WELCOME HOME

It's just after noon on Saturday the 17th, and Kady has finally come home. The Kids and I went to pick the "girls" up at the hospital this morning.

Kady has been very busy sleeping and sleeping, with the occasional discussion about some sort of discomfort related to her diaper.

The other three kids now begin the process of adapting to the new human living in their house. For the most part, the transition has been smooth, but it's also only been two hours.

River Bandits Record Since Kady was Born: 3-0! She is a good luck charm!

Kadys Debut

What a great day to have a baby. Everything went so smooth, and as I have time to reflect on exactly what happened today, I can describe the events of the day better than I did below.

We awoke about 5:30 this morning (although Melinda was up most of the night), we got the kids up and ready and took them to their destination for the day.

Melinda and I then headed to Genesis, checked in and were off to room 5111. Since we have a base of comparison, I can tell you that this was the nicest room that we have had for a delivery. The Nurse was amazing, and told us what would happen every step of the way. This was important for Melinda because she had some nerves about inducing labor.

They got the medication going almost immediately, and Melinda began to rest. I took the opportunity to visit the cafeteria and have a quick bite to eat (they don't take credit cards by the way, which was confusing because of the little credit card machine they had next to the register). After taking a few mintues to eat, I headed back to the room, and began to rest. That's when the nurse suggested that we start walking to get contractions going. So we walked the fifth floor for about 20 minutes. The contractions became more and more frequent, so we went back to our room to labor. After a while, I had fallen a sleep, when Melinda woke me up to tell me that we needed to begin walking again.

So - we started walking again. This time, the contractions came about every two minutes, and lasted a good 40 seconds or so. As they became more and more painful, we decided to head back to our room and ask for pain medicine (you see, last time, with Spencer, we missed the "cut off" for pain medicine, and thus, Melinda got to feel every second of Spencer).

They responded immediately, and Melinda could not feel her legs within minutes. I then decided to go back to sleep for a few minutes before the fireworks would begin.

Once again, Melinda woke me up - this time, it was a little different.

"I am feeling a little pressure," she said.

The nurse then agreed to check her to see how we were progressing.

What she discovered is the baby was crowning, and Melinda couldn't really feel it.

The doctor was then called in, and Melinda was instructed to push - in the middle of the first push, I told some sort of joke, and she began to laugh - and the proceeded to laugh the baby out in one push / laugh sequence.

At 2:16 on May 15th, Kadence Elizabeth came into the world, a whopping 9 lbs 9 oz and 20.5 inches long. Of course just like her Mother, she's perfect.

More Pictures Tomorrow. It's been a long day.

Kadence Elizabeth Howerton

Kady joined us at 2:16 this afternoon, weighing in a 9 lbs 9 oz, and 20.5 inches long.

Melinda's medication worked so well, that when she felt a little pressure, she had the nurse check and Kady's head was already arriving. We quickly got the doctor, and Melinda was in active labor for less than a minute, one push - which she laughed through.

I am having some trouble downloading the pictures, so they will come later after I get home.

With this being the final addition to our family, and it going as well as it did, given the complications that we had early in the pregnancy, we know how blessed we are to have each other, and all of you.

It's Go Time!

Dialated to a 5, pain medicine on it's way, and Melinda is having contractions about a minute and a half a part which are causing significant amounts of pain. I think Kady is is ready to join us.

I can hardly type because Melinda squeezed my hand so hard. You have no idea how much pain I am in. :)

We are ready to roll. Next up - baby, and pictures. Stay tuned.

Update at 8:26

The doctor just broke Melinda's water and we are well on our way. Melinda is beginning to feel some stronger contractions and they just started the IV.

Now, we wait for the pain meds. Some of you may recall with Spencer they didn't arrive in time. If they don't show up this time, I would hate to be the person who missed the order. Melinda won't be as nice as she is now.

Stay tuned..

It Begins!

As a part of the birthing experience this time, I will be blogging "live" all day from Genesis Hospital in Davenport, Iowa.

We rose this morning at 5:00, and began preparing ourselves for what will be the arrival of the last Howerton child.

We have dropped off Chandler, Alyssa and Spencer off with some friends from church, and they are all very excited to meet their little sister later today.

I received about 40 emails yesterday after I let everyone know what was happening. I am sorry I was not able to get back to everyone, but please know I read every one of them, and appreciate all of your thoughts and well wishes.

And, we have chosen a name -This baby will be known as Kadence Elizabeth Howerton. Chandler would like to call her "Kady" I told him that would be fine.

More to come as the day goes on!

BABY!

Just kidding. More to come later.