A child was born...a month ago

Heeheehee! Okay, so i'm not the quickest poster in the west, but i'm okay with it.

I would like to introduce you to Cadence Neville Murphy. He came into this world on January 27th 2009 and was 5 weeks early. He weighed 4lbs 3.8 oz., was 18in. long, and has captured the hearts of most everyone that has met him. He first tried to join us January 16th, but we were able to buy him some much needed extra womb time and get him the steroids necessary to help his lungs develop since early delivery was highly likely. Good thing we listened, because when he was born a week and a half later, he didn't need any respiratory assistance at all, which is unusual for a baby this early. Strong from the start, he was able to nurse, regulate his body temperature, and lift his head up. Yeah, it was wobbly, but again, unusual for a baby this early. Right before I delivered him, the nurses and Dr. Twede were preparing Damien and me for the worst. They told us about how sick he may be and all the tubes and machines he would most likely need just to help him survive. Everyone was amazed when he didn't need any of them. He did have an IV inserted in his hand for the first few days to receive fluids and sugar because he had a hard time regulating his blood sugar, but that was removed by day three. Late on day two, a feeding tube was inserted to use every other feeding because he was exerting too much energy nursing and it was tiring him out. With the use of the feeding tube, he could get more sleep and not burn off the calories he needed to put on weight, plus we could see exactly how much food he was getting. He also spent a few days under the bili lights because he was looking a little jaundiced and his biliruben levels were a little high. Total, he spent 6 days in the hospital. That's how long it took in order to meet the three requirements to go home. He needed to be able to keep himself warm, he needed to take every feeding by mouth, either breast or bottle, and he needed to be gaining weight. When he was born, they told us not to expect to bring him home earlier than my original due date. That would have been March 2nd. We feel very lucky that we were able to bring Cadence home as soon as we did. There were other babies in the nursery that had been carried longer that were in a lot worse shape than Cadence was. I feel that God has watched over us and has had a hand in it. This little miracle baby has a special spirit, and Damien and I feel very blessed to have been given the opportunity to spend this extra time with him. He is such a good baby and is growing like crazy. We are madly in love with this precious little being! Other than the sleep deprivation, the transition into parenthood has been seamless. I don't think it has hit either of us that anything is different. It's hard to remember life before Cadence, and I don't know that I want to!

Oh the comfort of your own bed...

The following was written shortly after this experience but not posted due to my wanting to make some changes that I never got around to...at this point, I figure oh well, it is what it is. I don't have time for changes. :)

Most people come to appreciate the comfy, coziness of their bed when they have to sleep in one other than their own. I, myself, experience this every time I stay at a hotel or at friend's or family's house. No matter how comfortable they THINK their bed is, mine is always better. Ending a vacation can be bitter-sweet sometimes, especially when you're not ready for it to end, but for me, the thought of coming home to my own bed usually helps to get over it. I'm sure most of you can relate. Well, I am here to add a little to that...I have recently learned that you cannot REALLY come to a complete appreciation of your own bed until you have spent a good amount of time in a hospital labor and delivery bed. I've spent some time in a regular hospital bed, and with at least half a dozen pillows, they really aren't too bad. Not the case with the labor and delivery kind! Who knew they were even different, right? I am convinced that gravity itself is pulled differently toward these beds than anywhere else on earth. Spending 8 1/2 hours in one on Friday (Jan 16th) led me to this conclusion. To make a long, emotional story short, basically I woke up Friday morning with some unexplainable bleeding. As I got Starr and Harmony up and on their way to getting ready for school, I remembered being woke up 2 or 3 times in the night with abdominal pains, which I brushed off, figuring it was the Beto's I ate late that night just before going to bed. After another trip to the restroom with more blood, I decided it to be wise to be seen by my doctor. A call to Julie, the nurse at the office, revealed the perfect timing of Dr. Twede's family vacation, of course! That meant being seen by Linda, the PA. Not really excited about that but have to do what I have to do. Next step, contact Damien. He was one week in to a two week class and had limited outside contact. (He wasn't even supposed to have his phone with him, but they made an exception because I'm pregnant. Something we joked about in the beginning but was super thankful for at the moment!) I sent him a text for him to call me as soon as he could, then called Mom, who was at work, and filled her in on the details. She came home to help get the girls ready and off to school, and I got in the shower. Once I was ready and on my way to the doctor's office, I told myself everything was going to be okay. They would check me out and send me back home. I would stop and treat myself to a Coldstone ice cream and that would be that. Not so. Linda checked me out shortly after I got there (I have never had a shorter wait for a doctor's visit!) and found that I was dilated to 2 1/2 cm and 80% effaced. A quick call to Dr. Twede, who was in Florida, confirmed her own advice...send me straight to Labor and Delivery. I was, well, we'll just say a little freaked out now. I was alone and scared that I was going to have this baby, something I was definitely NOT ready for yet, seeing as how mentally I was preparing for a MARCH delivery NOT MID-JANUARY!!! I haven't even had my childbirth prep class yet. And what about the baby? Could his little lungs sustain his life outside the womb? A million things ran through my mind...Anywho, I called Damien and gave him the news. He said he was leaving his class and would meet me at the hospital as soon as he could. (Another good thing about this class is that it was not out of state like most of the classes he has gone to!) So, once I got to the hospital, they hooked me up to the monitor and found that, sure enough, I was having contractions every five minutes. The crazy thing was that I didn't really even feel them. Sometimes, I could feel pressure, but nothing that hurt like I thought a contraction should have felt like. Needless to say, these needed to be stopped and fast. The nurse warned me that if I were to dilate 1/2 cm more, they would fly me, yes FLY ME, to the IMC hospital where they are equipped to take care of babies born earlier than 35 weeks. Good news is that modern technology has developed something to stop contractions and therefore dilation as well as steroids to help the baby's lungs develop. After 4 or 5 shots and about 8 hours of monitoring, they were comfortable letting me go home with a prescription and orders for strict bed rest to keep the contractions at bay. At this point, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to keep this little man cookin'. And here's where my bed comes into play. After laying in that horrible, gravity sucking hole they call a bed, nothing sounds better than to lay in my own. I just hope I feel the same come March 2nd! We'll see...

This was us hanging out at Altaview hospital waiting to see if the drugs were going to stop the contractions.