d day

this may well be the longest post in history. i have a lot of catching up to do. who wants to blog when you have the most beautiful baby in the world to stare at? that's right. she is here! the mommy was wrong. daddy was wrong. the ring was wrong. catherine grace mccauley is a she!

cate was born on april 13, 2010 at 11:15 p.m. she weighed 7 lbs, 11 oz and measured 20 1/2 inches in length.

today she is 2 weeks old and i can't believe how quickly those 14 days have gone by. every day i look at her and think, "she will never be this tiny again. i need to soak it up so that i can remember how amazing she is forever." in that spirit, i want to share a few memories from d day so that we can remember how amazing it was forever.

• contractions started between 1130 am and 1200, but i thought they were braxton hicks since they were so close together...4 minutes apart from the start. so i went to target and to lunch with mom. she was convinced i was in real deal holyfield labor, so she came home with me for moral support and mommy wisdom. by the time jared came home from work at 4, the contractions were 2 minutes apart and lasting for 50-105 seconds. walking helped, so i beat a circular track from the living room to bedroom hall, through the dining room, around the dining table and back to the living room while jared watched the clock. at 5, i decided i better call dr. b. of course, her office was closed. so i called our medical director at student health. she said it sure sounded like i was in labor and should probably go to the hospital.
• once we arrived at the hospital at 545, i wouldn't let jared unpack the car because i was sure they were going to say, "you silly first time mom, go home and come back with you're really in labor." but no. i was dilated to a 3 and they iv'd me and hooked me up to the baby heart monitor. i think i asked the nurse, "so we're here?"

• by 745ish i was dilated to a 7 and had an epidural. i know, i know. i thought and wrote and talked and talked and talked some more about how much i wanted to experience labor to the fullest. and for me, that meant no epidural. i think the best way to describe what happened is that my priorities changed once we were neck deep in the deal. during the contractions, i could feel myself becoming intensely angry. i mean, i was real mad. at the nurse who clearly did not want me walking around to help with the pain of the contractions. also at sweet jared, who was doing nothing but trying to be helpful. i couldn't decide what i wanted him to do. talk to me or sit in silence. hold me or be as far away as humanly possible. you get the idea. there was no way for him to win. i didn't want to feel that way towards him during this time we had anticipated for so long. experiencing labor to the fullest once i was actually in labor meant that i could feel loving towards jared and grateful for everyone helping me through the process. i am so thankful that i got to feel labor begin and progress on its own. i would say that there is a little part of me that is sad i didn't go the whole 9 yards, but i would make the same decision if i could do it all over again.
  
• dr. b ordered pitocin because she wanted to have the baby before her bedtime. i was sending out text updates. my fave text back was from lyd: "In the words of the wise saltnpepa-push it real good! Go girl!" people started arriving. mom and dad, deana, ashley, mary g, cam and stacey. cam was in and out of the room pretty quickly. i think he was afraid an placentas and umbilical cords would start flying around if he stayed too long. so he gave me the sign of the cross on my forehead and skeedadled to the waiting room.

• the nurses kicked everyone except for mom and jared out around 11. dr. b came in and pushing commenced. before i started pushing, the nurse let us feel the baby's head. it was covered in hair. a mackerel!
• i pushed through 5-6 contractions. let me just pause to state for the record that if i could feel the pain/pressure of these contractions with the epidural, i cannot imagine how they would have felt without. scary!
• with the last big push, a baby slithered out. i could see a head covered in what looked to be black, curly hair, then arms and a tummy and then exclaimed, "she's a girl!" everyone laughed. i was so completely shocked and overwhelmed with joy that we had a cate. mom and jared's faces were so sweet. i don't think it is possible to smile wider and stronger than we three smiled in those moments. jared cut the cord and sprayed everyone, including himself. it was absolutely incredible to hold her and jared's hand and feel such contentedness and intense joy at the same time. and sorry for the over share, but cate took this opportunity to immediately mark her territory on my stomach. number one and number two. could this be foreshadowing for her teenage years?

• j supervised her cleaning and weighing and declared, "so much for being a tough dad." he couldn't stand the sound of her crying.

• j went and fetched everyone from the waiting room and we announced that she was a cate as people came in the room. everyone hugged and got a tiny hold. she was so, so sweet. my clearest memory of her is that she immediately started sucking on the back of her hand. she has the longest and prettiest fingers and toes. i thought she looked exactly like her daddy.

thank you, thank you, thank you for our perfect baby girl!
we stayed in the hospital until april 15th. we had a lots of help celebrating from visitors and sweet friends who sent beautiful flowers.

cate's billirubin level was pretty high when we checked out of the hospital, so dr. gsloh asked us to come into her office on the 16th to check her level again. it was at a 15.5 on the 16th, so she ordered a phototherapy box for little cate. she had to stay on the light for 18-20 hours a day, which meant that we could only take her out for feedings. i cried when the home health nurse brought the box in. i was imagining the little babe laying in the box screaming bloody murder while we stood helplessly, unable to pick her up to comfort her. as usual, my worst case scenario thinking did not come to fruition. i think little cate actually liked the box. it was warm and she was wrapped up snugly and most of the time, she conked out immediately after we laid her down.

