Cade’s arrival here on earth was nothing short of eventful. With a due date of April 11, 2014 my doctor had scheduled me for an induction on April 1st as most women with Type 1 aren’t allowed to go to their due date. While lots of people thought that having an April Fool’s baby would be funny, I wasn’t so sure that I was thrilled about the idea. I also wasn’t thrilled about being induced. Trey and I decided that we would just pray that Cade decided to show up on his own…and that he did.
Trey and I had planned to spend the day together going to the movies, the food truck park, and having maternity pictures taken on the last day of his spring break. We slept in and when we got out of bed my water broke. Now I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect as I was convinced that your water breaking wasn’t the same as what you see on television. I’m pretty sure that my words to Trey were “I think my water just broke. I’m not sure, but if it didn’t I’m having a serious bladder issue and we need to go to the hospital.” While we both were extremely excited that our little guy was on the way, I was also a little concerned given that I was only 36 weeks. Trey of course, was fantastic and assured me that everything was going to be fine. After calling my doctor and massive chaos at our house, we finally left for the hospital around 10:00 a.m. When I say massive chaos – we had nothing packed, the car seat wasn’t in the car, and Trey doesn’t really know what to do in moments of utter confusion. This is how Trey went to the hospital…
Yes, his shirt is on inside out.
And I went to the hospital wearing a newborn diaper. Yes, a diaper. Ladies – a word of advice. Keep products on hand when you are pregnant. You never know when you will need them.
Once at the hospital we got checked in and it was confirmed that my water had in fact broken. While I had started having mild contractions they were not very intense and things were pretty calm. A high risk OBGYN came in to chat with us and it was determined that I would be allowed to wear my insulin pump throughout my labor as opposed to being placed on an insulin drip. I was super excited as I was not expecting this to be the case, and I really wanted to be in charge of my insulin management. What was not exciting was all of the wires they hooked me to. I wasn’t really able to walk around much.
Don’t I look thrilled?
Our maternity photo since that didn’t happen as planned.
Trey and I had decided that we wanted someone with us during labor who could help coach me and keep Trey calm. The amazing Marci Hoffman fulfilled that role for us and was such a huge help. She was a champ and stayed with us all through the night. We were both so thankful to have her there.
Around 3:00 pm my doctor decided to start me on pitocin. This was something that I really didn’t want to happen, but I was not progressing at all and again, because of my type 1 they did not want me to labor too long. Another word of advice – don’t take pitocin. That stuff is terrible. I started having strong contractions by 5:00 pm that were consistent and close together; however, by 11:00 pm I still had not progressed at all and was only dilated about 1 cm. My doctor let me know that he would not check me again until the morning. While I had wanted to try and deliver as “naturally” as possible by midnight I decided that I needed something to help me rest. I was given a shot of demerol. While it doesn’t do anything for the pain, it allowed me to rest in between contractions.
Unfortunately, demerol wears off after only few hours. At 5:00 am I finally got an epidural. While I am all about women who birth their children naturally, I’m so glad I got an epidural. My words to Trey after were “This is magic juice.” I was finally able to sleep some until my doctor came back in at 8:00 am. He checked me again and while I had progressed, I was still only 4 cm and only slightly effaced. My doctor gave me the choice of laboring some more or going ahead and doing a Cesarean. As I really wanted to deliver vaginally, I choose to continue with the agreement that he would come back and check me at 9:30 am. 9:30 brought good news as I had made it to 6 cm. Feeling encouraged, we continued on, but two hours later I was only at 7 cm and my cervic had begun to thicken as opposed to thinning out. My doctor told me that he felt that we needed to do a Cesarean. While I was disappointed, after 28 hours of labor and having not eaten since Thursday night, I was just ready to meet Cade.
They immediately began to prep me for surgery as Trey got all of our things together. Having never had an operation, my first thought as they wheeled me in was that operating rooms do actually look like television. Trey was there with me and held my hand throughout everything. The pressure was so intense that I think I almost squeezed Trey’s hand off. Our little guy was born at 12:07 pm on March 15, 2014. They held him up so we could see him and then we heard the sweetest sound in the world as he started to cry. I have never felt anything so emotional in my life. Being so exhausted yet so overcome with joy at the same time. They brought Cade over to Trey and we got to have a few minutes with him before they finished with me.
As we were holding him and staring at his little face, I made the comment that Cade didn’t really look like either one of us. Trey responded “uh oh.” Which I laughed at; however, we quickly learned that you don’t say “uh oh” in an operating room. Oops.
Trey got to go with Cade as they finished me. One of the strangest things was that they kept counting things in the operating room. I finally figured out that they were counting instruments…to make sure that there weren’t any inside of me. Pretty funny. I’m glad that they found them all.
While everything that I didn’t want to happen during my labor and delivery happened, I was just overjoyed that Cade was here and perfectly healthy. Our “premature” baby was perfectly fine, weighing in at 6 lb 0 oz and 18.5 inches long. A perfect little bundle of joy.
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