Introducing Audrey Cadence

Born at 10:39 p.m. on Friday, July 27th, weighing 7 lbs. 11 oz. and measuring 20.5"

Proud Daddy with baby girl on Saturday

Nana and Audrey

Noah holds Audrey for the first time on Saturday

Mamie and Audrey

Being silly in Mommy's hospital bed

Papa and Audrey

A good awake picture

Ready to go home Sunday! She is wearing a dress made by her great-grandmother Bobbie and worn home by my mom and me! The shoes were also mine.

All bundled up with places to go!

Noah greets Audrey at home in his special way!

First family shot--it'll have to suffice

Noah loves holding his baby sister, and she seems to enjoy it too!

As you read in my recent post, we went to the hospital early Friday morning because I was having mild contractions and I just assumed they would quickly progress like with Noah. No such luck. I was sent home and was pretty disappointed, but Stephanie cheered me up as we got pedicures and did some shopping. I went home and managed to get a nap (the contractions had subsided) but was woken up by a more painful one and they really started up from there. Still, I was really hesitant to head to the hospital again for fear that there would be no progress, so I was suffering through some pretty painful back labor and contractions every three minutes. Chris was getting pretty nervous, so I finally let him take me to the hospital at around 5:30--at that point they were steadily two minutes apart and excruciating. He took a route that went right by the Rangers ballpark, and of course there was a baseball game going on--the road to the hospital was barricaded and guarded by police! I think Chris secretly enjoyed his next move--desperately pulling up to the barricades and rolling down the window, yelling at the officer, "My wife's in labor! How can I get to the hospital??" It was classic--the officer waved us through and radioed ahead, and all the barricades were moved aside for us to get through! It was quite dramatic. I really didn't have the chance to enjoy it, sadly.

The same nurse was in triage and seemed skeptical that I was back with any change. She was sweet, but getting on this pregnant girl's nerves. My cervix was only slightly more dilated--4 cm, but I thought she would give me some credit for having extremely close, miserable contractions. Still, she smugly remarks, "Well, I can admit you, but we may have to break your water and there's a chance you will have Pitocin, which I know you wanted to avoid..." I said, "Why, because I'm not dilating that much yet?" and she said, "Oh, you know, the frequency of contractions." I seriously wanted to punch her and tell her to take a look at the little contraction-tracker machine. They admitted me and I begged for an epidural, but Ms. Big Stuff took her sweet time checking me in and getting all the lab work done, etc. Finally, they took me up to a room and when they checked me (maybe an hour after we got there?), I was 5 or 6 cm dilated. My best friend showed up to administer the epidural (I seriously wanted to kiss him) and the doctor broke my water, then we had a little down time. The nurse said she'd come check me in one hour to see how much progress there was. When she returned to check, she said, "Wow... you're fully dilated!" so they got things all ready and we began to push. I was frustrated because it wasn't going as quickly as with Noah--he was pretty much crowning on the first push, but Audrey got moving by the third contraction or so. I pushed off and on for about 30 minutes, and then the nurse made me stop mid-contraction for fear Audrey would be born without the doctor's presence. The doc showed up and out she came! She yelled louder than anything I've ever heard the whole time they were cleaning and weighing her. They handed her to me and she immediately turned and started nursing like a champ. I am really happy with how it all went, and it is hard to believe Audrey is finally here and our family is so complete. Noah is the perfect proud big brother and I can't believe how HUGE his feet suddenly look! :)

Here's an album with all my pictures:

Audrey Cadence