Meet Baby James

James Quentin Cullimore was born April 13, 2011 at 2:54 am. He weighed 8lbs 5oz and was 21 in. long.

Wow was it a rough trip getting him here! This kid did NOT want to come out!

41 weeks pregnant on our way to the hospital: so ready for the baby. Carson is also ready

We were scheduled to be induced Tuesday morning (April 12) but had to go in the night before to prep my cervix and had to stay overnight to do so. We probably only got about an hour of sleep total that night with all the anticipation/nerves and the discomfort of having to sleep in the hospital and not our own beds. They were going to start pitocin Tuesday morning but I actually went into labor on my own about 6am so they held off on it and let my body do it's thing.

Initially I kind of wanted to try the whole natural birth thing but was open to the idea of an epidural...holy cow did that go out the window! haha I wasn't too shocked though. I got to a 4 and wow did it get extremely painful so I quickly opted for the epidural. The Anesthesiologist is my hero :)

After I got the epidural, things sort of slowed down. I got stuck at a 4 for a while and then jumped to a 7 then got stuck there. A few times they said if things don't pick up we might have to do a c-section. Which kind of scared me. They gave me Pitocin which seemed to help a little.

Going into it all, Carson and I thought that for sure he'd be here by late afternoon but the day went along and it didn't seem like that was going to happen. It was funny, we went through I think 4 nurses and the last one was actually the same one that got us checked into our room Monday night. She came in Tuesday night and said, "You guys are still here!? I went home, slept, and am back again and you're still here. Well, I am determined for you to have your baby before I go home again."

Finally by around midnight it was time to push. I pushed for 2 and a half hours. Again during this process they mentioned the possibility of a c-section. Boy did I give it my all while pushing so that I would not have to have a c-section. They tried forceps which did not work and then used a vacuum to assist. Finally after 21 hours of labor he was born! Wow, we did not expect it to take THAT long! We were both exhausted! Poor little James looked a little beat up too :(

kicking back in the nursery

When he came out he didn't really cry at first. He was sort of grunting so the Doctor was a little concerned that he was struggling to breathe. A Respiratory Therapist came in to work with the baby. They were going to send him to the intermediate nursery where he'd have to be on a CPAP that would assist in his breathing. Geez, just what you want to hear. Carson went with the baby to the nursery while they got me all ready to be transported to the mother/baby floor.

By the time we were all settled together in our new room it was 6 am. Two days of no sleep :( Carson came in with the baby and told me he checked out ok. They didn't need to keep him in the intermediate nursery or do the CPAP on him. It was just the trauma of the delivery that must have effected his breathing and they weren't concerned. What a relief!

The baby developed Jaundice Thursday so he had to be under the bili lights for a full 24 hours....that was sad. He did not like it at all. He checked out ok Friday morning though so we were able to go home! So we were in the hospital from Monday night to Friday morning. Yuck! It was so nice to finally get home.

The first night home from the hospital was a hard one with again, no sleep AT ALL! We were seriously just running on adrenaline after that week.

He is now 2 weeks old today and sleeps pretty well, waking up about every 3 hours at night. It is quite an adjustment having him here but we are so grateful that he is here and that he's healthy!