Happy Birthday Cadence

Well today is the BIG day. Cadence is going to come into this world and complete the family that we have started. I had a weekly exam yesterday morning. Rather than going to Coco Loco for lunch, however, Dr. Zivney had different plans for us. I was starting to show some signs of preeclampsia (i.e. high blood pressure, and some protein in my fluids), so we went straight to the hospital and got me hooked up for observation. After about 7 hours of being hooked up, I received cervadil to help soften my cervix.

I had plenty of visitors. Mom made it up here to spend the day with me. Pam, Keith's mom, made it up here so they got to spend a little quality time together. Abby, Stacey, my aunt and uncle all got to stop by and visit. Thanks to Stacey and a nurse on a mission, I was able to get a laptop and and internet connection while I'm in the hospital. I wanted to keep a track of what was going on but it's difficult to keep up with a pen and piece of paper!

Last night I received a dose of ambien around 10. An hour and a half later, I asked for another. Within 20 minutes I needed medicine for the pain. Apparently the cervadil was working it's magic because I was having some serious contractions. I was lucky enough to have the anesthitist on the floor at the time and I received my epidural somewhere around 1:30 am. After that, I was OUT!! I can already tell I made the right choice by having an epidural. I was able to get just enough sleep to not feel completely worn out.

Keith has been fantastic.. He stayed with me overnight. I was iffy about staying by myself since I've never been in the hospital on my own plus he was helpful by getting the nurse in here when I was having contractions. I woke up at 6am and he was wide awake, I can tell he's anxious about Cadence getting here and the process it's going to take to get her here.

Dr. Zivney stopped by first thing this morning to run an exam. I am 3cm dilated. He went ahead and broke my bag of waters. I expected a pinch or something, but then again I can't feel anything from the waist down other than pressure! There are 4/5 other inductions this morning plus my doctor is assisting a c-section right now, but they only have 4 nurses so I can see how it's going to be somewhat hectic. I really hope that I am able to keep my same nurse, L'nae, from yesterday. She was great with me and the rest of my family.

Please keep us in your prayers. I'm still anxious, but have full faith that GOD will take care of us. I have my angels with me!

If somehow I forget later:

"Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday dear Cadence.

Happy birthday to you."

We love you sweet girl, and can't wait to meet you!

37 Weeks

I am officially full term! WOO HOO!!! I had a dr.'s appointment on Wednesday where I ended up having my first internal exam. Not fun, but definitly not as bad as I expected! Even though my body wasn't showing any signs of prelabor, Dr. Zivney told me that I had the green light to go into labor at any time now, and that they wouldn't try to stop it. I laughed and was thinking, "Like I'm gonna give you that choice!" I love being pregnant and haven't had much to complain about throughout the entire experience, but I am SO ready to be done! I want to meet my little girl as soon as possible.

On a not so happy note, my phone seems to have died on me today. This is the 3rd phone I've had in the past 7 months. I'm getting so frustrated! The bad thing is, Keith is already at work for the day until 8pm. Hopefully, I don't end up going into labor until I am actually able to get ahold of him because I'm really not sure I'd know what to do. HA!

My next appointment is going to be on Wednesday. I'll have an update shortly after, and am really hoping to have a some progress! Until then, I guess I'll finally go pack my bag. I'm such a procrastinator!!!

We went on Tour!

Every 1st Tuesday of the month, hospital tours are given at College Station Medical Center (a.k.a. "The Med") for expectant parents who will be delivering there. Keith and I made our way there a little early and found the meeting spot rather easily. I didn't mean to, but I somehow managed to sit in the spot nearest the cookies. :) They were pretty much the best cookies I've ever tasted, and I'm really hoping they came from the hospital because I'd love to get my hands on some more of those bad boys!

I looked around the group, which was a pretty good size (10+ couples and few singles), to find that there were several other couples in our age range. I was the closest to my due date, which freaked me out a bit. For some reason I wasn't expecting this, but it was nice to see other people starting their families like we are. It made me feel very sentimental. I'm sucha preggo!!! Basically, all we did was have a little Q&A session, then they took us up to Labor and Delivery, where it was very....VERY quiet.

