doing. You are supposed to be bringing us the baby now."

Mandy did so good! She really pushed long and hard. It was very very exhausting for her. She did this without any meds. We were trying to go as natural as possible. Mandy even at one point in between contractions was able to give me a nice smile. But later, 7ish, she was so tired, she would fall asleep during the 20-30 seconds of rest. At 8am Dr. Beer (see pic) came in and checked.

"If he wasn't coming out, we were going in to get him"

Although Callen had made progress, it appeared he had stopped moving out. Perhaps his size, or the pelvic shape, or something, but we were at a wall. It looked like it would be a much longer time before he would be delivered. Given Mandy's exhaustion after over 3 hours of active pushing, we opted to have a c-section. This went well. I watched the whole procedure. (which is not for the faint!) It took only about 5-10min. for Callen to be removed from Mandy.

I went with our little man to the nursery and realized something....he was bright blue!

"don't freak out, don't freak out"

All is well that ends well

The doctor and nurse took care of the situation and soon he was responding and a more natural color came over his face and chest. I was able to spend some alone time with him. We were not quite sure what the name was yet, so I took the time to try our favorites out on him. I don't think he understood this because he started to cry. But it was a beautiful cry.

So they got Mandy stiched up and in and then out of recovery. We have got him to Mandy for a late night snack and even breakfast and lunch this morning. We have had some visitors. Mandy's folks, my folks, and others.

Thank you to everyone who prayed. Thank you for thinking of us. We will be in the hospital until Sunday so Mandy can heal up some more. We look forward to sharing Callen with you.

p.s. If he had been born the on the fourth I think a patriotic came would have been in order....I think something like.... George Jefferson.