Canaan Scott

September 95

10 lbs and 221/2 inches

(head 14 3/4 inches!)

When my husband and I decided to start our family, we went into it gun-ho, but little did we know it would take us a year to concieve our first child. I remember getting so aggrevated during that time when I thought I was pregnant to only have it not be true.

When it finally happened, I took my test on New Year's Day, 1995. We were at my dad's house for the holidays and my mom and brother were there too. I got up to go pee before anyone else awoke, and decided to go ahead and take my test while I was at it. Now by this time I thouroughly hated these things with all the negative results I'd gotten out of them, so I was very nervous during the whole process. It's amazing the pee stayed in the cup!

As I watched, and looked away, and watched and looked away, I finally started seeing the miracle we'd been waiting a year for.....a positive sign! I rushed (as quietly as I could) back to the bedroom to wake my husband and tell him the news....he didn't know what was wrong with me, cause by that time I was crying and trying to whisper and getting all blubbery. He finally figured out what I was trying to say and we spent some quiet time snuggling before we woke the rest of the household.

My pregnancy was fairly uncomplicated, except for the fact that my heart palpitations started acting up really bad. I had to come home from work one day in about my third month because my heart rate shot up to about 220 beats a minute for about 5 minutes. I was scared and I think that made it worse, but my doctor (who I definately decided not to return to with my second pregnancy) didn't say anything was out of the ordinary.

I gained 32 pounds with Canaan, and boy, was it a lot of baby! I craved hot McDonald's french fries with him, and I got them whenever I could!

When I was about a week overdue, and only about 1 cm dialated, I started having a "leak". This was actually my water leaking...it started about 3 days before I gave birth, but my doctor (whom we've already formed an opinion of..) wouldn't induce me, cause he said it wasn't fluid til I was going through a few pads a day (which I was doing) so needless to say, I had to wait til my final dr. appt, when I was pouring out fluid and blood (which is normal) all over the examination table. I was glad I made a mess though cause I was upset with the dr. :) He finally deemed me ready to go to the hospital. This was 9 am on Thursday. So, me and my mom head to the hospital expecting to get the show on the road......at 4 pm I'm still sitting in my room, all hooked up, but nothing happening. I wasn't even put on "pit" until about 5 pm when the dr. decided to do his rounds and seen I was not progressing on my own. So we finally got going! It took a few hours for things to start doing their job, I got 2 shots of demoral during the whole labor proceedure. No epidurals. (Not trying to knock anyone who's had one, I just can't stand the thought of a needle going into my spine)

Well, once that demoral hit, it was bye bye mommy! I was like a limp rag. I only woke when the hard contractions hit, and my poor dad remembers how bad I was hurting cause he was holding my hand during this! (He gave me instuctions NOT to hold back from squeezing if I needed to.....so, he got it!) I honestly don't remember a whole lot before the final hour or so (the time I was pushing) but once I got to 9 cm, I started trying to get the baby out! I remember asking my mom if I could start pushing at 9 cm, and she told to do it if I felt like it....so I did my best!!

I had a hard time getting Canaan's head down in the canal, his head was so big for a first time delivery, it took everything I had to push him down. The doctor came in at one point and informed us that if I couldn't get his head down quickly, that he'd have to use forceps to help me out. My husband and I strongly didn't want to use any kind of forceps or suction on our baby, we'd heard to many terrible things coming from the use of these utensils! So he pulled me from my haze and said "you've got to push this baby out now honey! You've got to give it all you've got!"

So after convincing Canaan's head to leave my bladder in place, it finally started to crown! I remember everybody yelling "there's his head! He has hair!" and I was thinking "so what, get him out!!!" hahaha. But they didn't realize just how big his head was even then! All they were seeing was the crown of his head, not all of his head! My mom couldn't understand why I was having such a hard time pushing his head out, then when it finally popped out she sucked in her breath and said "Oh my God!" Then I remember her looking at me and covering her mouth like she didn't want me to hear. :) Everyone was saying "He's huge!" And after that he pretty much came out, but for his size I paid the price of a stage 3 episiotomy. That's about 20 stiches. (OUCH!) The doctor didn't cut me until i already had his head part of the way out so I was tore a bit too.

I was immediatly pain free as soon as he made his whole entrance in the world, and was tickled to hold my baby boy. I'd never seen Robert so beamin as he was in those first pictures we had made together. It was so truly amazing. He was so wrinkled up, mom said he looked like a squished loaf of bread! He rated a 9 on his apgar test and was healthy as can be. He was the biggest baby born there that week (that certainly made my husband proud...you know how men can be )

I nursed him too. I must say, you don't get much sleep when you nurse, but the rewards are so unlimited. I still miss it and look forward to nursing our third child.

But anyway, the day we went home was exciting. Canaan only wore his outfit once, and he barely wore it then. He couldn't wear any newborn things..started out in 0-3 month sizes! and wore a size 1 1/2 shoe ! (this is a newborn we're talking about!

He was so curious too. He wasn't a crying baby when he was born, it was like he came out and wanted to ask everyone what they were up to. He would just look and stare at me and Robert like he already knew who we were. It was so precious.

I never want to forget the first feelings of love for a new baby. It is so magical and wonderful. When they look at you for the first time and see the face that goes to the voice they've heard, it's just so good.

First Famiy picture	Snuggling with Mamaw	Canaan and Daddy