The Pretty Little Penny: February 2015

8 Weeks ago, Cassandra made this post on instagram

"Today marks 29 weeks my little princess has been cooking. I'm so proud of you Nyomi and for toughing out this journey with me. We have only just begun our beautiful life together!I'm counting down the days until I can hold you in my arms. you have brought me all the joy and happiness that I could ever have imagined possible and I will do everything to give you back and more, what you have given me. your my perfect princess and we are all waiting for you sweetheart! Mommy loves you and maybe if you could do one tiny favor for mom and wait until I'm sitting next time you want to show me your karate moves at full force, almost dropped mom to the floor! I love you. "

The day Cassandra had been waiting for, had finally come. The day she held her baby girl for the first time.

"Cassandra is going into labor, she is having contractions ever 1-2 min,

is dilated 5cm! I will keep you up to date! Gramma JoAnn"

I received that message Feb 21st at 4:20pm. I had spoken to Cass just a few days before and she had mentioned her belly had "dropped" but I didn't think anything of it because her due date wasn't for another two weeks. I figured we had some time!

I was very wrong.

I packed my camera, and left immediately.

The drive there wasn't nearly as long as I had expected it to be.

I pulled into the parking lot of St. Marks Hospital about 30 minutes later and made my way to the labor and delivery floor.

To room 6

I walked through the door, and of course the first person I noticed was Cass, She had been there for about an hour before I arrived.

Not long after, Cassandras sisters Mckenzie and Erika followed after me.

Cassandras support group was like a small party,

JoAnn "grandma", Zack "daddy to be", Me, Sisters Mckenzie and Erika, Erikas Fiance Christian, Zacks Parents, and Sister.

Little miss Nyomi sure knows how to throw a party!

We were all so eager and excited to meet this beloved baby girl.

Cassandras Nurse came in frequently giving us updates every 15 to 20 minutes.

Checking her dilation's ever hr.

Things moved pretty quickly up until Cassandra was Dilated to a 8.

That's about when Cass started to get extremely uncomfortable.

I could see the pain in her eyes as she lay waiting to meet her baby girl for the first time.

So I walked up to her, grabbed her hand and told her everything was going to be fine.

"what are you most excited about Cass?"

She looked up at me her eyes full of tears,
"just to finally be able to hold my baby girl."

As she grabbed my hand she looked at me with the biggest smile on her face, "I was going to wait to ask you, but I wanted to tell you that I've chosen you and Clay as Nyomis godparents."

At that point, I took my camera from around my neck, set it aside and just held her hand, as she expressed her excitements of becoming a mother, and we reminisced about our childhood.

30 minutes passed and the nurse came back in to check the babies position.

With Cassandra dilated to a 9, the nurse rotated Cassandra to her left side to help speed up the process.

With every contraction came more and more pressure/pain for Cass. It was around this time Cassandras Doctor, Dr. Pete came in and introduced himself. He ran Cassandras temperature and had concerns of her running a fever. He explained to her that if cool towels didn't break it then they would start antibiotics before she started pushing.