Cadence's birth story, part 2.

Read the first part of Cadence's birth story here.


So my water broke. i called my pal Josh, (A Blond Moment's husband) and he came over to watch David, while i drove myself to the hospital. Kris was working on this movie set at the time, and couldn't get anyone to cover for him until later, so i was on my own. It cracks me up that i drove myself, because here's a conversation my mom and i had several times.
Mom: Now, what do you do when your water breaks?
Me: Get my stuff together, make sure all heat elements in the kitchen are turned off....
Mom interrupts: Nothing! You do nothing after your water breaks, except call someone and have them do everything for you and then have them drive you to the hospital.

Thankfully, contractions didn't start until well after i got to the hospital.

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i was all nervous that my water hadn't actually broken, because there had been an initial medium-ish gush, and then slight trickling. i was worried that it was just slightly heavier late-pregnancy bladder control loss. Got to the hospital, and waited in a room where they check you to see if you're in labor. i had to wait a while. Watched a little "A Baby Story" on the tv until the nurse came and checked me out. She grabbed one of those sticks they use to check if your water has broken, but reassured me when she saw the blue sheet i was sitting on that my water had indeed broken!
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So i got put in a room. i put my stuff around. Folded up my clothes, checked my phone to see if Kris could get off work anytime soon (nope), painted my nails the color i'd bought so Cadence and i could have matching nails. i'm getting bored. Did my makeup. Did some research about how to get our power turned back on. (Josh got it turned back on, thanks again buddy!)

My mom had been calling about every 6 hours during the last few days. After i told her it hurt my feelings when she'd call just to say "Are you in labor?", she started calling "Just to see how things are going", which i saw through:) Anyway, i'd been ignoring a bunch of her calls because i wanted to keep my labor a secret from all family until Cadence was born. My ignoring her calls caused her to call even more, so i finally answered and said i was busy trying to get my power turned back on. It was really hard for me to not tell her! Anyway, i managed to keep it a secret. Had to lie my butt off, but i didn't spill the beans.

i was really missing Kris at this point. i'd been sitting in the hospital like 4 hours, watching tv, texting people, getting mad that no nurses were bored and wanted to come hang out with me. i walked around but felt like a single teenage mother (because i look really young normally, and even more so in a hospital gown) so i hung out in the room mostly.

Kris working on the movie was really great, but everyone in the company he works for besides him and 1 other person were in Nebraska for the week. So he had to wait for that one other person to get done working her other job, so she could come and work on the movie so he could come to the hospital. It would have been illegal for him to have left the set without a medic.

Kris finally got to the hospital right as my contractions were getting bad, so he came in a fewish minutes before the anesthesiologist came in. Just like before, my epidural was perfect, God bless it. However, i still have $200 to pay on it, so there's that. Anyway, i had drugs, a husband, and could now move on with the whole having a baby situation.

Unfortunately, i didn't dilate much from when i was checked in until then. i think i was at like 3? when i got in, and was something like 4 in 7 hours. So right around 4 PM they put me on Pitocin, which helped at first, but then stopped helping.

i was getting really bored, but couldn't sleep. i either wanted to be doing something (like cleaning my bedroom which i had planned on cleaning that day) or be having a baby. Being stuck in labor purgatory is not great. They upped my pitocin.

Also? The nurses kept changing every 4 hours. They each got nicer than the last, but because shift change happened right after i got there and kept happening, labor felt even slower.

The increase of Pitocin worked. i was fully dilated at 9 PM. However, my doctor was doing a C-Section at the time, so he had his friend do the delivery. He was very nice. He seemed sort of Mediterranean.

It was an easy delivery. Cadence had a perfectly round head, and i remember seeing her for the first time and saying "You look like you: not like your brother!" (Confession: i now have a very hard time telling their newborn pictures apart.)

She was born October 9, 2008. 10/09/08, to be exact. She weighed 8 lbs, 3 oz, which was over a pound less than her brother.

It was a very nice time. We called my brother, who had taken over the post of watching David and under penalty of death was keeping the secret from the rest of the family. He brought David over, who was very tired. It was super important to us that David be the first to meet her, so he came in, got on the bed and i read David's favorite book, "Where do Kisses come from?" to both of my children for the first time. He was very gentle with her, but quickly lost interest and got fussy. My brother came back in, delivered my made-to-order sandwich and Dr. Pepper, and took David to my parent's house to stay over while Kris and i called our parents and important people to let them know about Cadence being born.

My parents were able to come that night, so they came and helped move me into my post-partum room and kept offering us food and everything, which was nice. They left at about midnight, i think.

i kept staring at Cadence. She was this beautiful angel and i just couldn't believe how much i loved her. That whole mother love thing happened with us right away. (It hadn't with David, but i think it was because i expected to know him when he came out, but was surprised when he was a little wrinkly blob of baby and not much else. i knew to expect not to be acquainted with Cadence when she was born.)

