Sunday, December 30, 2012

Cade's birth story

 We went to the hospital on December 19, 2012 at 7:30 to be induced.  I was already at 41 weeks, and the doctors did not think it was wise to go any further (and for that, I was grateful)!  Wednesday night, they started a medicine called Cervidil to start dilation.  My parents and my nephew, Austin, arrived that night at 11 pm so they would be here in time for the birth.  That night, we had a really scary episode where the monitor was no longer picking up Cade's heart rate.  The nurses rushed in the room and put me in different positions to see if they could find it.  They finally found it and told me not to lay on my right side any more.  Thursday morning, the nurse started the medication, Pitocin to increase my contractions.  My contractions were really strong from the beginning. I have never been so grateful for modern medicine as I was when I got my epidural.  Throughout the day, they kept increasing the pitocin, but Cade's heartrate kept decreasing with contractions.  We went back and forth where they would stop the pitocin for a couple hours, and then baby Cade would improve.  We did this cycle a couple times and around 7:30 pm, my doctor recommended that we do a c-section to keep Cade safe.  He didn't know why his heart rate was decreasing with contractions, but he did not feel like it was safe to continue to have a regular delivery.  


Feeling good after the epidural

Ready to go for c-section

We went for c-section at 8 o'clock and Cade William was born at 8:30pm.  His cord was wrapped around his neck twice which is what was probably causing his heart rate to decline with contractions.  Ben says the next 15-20 minutes were the scariest moments of his life.  Cade was blue and not very responsive.  His Apgar score at 1 minute was 2 (for all you medical people).  I really didn't know what was going on during this time because I couldn't see anything as I was still lying on the OR table, but I knew he had not cried at all.  I kept asking how much he weighed and when they told me they had not weighed him yet and I hadn't heard him cry, I knew something was awry.  I just kept praying that he was going to be okay and that I would hear him cry.  He was having difficulty breathing because he had swallowed some meconium and Ben says that his pulse ox was 70%.  They were about to take him to the NICU when his oxygen level finally increased and he started breathing better.  He weighed 6 lbs 7 oz and was 20 inches long.  I got to see him for a brief moment before they took me to recovery.  I finally got to see my sweet little baby at 11 o'clock that night!  What a relief that he was fine.

A quick kiss before he has to go to the nursery

Proud daddy

Sweet baby in the nursery

Holding Cade for the first time and meeting cousin Austin

Meeting Grammy

Meeting Papa

Our new family of 3
We are so thankful for a healthy little boy!

Friday, December 21, 2012

The Making of the Nursery and Final Reveal

The crib

The dresser

Putting the crib together


The final product:

My dad was so so kind to paint the glider white for us.  It started out as an orange wood color.  Doesn't it look good?  

The dresser/changing table

I love these elephant pictures that I got from etsy (sorry for the glare)





Friday, December 14, 2012

40 weeks


We have now passed our due date- 12/12/12, and I don't think this little boy is ready to come yet!  The doctor says that he has dropped a lot, but I can't tell, can you? 


I hope this is the last post before he is born!  Come on Baby Areheart!!  We are so ready to meet you.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Maternity pictures!!

Here are some of our maternity pictures.  They were taken at 36 weeks.  We are currently 8 days away from our due date, which is crazy and exciting.  My prediction is that he will either come on December 15 or 19.  It will be exciting to see what happens.






This is one of Ben's favorites of me, although I think I am making a cheesy face :)


Thursday, November 29, 2012

38 weeks

 
Here we are at 38 weeks.  I have a feeling this little boy is not going to make his debut for weeks to come!  We will keep you posted!


Monday, November 26, 2012

It's the holiday season!!

I absoutely love holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas!!!  Last weekend, we went to a marriage conference at Calloway Gardens.   While we were there, we were able to go to the Fantasy in Lights at the gardens to start off the holidays.  


The fall trees were beautiful.

We also went to the butterfly area.


Our favorite butterfly with the bright blue colors!



We went to the Birds of Prey exhibit which was really interesting.  




The only picture that really turned out of the Fantasy of Lights.  It was such a fun event.  You ride a trolley car around which was FREEEEZing, but the lights were really pretty.  We definitely warmed up with hot chocolate after the ride.  


Almost 38 weeks!!  My doctor said it was okay for me to go to Rock Hill for Thanksgiving, which was an unexpected surprise.  We decided we should go ahead and make the trip before we have a little one. We definitely took the car seat with us, just in case!  


My nephew, Austin


Some of the little cousins




My whole family!


Hayden is wearing Papa's shirt after she had a little accident in her clothes.  She is ready to cheer on the Gamecocks, but she has the wrong color bow!!
Ben was able to go to the Clemson vs. Carolina game with his buddy Paul!  They had a great time

He even got to see Stephen while he was there!

Monday, November 19, 2012

Three landmarks!

We had three huge landmarks last week-
1. We have reached 36 weeks!
2. We celebrated 5 1/2 years of marriage
3. I turned 30 years old......
I think this means we have to be official adults now!  


It is now a little more like fall here in Georgia, and we have been enjoying lots of walks!  Ben was off on my birthday for Veteran's Day, so we got to enjoy the day outside.

We celebrated my birthday with a nice steak dinner with Ben's parents


Our sweet friends, Joe & Karrissa and their sweet kids, McKinley, Kylie, and Greyson came over to have cake and ice cream with us. 




Tuesday, October 30, 2012

32-34 weeks

32 weeks


34 Weeks (this was the best picture I could get by myself ;)  Still feeling great and getting more and more excited!