Born Wednesday, June 29th, at 8:48pm
8lbs 15.5oz (...sooo basically 9lbs...), 19.5 inches long
very squishy.
So she was about a week overdue... kind of an emotionally difficult week overdue for me... it seemed like I was suddenly surrounded by friends dealing with difficult pregnancies and losses, and here I was "overdue" (don't even get me started with ESTIMATED due dates) with a perfectly healthy, though potentially very large, little girl.
At about 37 weeks, they estimated her weight to be 8lbs 11oz... which is big... but, the EFW sono margin for error is so large! The scientist in me wanted to tell them they were crazy and 20% error is NOT publishable data and I did not want my medical care based on that. I refrained, of course, and resigned myself to fight induction/ C-section to the bitter end. It didn't help that there are a bunch of Dr's and midwives that I see and they all have slightly different ways of wanting to deal with suspected macrosomia... mostly they were hands off, but they reminded me of the risks of shoulder dystocia every.single.time. I know what it is thankyouverymuch now leave me alone.
At 40 weeks they asked if I wanted to schedule a C-section. Um, NO! At 40&5 I agreed to schedule an AROM induction for 41&6 since I didn't think it would get that long. (I was right!) I also just happened to run into my mom's friend at Walmart whose daughter had a 10 pound baby 12 days overdue... I got in touch with her and she calmed me down a lot and was super encouraging...
Oh, did I mention I was totally planning on not wimping out and skipping the epidural this time? (No judgment- I do not regret the epidural with either of the older girls!) So since I know myself and my utter lack of courage and resolve I hired a doula. (Apparently I am getting very crunchy-granola in my old age. hehe. Bob was not so sure about it.) I was really glad for Bethany the last few weeks... she's a believer so not only was she a great pregnancy resource, she was also spiritually encouraging.
So anyway, after weeks of different possible signs of labor and nothing happening we get to Wednesday. (Don't worry, this is the family friendly blog version...) I had supper on the table at 6pm... and suddenly was wondering if my water had broken. But, getting the girls to eat is most important, right?, so we ate and I was texting Bethany trying to decide what exactly to do while telling Emmy to quit draping spaghetti over her cup and eat it. I cleaned up supper and started the dishwasher, while Bob got the girls ready to go. Mom came and got them at 7, I tried to call the doctor's office but the line got cut off twice, Bethany was on her way to our house and at 7:30 I suddenly was having really strong contractions. (If my brain had kept up with what was happening, I should have realized that it was probably transition....).
I think it was at this point I informed Bob that we aren't having any more kids, I wanted to go to the hospital, and I wanted all.the.drugs. He wanted to wait until Bethany got to our house... we left pretty much as soon as she got here . The drive was rather miserable... plus Bethany almost got hit by a semi. Yikes.
We did finally make it to the hospital and in the ER they said we would probably make it up to Labor and Delivery. Bob said the guy from ER that was pushing the gurney was looking a little bit nervous though. Ha. I was pretty unaware of much at that point.
There weren't any rooms available in L&D so they took us to a recovery room... Bob and Bethany managed to get suited up at some point. The midwife that was on call hadn't made it in yet, so Cadence was delivered by the OB resident on the floor at 8:48, 10-15 minutes after we arrived at the hospital. My midwife got there about 5 minutes later... ha. And there was no time for an epidural so I did it naturally, in spite of myself. :)
More pictures, because that's what everyone is here to see...
She looks a little unhappy here.
Aw, hello world!
Bethany and Cadence (yes, I cropped myself out of this picture, no one needs to see that. hehe.)
She looks so big here.
Those cheeks! Haha. They aren't quite as pronounced now, sadly. This is also my I-can't-believe-that-just-happened face.
Anyway. The rest of the hospital stay was less than stellar. By the time we were discharged Friday morning every bed in the unit was full and they were double bunking people so I had two different roommates. Bob went home to sleep and I couldn't sleep because they were getting someone settled at 2am... ugh. Apparently every baby in the area decided to be born this week.
And then when they finally got all our discharge stuff together we rushed out so fast I forgot to take a going home picture... so here is an arriving home picture. She looks so little in her car seat.
Mom brought the girls back home to meet her. They had a great time at the farm... mom even took them to Holland's for candy.
They were excited to hold her, even though it doesn't look like it.
"My turn! Hold baby! She nose! (pointing at her nose)"
So we are all adjusting. The older girls are a little fragile due to all the excitement and being away. All four girls took naps today. Haha. Poor Bob, so outnumbered.
Oh, and her name. Since I'm sure people are going to think it's weird... and I always said no nouns... I have heard it as a name before, although I've never seen it in the Silver Lining. I knew it as a marching band thing since it's a musical term. Mostly I just thought it was pretty and Bob was ok with it. Haha. One of the nurses described it as 'sounding old fashioned, but very current.' Which is true, I can totally see a Cadence sitting down to Victorian high tea with a Josephine and a Cornelia and a Samantha... :) And we waffled between a few middle names, but I decided I liked Mae best, and the old fashioned not the month spelling, of course.
* If you want the non-blog friendly version of the story, I'll be glad to email you...
**If you have no idea what a doula is (I didn't) http://www.dona.org/mothers/
Blessings.
