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!