thanks to our amazing friends and family who prayed, prayed prayed. cate made major improvements very quickly. by the 19th, her billi level was down to 8.2 and she was released!

since then, we've been working on getting the sleep thing down.
we've read books and watched dvds in an effort to become expert baby soothers. j has been an amazing partner.he's convinced he could pick her out of a baby line up just by sniffing her head. he is a champion burper and diaper changer, quickly learning to duck, dodge and dive to avoid projectile poops. ole'! he's headed back to work on the 29th and i am dreading it. this has been such a sweet time for us.

at our 2 week visit with dr. gsloh, cate's vital stats were:
weight: 7 lbs 1 ounce~25th percentile
length: 20.5 inches~80th percentile
head circumference: 80th percentile

she is beautiful and we are blessed!

2 more sleeps

we're waiting. still waiting. still waiting semi-patiently. heavy on the semi.

we went to see dr. b on wednesday for some no news news. nothing has changed. there's still a sweet little heart beating away in there at a rate of 154, but she or he doesn't seem to be any closer to making like a baby and headin' out.

there is a definite end in sight. if little c is still hanging out, taking his or her sweet time, we'll induce on wednesday, april 14th.

so we're doing waiting stuff. last night, we went on what could very well be our last date in a while. jared did some serious lawn work today. i cleaned the fridge and i'm working on knocking out the last of the laundry.

it's kind of funny to be doing these everyday things while we're waiting to experience something really extraordinary for our little world. maybe this is a little like what it felt like for president obama to floss his teeth before the inauguration. he seems like a flosser. or maybe what it felt like for for neil armstrong to apply his deodorant before the moonwalk. i'm guessing body odor defies even zero gravity situations.

anyway, everything is about to change for us. we're waiting.

8 more sleeps

in case anyone is wondering, my eggo is still preggo. i feel like we're standing outside of mervyn's, tapping our fingers on the glass door, saying, "open, open, open." while waiting for the store to open, we've managed to have a great weekend.

the sweet bibilo babes came over on thursday night. we chatted, as usual, played a very fun wii game called just dance, and celebrated birthdays for shawnda and me. they also brought me a box of goodies that i can't open until we go to the hospital. aren't they beautiful?
i'm not sure if they were aware the the unopened gift is one of my greatest temptations in life. it is sitting on our kitchen table, taunting me every time i walk by. no worries, babes. i can resist. i can resist. i can resist.

jared finished 2nd in his poker game on friday night and the poker guys all brought diapers for little c. how cute is that?

we celebrated the fabulous lily b's 5th birthday at her sillybration. the only downside: jared banned me from the bounce house. i thought it had some great possibilities for labor induction. oh well.

classy b and pop helped up finish our final nursery DIY, a custom little c mobile.
as classy says, it gives the little one's space that final tiny touch that ties everything together. it is a happy little place in there.
last night, we celebrated my impending twenty fifteen birthday a bit early with the padres, stace and cam, and ash and jeff. we had stuffed jalapenos, chili dogs, waffle fries and chips and salsa. little c was totally unfazed by the massive ingestion of spiciness. the gifts were lovely. a pre-push pedi from the sundown buchanan's, after baby body shopping spree funds from the padres, homemade chicken and rice for mole and the famous cox macaroons straight outta olton, and a smorgasbord of childhood nostalgia since i will apparently be a real-life grown up soon. the piece de resistance was this:
a real-life wonder woman bracelet, constructed from a magically indestructible metal called Amazonium, useful for deflecting bullets, energy weapons, and all manner of attack, including contractions and other labor-associated unpleasantness. who knew i needed one of these? jared, that's who.

who knew i needed a savior? God, that's who. i am so thankful that He sent One who gave His life for you and me. O Happy Easter!

11 more sleeps

jared has shifted into the hyper-awareness that any call from me might be "the call." he worked late last night and i called him just 'cause i wanted to hear his voice. no "hi, petey!" just a very urgent, "are you ok? what's going on?" i will try to resist the urge to totally abuse this kind of power. it's tough to have an evil streak.

yesterday was the day of el doctor. good things are still happening. everything seems to be progressing, including the weight gain. something is just not right with putting a pregnant person on a scale at this point. if i grow up to be an ob/gyn, you can be sure i will not require a weigh in during the last month of gestation. little c was obviously excited about hanging out with dr. b. our little heart was racing at 157-159.

the day wrapped up with a very special celebration of what i believe to be a very, very rare event. my sweet, sweet grandparents we married 60 years ago yesterday. what a legacy for our family. i am grateful for their commitment to each other and all that has grown out of that. thank you for loving each other and for loving us, m and t.