The Chan Family Blog: Kadence Elizabeth

We are officially a family of four! KADENCE ELIZABETH was born on Monday, April 26th at 3:16am. She weighed in at 7 pounds and 10 ounces and is 21 inches long. She looks almost exactly like Carson did when he was born (same eyes and nose) except for her precious little girl mouth. Boy does she have a head full of black hair too!

Lots of people have asked me to tell them all about my birth so here it goes. If you are not interested or if you think it's too much information than just skip over the rest of this post. :)

Ryan and I checked in at the hospital at 5pm on Sunday the 25th to be induced. The nurses got me all settled in by asking me 300 health questions, handing over the lovely hospital gown I would wear for the next 2 days, and hooked me up to an IV. The on-call doctor came into my room around 7:30pm. I was still 2cm dilated so the process began... The nurses started the Petocin drip and came into my room about every 30 minutes to increase the drip. My contractions steadily increased and continued to get stronger and stronger. By about 11pm I was ready for my epidural - ready for a break and to just lay back and enjoy this labor so I called the nurse into my room. :) After telling her I was ready for my epidural she said, "The Dr. had to go upstairs to do an emergency hysterectomy. He should be back in about an hour." YIKES, I thought to myself. Then the nurse went on to explain that my Dr. had given permission for them to give me some meds that would take the edge off until I could get the epidural. She told me it would feel like I just drank a big margarita. By the time the nurse put part of the meds in my IV and the other half was injected into my arm, the room started spinning! I became quite talkative and couldn't focus on the TV anymore. It definitely took the pain away so I just closed my eyes for a bit and rested while I could. About two hours later, the anesthesiologist came in to perform my epidural. He had the first epidural almost in place and then realized that it must have been defective! It was not sliding in all the way like it should have so he removed it and tried it again with a new kit. He was amazing. I could barely feel what he was doing and he did such a great job.

The night passed and my regular OB Dr. arrived. He broke my water and I continued to dilate but each time the Dr. would check me he would tell me the baby was still very high up and was not dropping down into the birth canal. By around 1am I could tell the Dr. was getting a little concerned. He explained to me how he thought this baby must be really big and just too big to drop down. He said that if the baby didn't drop in a couple more hours we would probably have to do a C-section. I let out a huge sigh, closed my eyes and said a prayer. A C-section would have been a complete surprise and I just was not expecting it at all.

Sometime before 3am my epidural started to wear off and I was having major discomfort and could feel each and every contraction as they came and went. I told the nurse I needed more meds for my epidural to relieve some of the pain. So she first examined me (the baby was still high) and then ordered the anesthesiologist to come back into the room. I was completely exhausted at this time. I jokingly asked the nurse, "Can I please go home and I'll come back in the morning to finish this up?" She got a good laugh out of that then left the room. Ryan and I were just waiting for the anesthesiologist to come but within a matter of a few minutes of the nurse last checking me, I yelled to Ryan, "I feel like I have to push!! Go get the nurse!!!" In disbelief, the nurse examined me again and the baby had dropped and was ready to come out...NOW!!!! "Don't push" she said. The nurse hurried out into the hallway and told another nurse "Go get the Dr. NOW!" She remained calm about it but you could sense of urgency in the tone of her voice. The Dr. was down the hall sleeping in a Dr. lounge and within seconds he was in the room and throwing on his scrubs. We were ready to have this baby! I pushed through three contractions and my baby girl was here and without a C-section. (Thank you God for answering my prayer!) The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice and also around her shoulder. One of her arms was stretched out across her chest and under the umbilical cord which is why the Dr. thinks she didn't drop sooner.

She was perfect! Once I laid eyes on her, I immediately forgot about all the pain and excitement that I had just gone through. I had a "second wind" and the exhaustion seemed to disappear. I was in love and couldn't take my eyes off of her!

This was my awesome nurse, Pat.