Cade Daniel: A Birth Story

Cade Daniel is here! Last Monday night I started having contractions pretty frequently. They were definitely  different than what I had been having, but weren't regular at all. I kind of had a feeling that this was the beginning, so I got the house all clean and  :). I woke up throughout the night with contractions, but it wasn't until 5 am that they got strong enough to fully wake me up and regular. I had a doctors appointment at 9:40 that morning, so Matt left for work and we knew he'd either meet me in the hospital or in the doctor's office. I went ahead with my morning and got ready for the appointment. I was fine in between contractions and they still weren't bad enough that they took my breath away. By the time I was on my way, though, they were starting to get pretty strong and left me somewhat immobile. And let me tell you. It is hard to check your blind spot when your stomach is as hard as a bowling ball and won't allow you to bend forward! 

Once I saw Dr. Norman she confirmed what I thought.. that I was in the beginning stages of labor. I was 3 cm and 80% effaced, so she told me to go get lunch and walk around somewhere for about an hour. I had some makeup to buy at Sephora, so off to the mall we went. We ate at Panera Bread first and I got a salad since I wasn't very hungry. Apparently, that was a bad decision since it didn't have enough sugar in it to keep little bit active! My contractions didn't really slow down, but they stopped intensifying. We walked around for about an hr or so and then decided to just go ahead and go to the hospital to see what they said. They got much worse in the car on the way there, but unfortunately I hadn't changed any. The nurse called Dr. Norman and she decided to just go ahead and admit me since my contractions were regular and pretty intense. 

I got admitted and hooked up with an IV around 3:45. They started a very slow drip of pitocin and Dr Norman came in and broke my water around 4. I had really wanted to try to get to a 5 or so before I got the epidural, but once I got the pitocin those contractions just became more than I could handle. I could feel myself completely tensing up and not relaxing, so I finally gave in and got it around 5ish when I still wasn't changing. I finally got to a 5 at 8:30, which is when I also had to put on an oxygen mask. Cade was having a hard time handling the pitocin, so we had to take me off of it shortly thereafter. Connor was in and out throughout the night, but wasn't a huge fan of me in that big bed. He did, however, think it was funny that I had on a fireman mask :).

By 10, I was at a 7 and by 11:45, I was told to sit up to let gravity do it's job before I started pushing. I was so nervous before I started labor that I was going to be nauseous the whole time like I was with Connor, but I wasn't at all! The only time I felt even a little sick was during a contraction and the nurse told me it was more than likely because my uterus was pushing on my diaphragm. I was so relieved to feel so good, plus I was still able to move my legs and had enough feeling to know that I was having a contraction without feeling the pain! Made it much easier while pushing! After 25 minutes or so of pushing,  my 2nd precious boy was born at 12:36 on April 18th! 

 I was so excited to see his hair since we knew that he more than likely had some and we were pretty shocked to see that he had brown hair! All of the nurses felt like he was going to be small based on what they felt of his head when they checked me, but he shocked them by being 8 lbs 10 oz. He was 21 inches long, just like his big brother :)

 Proud daddy!

 Proud parents!!!

 It's amazing the instantaneous love you have for this little human being they lay on your chest! I knew that I would love sweet little Cade just as much as I do Connor and that is definitely the case! It's just that my heart has grown! ha!

 Me and my sweet little boy!

 Connor had been asleep on a makeshift bed in the waiting room, but we still wanted him to be the first to see Cade. He wasn't fully awake, so it wasn't quite the reaction we had in mind, but still special. 

 He did NOT want anything to do with that huge bed!

 But once he heard Cade crying, he perked right up. It's like it confirmed that he was, in fact, real!!!

 Look at that sweet head of hair!!!

 We finally got up to the room around 3ish and we were able to do his bath in the room with us. His little face was so bruised from the delivery that they had to put a sign on his crib so that the nurses didn't worry that it was him not breathing!

 I had to get a shot of this sweet foot. Nothing like baby feet!

 He wasn't a huge fan of the bath process, but he didn't seem to get as mad as his big brother did. I didn't get to watch Connor's, so it was nice to be able to watch this one. I was too tired/sore to stand up the whole time, so I was also glad they did it in our room for us. 

 As soon as the nurse put him on his belly to wash that sweet little hiney, he immediately stopped crying and then almost rolled over! Ha! 

We got to bed around 5:30, which meant it had been almost 26 hours since I had been up! All in all, this labor was like night and day from the labor with Connor. The outcome still the same, though. Absolutely, positively head over heels in love for our boy :)

Cade Daniel Kegley

4/18/2012

8 lbs 10 oz

21 inches long