Happy Birthday Cade!

We now have another child with a DOUBLE DIGIT age! 90 more birthdays to go to make TRIPLE DIGITS!
























10 years ago today...this is how things played out!

After an ultrasound on Friday, April 7, 2000, the ultrasound tech estimated the baby to weigh about 8 LB 12 oz, just under Dr. Howe's 9 LB threshold for avoiding a cesarean section. After consulting with Dr. Carpenter (who would be on call on Saturday), Dr. Howe scheduled an induction for 7 AM Saturday, April 8, 2000, our DUE DATE! After 40 weeks, it seemed unbelievable that the end was finally so close. We scramble to make plans for all of the children the following morning. Michelle came to the house and watch everyone from 6 AM until they could be picked up by friends. Brett ended up staying with Evan H, Hannah and Emily stayed with the Kramers and Grant and Jake went home with Michelle. The weather had turned rather nasty. At midweek we had been wearing shorts and t-shirts, but the forecast now included rain and snow, with temperatures falling through the 30's, what a gloomy day. About 6:50 we pull into the hospital parking garage and head over to triage. It takes forever to get checked in and moved back to the
labor and delivery area. The doctor checks and says that the cervix is high, firm, and just under 3 cm dilated and that baby is at -3 (still floating). Doctor asks if we would be interested in participating in a research study for a new induction drug. The one drawback is that it can take up to 48 hours for labor to start. We had been through two long inductions already (Grant was around 20 hours and Jake had been over 36 hours) so we felt we had nothing to lose. Finally just after 10 AM a labor room is open and we are transferred. At 10:45 PM the study drug is administered. The doctor says she will be back in to check on us in 4 hours unless we need her sooner, and then we can ring for her. Experience some mild cramping but we both end up
taking a nap. At 12:45 the doctor returns to discuss my concerns about shoulder dystocia and she feels that given that Emily was rather short and round that this baby appeared to be much longer that this baby should emerge rather easily. Since she was in the room, she decides to check for dilation and announces that I am now 100% effaced and close to 4 cm...I haven't felt
hardly anything, she decides to stop the study drug (obviously labor is now underway, there is no turning back) and says she will transfer us to a birthing room and start pitocin as soon as one opens up (little did we know at that point that 15 other women were also in labor...YIKES). The nurse brings up a lunch tray and I DEVOUR everything (I had been told not to eat
after midnight). Around 2 PM Jay and I start to play to alphabet name game, we each pick at least one name for each letter of the alphabet (minus the letters the other kids names start with) it helps to pass the time since basically nothing is happening at this point, mild contractions, we watch bits of a movie on TV and once again we nap (remembering what a long rode we
might have ahead of us given our other birth experiences). At 3:30 we are FINALLY moved to the LDR room. The nurse administers IV antibiotics because I was group b strep positive with a previous pregnancy. Jay and I decide to narrow the list of names and rather quickly have to pinned down to 3 names (Dalton, Lance, and Quinn) for a boy and 3 names (Veronica, Alison, and
Sarah) for a girl, the question is will we still agree on any of the 3 once the baby gets here! At 4:35 the PITOCIN is FINALLY STARTED....a sidenote here, at about 4:15PM I decides to have Jay pull out the camera so it is ready and I discovers that the batteries I just bought on 3-18-00 are completely DEAD, a photographer's/scrapbooker's worst nightmare! Jay runs out to get new
batteries, and I digs out a cheap disposable camera for the labor bag in case it is needed. By 5:10, the contractions are starting to piggyback...vivid memories of my last labor and the 15 hours of piggybacking contractions that did NOTHING keep flashing in my mind. Jay makes it back
with the batteries and I am feeling pretty miserable. Dr. Carpenter agrees to break my amniotic sac even though baby is still very high in order to get labor rolling along. Within an hour of the sac breaking contractions and pressure are really building I can remember thinking to myself please let these contractions be doing something. Dr. decides to check and says we are
at just over 6 cm. I am so relieved because I stayed stuck at 3 cm with my last baby for over 12 hours. Jay comments on how smoothly things are going, we have made it to more than 6 cm and that we are in the home stretch and he hasn't gotten yelled at once or been made to massage my back for hours on end.

