Baby Tyler James Caplan

Tyler arrived at 11:10 AM today, weighting in at 5 pounds and 6.4 ounces and measured 19 inches long. He is beautiful and has a head full of black hair. Sorry no picture today, I left the camera at the hospital with Melanie.

It all started last night, or did it?... Melanie checked in the hospital about 5:15 PM. About 6:30, they gave her the Crevadill. I wasn't going to stay with her, but then she started having contractions around 10 PM. At 10:30 they gave her a sleeping pill, thinking that it would put her to sleep and we would see how steady the contractions were. They weren't steady, but they were strong. At 11 PM they gave her something for the pain. About 11:30 PM....nothing. The contractions pretty much stopped. By then, I had already decided to stay the night...mostly because she was having contractions and partly because our air conditioner decided to stop working.....and our house was hot when I took Jim home at 9.

We slept off and on, but not through the night. I got up at 5:15 to go get Jim and take him to work. Although Charles was here and could have done it, I figured I would since I wasn't really sleeping anyway and I would have time to get back before they gave Melanie the Pitcon at 7:30 AM.

OK, hang on to your seat because the rest of it goes really quick! The contractions started almost immediately. About 8, the doctor came in and broke her water, and the nurse asked Melanie if she wanted her to start hydrating her for the Epidural. Melanie said no, I think I can go a while yet. At 8:15 AM, I'm thinking and praying...start the hydration. A little bit after that, the nurse came in, saw the screen displaying the graph of the contractions and said "how about we start the hydration now?" Melanie said "OK", I silently said "Thank you, Lord". I honestly don't know why anyone would want to go through labor without an Epidural...especially when it's your daughter in labor!

The nurse came back in around 9 AM and said that the IV wasn't getting in fast enough, so she gave it some help. It was about 9:30 by the time the Epidural was in and another 10-15 minutes before she has felt some relief. Let me tell you, that was a long hard hour for Melanie, with back to back contractions, but she did great. We breathed through most of them, cried through some and held our breath through others. All in all, she listened and did what she was told. Even the nurse commented on her ability to listen and respond, even when she was in great pain.

At 1o AM, she was at 8 cm already! About 10:45 AM, the doctor came in and said, let's see how your doing..."oh yes, you're complete, I'll go get my scrubs on"... I'm thinking... HURRY! and telling Melanie to breathe, don't push. The doctor came back just before 11...2 really good pushes later, Baby Tyler was out, laying on his Mommy's chest crying...just like the rest of us was doing.

more tomorrow...I'm so tired. I'm going on about 4 hours of sleep and it wasn't consecutive....and I can barely keep my eyes open.