She had a perfect little mouth, and it was exactly the same shape as the Arby's hat, which i think had something to do with my constant pregnant cravings for Arby's Reuben Melt. Marketing at its finest. Her mouth is still shaped like that, but it's not as striking.

Sure sign of second-time-around parents: we put Cadence in the nursery her first night so we could sleep. Of course, i couldn't sleep so i facebooked well into the night:)

Kris had to leave at 6:30 the next morning for work. It was not great. My boss stopped by at about 9:30 AM because i begged him to come, and he brought me a mocha and issues of Entertainment Weekly and Cosmo:) But he left shortly afterward. Besides that, no one stopped in all day, because everyone was working or sick or had a sick kid.

So i was alone with Cadence almost all day. It was a nice day, but man, it was boring. It was like the day before, but more baby, less anticipation. i scheduled Cadence's baptism. i facebooked. i played Bubble Breaker on my phone.

Right around 4 PM my friend Jennifer showed up, and we had a nice talk. After that, people started showing up en masse, and it got fun. My parents brought David back. One of my pastors showed up. Kris' Aunts and a Grandma showed up. Kris' mom made it in, (his dad was in Nebraska). My mom and i painted Cadence's nails to match mine:)

Kris finally got off work at 7:30. i was super excited to see him! Then people left and we wanted to leave, so we watched the PPD video and the don't shake your baby video, got myself and Cadence checked up, and we left the hospital at some time like 10:30 PM.

We stopped at Walmart on the way home. It was amazing how much better i felt after Cadence was born than David, but it probably mostly had to do with knowing what to expect. Or also the fact that she was over 10% smaller than David was.

The next day a bunch of people showed up to meet her, and it was SO nice being home instead of stuck in the hospital!

i had much worse post-labor contractions this time around. It sucked. i was on Vicodin, though, which helped. The recovery was quite a bit easier with her overall though, so much, in fact, that after she was born on Thursday night, i worked at church Sunday morning, all 3 services. She slept almost the whole time!

So that's my little angel's birth story. She really is an amazing child. i can't wait to get to know her even better:)

Cadence's birth story, part 1

i am completely ecstatic for my pal Kacie from Sense to Save, because she had her baby! She had him 4 days ago, which means i've been crying off an on for the last 4 days. i get, erm, a bit emotional with new babies, especially when it's my really good friends (albeit long-distance) who have them. Congrats Kacie, Shane, and baby Johnny!

Anyway, i'm inspired to write out Cadence's birth story. So here goes.


She was very easy to conceive. i'm one of those super-lucky fertile people. i don't take it for granted. Anyway, Kris and i thought, "Let's try for a baby!" So we did. A few days later, i was ovulating. Turns out i didn't need to buy the super-jumbo ovulation kit, even if 11 tests were only $3 more than 4 tests.

Two weeks later? Positive pregnancy test.

That week was really crappy. Except for the positive pregnancy test, of course. But within an hour, my dog died and my car died. Remember? It was really sad. Being hormonal didn't help much, either.

But the pregnancy progressed nicely. i was a little bit more sick, and quite a bit more tired, but blamed it on running after a toddler, though hoping against hope it was a girl.

And she was!

So that was good news. And then things kept going on. i was sure she was going to be late, like David.

Don't tell anyone, but about 2 weeks before i was due, i did some of those things you're not supposed to that are supposed to spur on labor. i drank a glass of wine every couple of days. i took raspberry leaf tea. i took blue cohosh. These are supposed to soften your cervix and stuff, and mine was already soft.

35.5 week checkup-37.5 week checkup: 1 1/2 cm dilated, 50% effaced

Raspberry leaf tea, blue cohosh week.


38.5 week checkup: 3 cm dilated, 90% effaced!

It was awesome! Except it didn't let my hopes get up too high. i tried not to, anyway. My Dr. had been stripping my membranes for a couple weeks, but usually that is supposed to work within a few hours if it's going to work, right? It didn't.

39.5 week checkup? Didn't happen!!

Back up 4 days.

October 5, Sunday night. My dad went to the hospital with horrible tummy pains. Turns out he had an obstructed bowel. Poor guy! He was in the hospital till Wednesday. Thankfully, they were able to use meds and diet to get it to go back to normal, and not surgery.

October 6, Monday night. Found out some sad family news about a couple separating. That was sad and unexpected.

October 8, Wednesday. My van got broken into: my GPS and 60 GB ipod were stolen. That pretty much sucked. i have missed each of them every day since it happened.

October 9, Thursday. 8:37 AM. Our power went out. Kris forgot to pay the bill. Here's a word-for-word reprint of my texts to him that morning.

8:37 AM: Our power just went out. i wonder what's up.
8:42 AM: i think my water is breaking.

That, my friends, is what happened leading up to her delivery. The weeks surrounding our discovery of her and of her birth were shrouded in bad news, but my little angel sitting next to me, in her little "Santa's little reindeer" sleeper made all the bad events seem brighter in the light of her beautiful new life.

To be continued.