At the L&D, they managed to fit all of us into one of the rooms. I was very impressed. I imagined that the rooms wouldn't be to terribly big, but then again I've never been in one nor have I had much experience in a hospital. Other than the rooms being enormous, there wasn't a whole lot that was special about the room. I feel bad for the people who get stuck in the "dad chair" that folds out to make a sleeping area. That just can't be comfortable. After all is said and done, I stay there for two more days and then if everything is ok we get to go home!

The only major disappointment of the tour was that we didn't get to peek in the nursery. They had the blinds drawn and the door was at a bad angle so we couldn't even get a glance in. I had really been looking forward to that part because I think it's been 8 years since I've been around a true newborn. I don't even think that Keith has seen someone that small, so I know he was looking forward to it too. Oh well....

My next dr.'s appointment is on Wednesday and he'll start checking to see if I'm dilating and where Cadence is sitting. Hopefully, we'll be able to get this show on the road soon. I can't wait to finally have her here! After that appointment, I go in every week until D-Day. I don't have any big comfort complaints. The only things that have been bothering me really are my feet and hands have been getting a little swollen and I'm more tired than I used to be.

I'm completely surprised at how fast this has all gone. It seems like August wasn't too long ago when we found out we were expecting....CRAZY!!

SUPER Update! (Including pictures)

It's been entirely too long, and you won't believe how much has changed. To start off, I am currently unemployed. I received a call the morning of February 1st as I was getting ready to leave for work. My ex-manager was calling to let me know that the company I had been working was no longer running. So I had no warning whatsoever that I wouldn't have a job anymore. I was really upset/frustrated because who would hire someone who is 31 weeks pregnant. Even though it's illegal to discriminate for that sole purpose, I wouldn't be an attractive candidate seeing as how I would be going on maternity leave within two months or so of employment.

Thankfully I've been able to keep myself plenty busy by getting ready for the baby. Cadence's nursery is pretty much complete other than hanging decorations! After this week, I should have absolutely everything done and I'll post pictures then.

I've also been pretty lucky to have been able to have other activities to keep me from going crazy with boredom. Keith and I went to a Rockets game on February 3rd. It was nice to get out of town, overnight, just the two of us, and get some quality time in. We were taking our guest room mattress to my mom since we no longer have room for it and it's pretty much brand new. (It's been slept on a total of 6 times) Keith had loaded it into the truck first, and then he came back inside to help get the rest of our things out to the truck. He kind of forgot to go back and tie the mattress down. After a while of driving down the freeway, he sees the mattress fly out of the bed of the truck and land in the median. I'm so happy it didn't hit anyone! We went back to get it and I managed to cut my toe open. Oh the memories!

When we got to Katy, we decided to look around at new subdivisions since we are interested in building. We met up with my mom and did a little more house hunting and had dinner with her then headed to the game!

We had great seats. First row on the second level. I loved it because we could see everything. I had never been to a game before and didn't realize how much went on there. I got easily distracted. HA! I'm pretty sure Keith got tired of me asking what I missed because I wasn't paying attention to the game.

There's Clutch and Keith's beloved Power Dancers =)

The last big event of February was my trip to Katy. I went and had a visit with my mom for a little less than a week. We spent a lot of time shopping for baby stuff, toodling around town, and enjoying each other's company. Mom took me to this dessert shop called Ooh La La that makes the best and BIGGEST cupcakes I've ever seen.

My mom being silly with her "Margarita" cupcake.

I got to spend the day with my best friend that Saturday. She had been given tickets to go see "Legally Blonde" the musical. It has been a VERY long time since I've been able to do anything like that. I was very impressed with the cast and performance. I hate to admit this, but I was very excited to see that they used real dogs. I'm not sure why. It must have had something to do with the fact that I was missing Lexi so badly!

The main reason for the trip to Katy was that Sara, my best friend, Nornie, her mom, and Sandy, a woman my mom works with, threw me a shower on Sunday. I had fun, but one of the games we played was a trivia game. I learned too many facts about being a parent and I'm sure they did it just to scare me =). Everyone was entirely too generous and I am so thankful for everything that was done. I also want to say a special thank you to everyone who came from out of town. That meant more to me than you know!

Other than those big events, this past month has been spent hanging out with my girl friends and piddling around the apartment. I'll finish the post up with a tummy picture from when I was 13 weeks to me now being 35 weeks! (Pardon the dirty mirrors)