Can it be?? Cardenas child #3!: It's Obvious By Now, But...

IT WORKED!

I can hardly believe it and I laugh every time I talk about it: the Preggo Pizza worked! Exactly 24 hours after I finished my first slice of it, Adayla Rylynn Calliope Cardenas entered the world! Here's my story:

I had been feeling my regular contractions all throughout the evening, and half expected them to be more Braxton Hicks. But, when morning came, I got the sense that these were different. So I started timing contractions around 9:30am. I also texted my mom to let her know that I was pretty sure I'd be calling the hospital soon, so she said they'd leave shortly. I ended up calling L&D around 10:30am and they told me to come in (after I had been on hold for 10 minutes because two other mothers in labor had just walked up to the admitting desk). We arrived around 11am, and because they were SO busy, they didn't have a chance to check me right away. Mark stayed out with Troy until his parents arrived while I continued to breathe through gradually intensifying contractions (whilst thinking to myself, This isn't all that bad. Silly girl). When the midwife came in, I was already at a 5 and they decided to admit me. I was shocked, because last time when I was just at a 3 I thought I was dying and was begging for drugs. When I finally got to the L&D room, it was 12:40pm. Mark and Lety brought Troy in and we put football on. I couldn't really pay attention, though, because the pain was starting to get bad. I paced around the room, trying to ease some of the pain, but nothing was working. Troy was growing tired and a little cranky, and I could tell he didn't like the fact that I was in pain. I asked Mark and Lety to take him out, because his presence was adding to my stress. And thank goodness they did! I soon was in transition around 1pm. The nurse suggested I take a shower to help ease some pain, and since I remembered people mentioning showers helped them during this time, I got in. It didn't help. I finally realized this actually IS "that bad" and I asked for an epidural. The nurse told me they needed to draw some blood and wait for results to come back before the anesthesiologist would come in, so I was still long enough for her to get a sample. A few minutes later, while I was doing more pacing and moaning, I remember her saying something like, "Well, we can wait for the results to come back, or I can call the midwife and see if it just might be baby time." Apparently, she already knew it was going to be baby time, and had said as much to my husband. He told me she said, "I don't want to tell her there is no time for the epidural." He replied, "Well I'm not going to tell her!" Ha. She decided to call Maureen and I got into the bed. Maureen checked me and I was at an 8. Definitely no time for meds now! She broke my water, checked me again, and was a 9. Then she just told me to go ahead and push the next time I felt a contraction! So I pushed/screamed for about 60 seconds. And, tada! My daughter was born at 1:31pm, 8 lbs 9oz and 19 3/4 in long.

I'm pretty sure Mark and Lety had only been out of the room for about 30 minutes. They had gone to get lunch and then Mark texted with her photo before they were done. My parents didn't make it. I think they came in around 1:45pm. I was kinda glad my Momma didn't have to hear me scream. Because boy oh boy did I holler! Ouchie ouchie. Anyway, when Troy came in, he was very sweet. We had told him a little it about there being a baby in my tummy, but we had no idea what he'd think about there being a baby in my arms. When he saw her, he wanted to touch her. So bent down a little and he touched her head. It was so sweet.

So since that day we have been VERY busy! Here are some (out of order) pics and moments from the past 2+ months.