Cleary Thanksgiving 2009

Well the Cleary Thanksgiving 2009 is one we will never forget!

Round 1 - 00:00 Dark Hundred
It all started early with a nudge at 4am from Karen announcing "Hey Mike... I've been having regular contractions since 3am!" I'm thinking to myself that there is no way this is happening right now, Caleb is supposed to be coming next week, not on Thanksgiving Thursday! My mind started racing with the reality that was contained in that one startling sentence. Since I'm such a great morning person, I bounced out of bed with my normal morning grace and started packing our bag that should have been done by now. Breathe... just breathe Mike, Karen can do it you can too. Around 5am i paged our midwife Vicki to keep her in the loop. I continued to pack clothes, towels, drinks and food along with the signed medical forms that i was not supposed to forget. I then hear from my beautiful contracting wife an important request... "What about the music playlist for my labor?" Forget the medical release forms, we need music right? I had started the playlist a few weeks ago but there were a few additions and subtractions that needed to be made. That of course led to a 5:30am iTunes shopping session. Focus Man, Focus! I was reminded of our present reality as my hand was squeezed and the breathing began again tearing my attention away from some new music by David Grey and Arcade Fire. Music was now playing and i realized we had not yet received a call back from Vicki. "She must know we are in early labor and wants us to rest" I convincingly said to Karen who actually believed me. That slip in reason must have been the labor pain. Then a thought hit me... "The video camera battery is dead!" I was going to charge it later that day just in case. I got it plugged in and put my keys by the charger, packed the tripod and threw my tooth brush and a change of clothes into the bag. Still no call back from Vicki. I am getting a little concerned at this point but not sharing any evidence with Karen. Because our midwife BJ was out of town for Thanksgiving and Caleb was due after Thanksgiving anyway i had not really gone thru the thought that Vicki, who we had met once before, would be delivering Caleb. I didn't have her cell phone but the on-call pager had worked so well before when Ethan was born. Where was she!?!? Didn't she know we were due soon and needed some reassurance? I sent a text to Jen Wheeler and asked for her help. She got things moving by calling multiple people and getting me some cell phone numbers. Shortly after getting a text back from Jen, Karen's phone rang and a concerned Vicki was on the other line. We spoke about Karen and how she was doing. During my little iTunes raid i also downloaded two amazing apps for the iPod touch. One is a contraction calculator that has a start/stop timer. It stores each contraction and gives you the duration and frequency as well as an average. I was able to give very detailed info to Vicki as she assessed how far along we were. (You can even e-mail the info to your doctor at the touch of a button) I also downloaded a Baby Timer that has been very helpful charting feedings, diapers and sleeping... 'Apple-Head' daddy's-to-be take note, "there's an app for that." SO what about the lack of response from the pager right!?!? Well as i mentioned before, since I'm such a great morning person, it turns out I decided to leave a voicemail after the beep instead of typing in my number followed by the # both times. Vicki never called back because no one ever paged her! Gotta love it right?

Round 2 - Camp Cleary
Did i mention it was Thanksgiving? If you didn't know Karen, Ethan and I always drive up to Santa Clarita for Thanksgiving with family. Because Caleb's due date was so close to Thanksgiving this year BJ had asked us not to travel out of the area. That means family was camping out at our place. No really, I mean literally camping out at our place. At this point in our morning Karen was having contractions lasting about 1 minute and they were coming at a steady pace of every 5-6 minutes. My folks pulled up to the house with their RV and parked out front. Camp Cleary was open for delivery! Karen's parents and Kim got a hotel in Dana Point and GiGi, Emy, and Bart were in the house with our contracting adventure. In our family, daylight is welcomed by Ethan every morning who wakes up with a vigorous round of calisthenics and vocal exercise. I usually hear the springs of his Crib first "Bounce, Bounce, Bounce" followed by a high pitched but very loud and purposeful DADEEEEEEEEE or MOMMMMAAAAA? I open his bedroom door to find him bouncing up and down as usual in anticipation of his favorite decision of the day. What will it be this morning? Every morning he makes one of three requests... a request to play with Dad in his New Car Bed or to turn on 82" of high definition 'Thomas the Train' or 'Word World' on PBS. Our DVR has a 50/50 ratio of kids shows to Mommy/Daddy shows. This morning Thomas was it so i negotiated the TV show as a reward for a diaper change and putting on a sweatshirt. He runs off, grabs a truck to hold and jumps into his mini man couch in eager anticipation of the steam whistle that opens the show. At this point Bart is still sleeping on the couch so he gets to enjoy Ethan asking him for Thomas as well :0) I hear my name from the bedroom...KAREN is in labor... RIGHT! I make it back to the room to find that the contractions had dipped all the way down to the 2 minutes apart range periodically and then leveled out to a manageable 4-5 minute frequency. Karen is doing amazing! I know at this point that Caleb is coming today and she seems to be progressing much better than last time. Karen was in labor with Ethan for 28 hours which included a walk from the Starbucks at the Ritz Carlton down to the golf course next to Salt Creek and back. We went to the hospital too early and Karen was not dilating in proportion to all of the hard work she was doing. I was praying that this time would be different. I wanted to stay home as long as possible and help her to rest. That plan worked and she continued to labor at home until 1pm. We called Vicki and we all decided it was time to meet at the birth center in Laguna Hills and get checked. I packed the car with our bags and we walked past the amazing smells from the kitchen to head out. No big deal right? A short 10 minute drive up La Paz and we would move onto the next phase.