Somewhere shortly after 9 PM I feel a contraction that I know is different, the sensation that maybe I could push is there. The next contraction I try to completely relax and listen to my body, as the contraction builds I can feel my body being called to push, about 90 seconds
later the next contraction begins, I moan, look at Jay and say "go get the nurse and the docs it is time to push", everyone rushes in, Dr. Carpenter checks me at 9:40 PM and declares I am complete and that I can push whenever I want. Since I had gestational diabetes, the room begins to fill with medical personnel, along with the 2 OB docs and 3 nurses, there are also 5 pediatricians in the room. Empowered by the freedom to finally push we didn't go with the typical controlled pushing to the frantic count of 10, Dr. Carpenter allows me to push as many times as I choose through each contraction. The head rapidly descends, I can feel bone moving through bone. Someone's pager keeps going off and I make some comment to the affect that
they either need to answer the damn thing or given it to me so I can throw it out the window. Dr. Carpenter comments the next day that she has never had a patient keep her sense of humor the way I did during pushing. I probably push a total of 20 times, through about 8 contractions. I will never forget that WONDERFUL FEELING as the face cleared the pubic bone. What a wonderful feeling to know that the baby is almost here. The head completely out, I know from previous experience that once more good push and baby should be free. I push and NOTHING. Suddenly all 10 members of the medical staff in the labor room fall quiet. I know our worst fear has come to pass, the shoulders are stuck. Head of the bed is rapidly dropped (talk about a head
rush) and I am practically doing a headstand. Later Jay tells me that at this point the baby's face is getting grayer and grayer and he admits that at that moment he thought the baby was dead. In a last ditch effort to free the baby, Dr. Carpenter slides her fingers between the pubic bone and the tightly wedged flesh of the baby's shoulder, maneuvering her fingers under the left
arm pit, and she rotates the arm in and up popping baby out. Free at last at 10:01 PM, IT'S A BOY!!!!! An interesting side note: Cade has a single umbilical artery! A cord is supposed to have 2 arteries and 1 vein, one of his umbilical arteries is missing! Ironically, most babies with this abnormality are GIRLS and have a CHROMOSOMAL problem.....not our baby....a BOY and PERFECTLY HEALTHY!

Despite spending 8 1/2 minutes without oxygen, Baby Riesenberg pinks up very quickly and is given to mom to nurse. Dr. Carpenter lets the placenta deliver itself (10:26 PM) and then makes a final check for tearing or skid marks, not a single stitch is needed. Thanks the Lord for flexible tissue. After about 40 minutes baby is taken to NICU to be assessed. Jay and I both agree that he looks just like Jake and we decide none of the names on the list seem fitting. About 11:30 PM one of the pediatrician comes back into delivery room and tells us that baby broke his
humerus (bone in his upper arm) during delivery and also has suffered some nerve damage, and that they are consulting with an orthopedic doctor from Children's Hospital. After the delivery I felt pretty good with the exception of feeling like my pelvic bone is bruised and the fact that my
afterpains (especially when I nurse) feel like labor contractions . I was moved to my hospital room around midnight and baby is brought back to me at 1:45 AM, little splint on his arm and all! Baby Riesenberg spends the first night of his life nameless. I call Jay the next morning and ask him what he thinks of Cade as a name and he says OK (I woke him from a dead sleep, wonder if he would have been so agreeable if he had been awake!), so it is SET.....I fill out the birth certificate immediately so there is no turning back!!!

RECAP:
Cade Zavier Riesenberg
4-8-2000
9 lb 2.3 oz, 22"
10:01 PM

Of all of the Riesenberg kids, Cade is the one who still resembles his newborn picture the most!