ray-ray says

Cade Thomas Smith

arrived at 2:26 in the pm, on January 5th. Weighing in at 8 lbs. 1 oz. and 20 1/4" long

ten fingers, ten toes...
Here's how it happened.

We were to check into the hospital by 7am. Aaron and I left his parents house right around 6:30 and got onto the freeway. I glanced over and became concerned at the amount of gas we had--or rather didn't have--in the car.

Less than 3 miles later we ran out. We were lucky enough to be by an exit; and that my Dad came to the rescue, as he always does.

Got to the hospital about 20 minutes late. Got to our room, changed into the beautiful gown, had the IV and "pit" started, and the doctor who has delivered all of my babies came in and broke my water.

About 2 hours later I got the best medicine known to man, the epidural.

Then it was a lot of waiting and cat napping until about 2 when my doctor came back in checked and said that I could start pushing in about 15 minutes.

And two pushes later, a miracle was born.

We called some family and friends and then I fell asleep. Having a baby takes a lot out of you.

Ate some dinner. Visited with family. Aaron left with his family and our older three kids to help get them to bed before returning to the hospital for the night.

The nurse came in to check the vitals and was concerned about a few things. His temperature was running too low and his blood/sugar levels weren't high enough either. She decided the best thing was to take him to the nursery and put him under the lamps and feed him some formula. Up to this point he hadn't nursed...he wasn't awake enough to even want to.
While he was gone my folks showed up. The nurse came back after about an hour and said that he had eaten some formula and warmed up a little but that he wasn't showing "normal newborn activity", and they had drawn some blood for testing. They were concerned about a few things and wanted to rule out the possibility of infections. They were going to keep him in the nursery to keep a closer eye on him and make sure all was well.
I was a little freaked out. The emotions were running a little high and Aaron wasn't back yet.

The on-call pediatrician came in a half-hour later and explained their concern more in depth. The whole conversation is a little foggy and I am so glad my mom was their to ask the questions and hear the answers. ((having a husband with a kidney transplant keeps you up on all the medical jargon))
When Aaron finally returned from his other fatherly duties, close to 10pm, he and my dad went in and gave the baby a blessing. Up to this point, we hadn't yet decided on a name. Lots of joking had gone on all day on what to name the newest addition. Iron, Stone, Talmage, King to name a few. ((aaron actually called him King for a good while. i think mainly to to tic me off.)) And since a blessing was about to be given, a name needed to be had. We were told only two people could go in at a time and so it was just the two priesthood holders who went in. I looked in and saw Aaron and my Dad with their hands placed on my little boys head, I was immediately grateful for having them there and being able to use the authority given them and their worthiness to give the blessing. And also knowing that whatever the outcome our baby would be taken care of.

Two hours later, the results came back and everything was normal. We just had a super sleepy and relaxed baby. Hopefully that behavior will continue despite the craziness of the rest of us.

Fast forward 5 days.

We're finally home. Unpacking and organizing to do. And every time Cade latches on, it feels like he's trying to suck out thousands of needles instead of milk.


But it's all worth it because he's so stinkin' cute.