Round 3 - "I'm so sorry, this has never happened before"
We arrived to the birth center 2 minutes before Vicki so i piled our bags in front of the door and Karen and I started pacing the courtyard, stopping for contractions every 3 minutes or so. When we saw Vicki pull up we are relived and ready to get started. Karen's contractions shifted at that point and became much more intense, almost as though her body knew that Vicki's arrival was serious business. After the contraction ended we started heading toward the office suite when we realized that the door was still closed and Vicki was struggling with the handle. She approached us and calmly informed us that she was able to unlock the main bolt but there was a secondary handle lock that normally does not get used. We were locked out! You think I'm kidding right? The look Karen gave me was "Go break down the door now!" After two unsuccessful phone calls we finally reached Melanie, one of the office staff, who was now going to have to leave her family meal and drive in Thanksgiving traffic from Tustin to Laguna Hills. I could tell things were getting mental for Karen so i placed a water bottle on a bench far away and made a deal with her that we would continue to pace the courtyard and every time we passed the bench she would take a drink and then we would keep moving. Make it a game right? Everyone knows Karen LOVES games. Somehow her body language told me she wasn't having as much fun as she usually does but it was working. We made a few laps and before we knew it there was a grey blur of a car whizzing by us. The door was now open and it was go time!

Round 4 - "Welcome to Beachside Birth Spa"
Almost as soon as we set foot in the birth center the emotional roller coster took a turn for the calm. Lights were dimmed, our iTunes playlist was running in the background and we were filling a beautiful Roman bathtub with warm water while candles were flicking behind us. It was immediately clear this would be a little different from the maternity ward. As we started working with Vicki we realized that she was going to be great to work with in his next stage of labor. Karen was already at 6/7 centimeters! This was a huge mental and emotional boost for Karen as she realized her body was making progress at a reasonable pace this time around. Transition was coming and Karen was relaxing in the tub in-between contractions. Vicki was working closely with us and her two birth assistants, Brigitta and Anna came into the office as well leaving their family meals to be with us as we were getting ready to welcome Caleb to our family!

Round 5 - PUSH!
I promised Karen I would spare you all the details of Round 5. All that to say Caleb's birth was beautiful and i am so proud of Karen! I am proud to be her husband and we now have two amazing, healthy boys.

Appropriately, Caleb Michael Cleary was born on Thanksgiving Day, November 26th at 8:06 pm, weighing in at 8lbs 12oz, measuring 21.25" long. We had the following 2 hours together in the room to snuggle and get acquainted. It was at this point that Brigitta quietly announced that her husband had delivered a full Thanksgiving Dinner for us all and offered to serve us! AMAZING! As all of the paperwork and details were taken care of for us i loaded up the car and the three of us were home by 11:45pm. Nearly 10 hours earlier we had driven to the Birth Center as two people and now we were driving home as three. Everyone back at Camp Cleary was recovering from their feast and had stayed up to welcome us home. Thanks and Joy have new meaning in the Cleary home today. The night went as well as to be expected with feedings and diaper changes every three hours or so. I was reminded that changing a newborn was A LOT different than changing a 22 month old diaper. I was peed on around 3am and didn't sleep much but it just didn't matter. All was well at Camp Cleary. The next morning Ethan started the day in his usual way. About 5 minutes into Thomas I went into the living room and told him that Caleb had come home and wanted to see him. He agreed to a short visit and gave mom a hug and kiss in bed. As you can see in the picture below Ethan was curious about this new adventure we have begun.

Thank You for your love, prayers and support. As you can imagine we will have many more stories to tell and good times to share with you all as a family of four.

Mike, Karen, Ethan and Caleb