cadence's birth

Wednesday
I spent Wednesday doing everything on my "to-do" list, which included MANY things.  I basically cleaned every single room in our house throughout the course of the day, and James was shocked with how much I was able to do in a single day.  Kelly came by to give me my "retirement" gift--a Marie Cassat framed print that will hang in Cadence's room.  After that we headed to Carrabba's where I fueled up with some Pasta Weesie since it would be my last meal for quite some time.  It was quite fun to answer the question "When are you due?" at that point--because we actually KNEW!

We headed to the hospital at 8:00 and checked in, meaning we got to see the estimate for how much this birth was going to cost--wowzers!  It was a little confusing though because they offer a discount if you pay ahead of time, but when I asked if we had to pay then, the lady said yes.  Huh?  We put it on our credit card hoping to at least get some rewards out of that purchase. 

After that we were escorted to a room in the labor and delivery room, where we met Leah, our first of many nurses.  She was really nice and made us feel very comfortable--even when she had to put a pill behind my cervix to "ripen" it up.  I really enjoyed watching the contractions monitor to see exactly how long and how far apart my contractions were--that night before starting the Pitocin they were about 6 minutes apart and lasted for about a minute--so I wonder if Cadence would have made her appearance without inducing, but I guess we'll never know!  James and I watched lots of HGTV and had some good talks, enjoying our last evening as a twosome. 

Thursday
Leah came in at 1:00am to see if I needed another pill to soften my cervix, but she said I was progressing well at that point so I wouldn't need another.  She came back at 5:00am to start my Pitocin drip, and then the fun began!  My contractions definitely got stronger and closer together at that point, but it wasn't unbearable...yet.  Leah had mentioned that the Pitocin sometimes takes about 12 hours, so we should expect a baby around 5:00pm.  Dr. Moss came in around 8:30am to check out my progress and talk about how things were going to progress today. At that point I was 2-3 cm dilated and 80% effaced, and she broke my water to really get things under way.  After my water was broken, the fun really began.  My contractions were all of a sudden VERY painful, lasting about a minute long but with only about 30 seconds in between each one.  I remember from our classes them saying that it was important to rest in between contractions, but that was pretty much impossible.  James even tried to brush his teeth between the pain, but he couldn't.  Around 10:10am I told James that I thought I wanted an epidural, and he asked if I was sure--I let one more contraction go by--and said a definite yes.  We told my nurse Jeannette, she got the anesthesiologist, and he worked very quickly and relief was around the corner.  He was literally out of my room by 10:30am, and once everything kicked in, I was actually able to take a short nap.  Jeannette checked me again at 11, and I was 3-4 cm, and according to her I'd dilate 1cm/hour so I should count on pushing later this afternoon.

Well...little Cadence was a little more urgent!  I was feeling lots of rectal pressure, and Jeannette came back at noon to see if she could go to lunch, but I was fully dilated and ready to go!  James gave me this excited/anxious look as he realized we were very close to meeting our daughter.   She called Dr. Moss, got the room prepped for delivery, and around 12:25 pm she started getting me to push.  James was by my side the whole time, helping by holding one of my legs and encouraging me.  Jeannette was the boss for a little while, but once her head started crowning, she called Dr. Moss to deliver the baby.  James even looked as I was pushing to see the action, which I didn't expect at all!  He was pretty amazed/in shock by the whole process, but really a great coach.  Once Dr. Moss got in there I continued to push, and it honestly felt like it was never going to end!  They kept telling me I was "almost" there, but they kept saying it, and I kept pushing!  Kind of frustrating.  Finally at 1:07pm, Cadence Elizabeth Garcia made her entrance into the world.  James said it was astounding to see something so large emerge from me, and Dr. Moss commented immediately that she was a big girl--probably about 8.5 pounds--and then asked James if he was going to take any pictures--haha--he forgot in all the excitement!  They cleaned her up, and Dr. Moss got to work stitching me up--which took a long time, as I had a third degree laceration.  As I waited for her to finish, I could see James watching Cadence in the warmer and it was clear how immediately and deeply he fell in love with her--his eyes were tearing up and he just had an incredulous smile on his face.  They then brought her to me, and I couldn't believe how beautiful a 5 minute old baby could be.  She had the cutest chubby cheeks, the sweetest little nose, and was perfect.  After holding her for a few minutes, I realized that James still hadn't held her, so I passed her on.

After all that excitement, Tayla Hyatt brought us lunch (Five Guys for me!), and James followed Cadence to the nursery to get her measurements.  She weighed in at 9lbs 14oz, 22.5 inches long, her head measurement was 34.5 cm and her chest 36 cm.  Shortly thereafter I was moved to the postpartum wing, and Cadence was brought to us once we got there.  I then met my new nurse, Cadence's nursery nurse, and the lactation consultant, Diana.  Diana tried to help me feed Cadence for the first time, but we weren't successful in getting her to latch on.  She gave me lots of information and pointers for what to try next time, and told me that I could ask any of the nurses for help as well. 

Kelly came by that afternoon and was Cadence's first real visitor, and she brought me a strawberry milkshake :).  Yumm!  The Mitchells and LR Smith, her godfather also came by to visit, although they left quickly after the nurse came in to help me use the bathroom as I still didn't have complete feeling back in my legs.  Easily the worst part of the whole experience was using the bathroom postpartum--so many things to consider, and my stitches made things even more painful down there.  Thank God for pain meds!  With the help of my night nurse I managed to successfully feed Cadence later that night, with James helping by tickling her feet to keep her awake.  We chose to have her spend the night in the nursery and just be brought to me for feedings in order to get some sleep, which was a great decision on our part.