It's a Girl!

This is a story about the day that we met Adalyn for the first time.  Her birth story.

Adalyn's birth was completely opposite to Caden's, from the length of time to her health afterwards.  We chose to be induced on the Friday before her due date.  Rob's parents could travel from Maryland, my Mom could request off from work and we would have plenty of help with Caden.   

I cried after I told Caden "good night" that night because I knew our life would never be the same.  I didn't sleep the night before either.  I was so nervous, yet so excited!  That would be one thing that I didn't enjoy about being induced versus going into labor on my own.  When you go into labor on your own, you don't have as much time to worry, or in my opinion at least.  Plus, I've had a baby before and I wasn't looking forward to the recovery.

We showed up at the hospital about 6 am, filled out paperwork, did blood work then waited on my OB until 9:30 am.  Once she arrived, we started pitocin.  She told me to get my epidural as soon as it started getting too painful.  Don't wait!  It takes me a bit to dilate, but once I start, I go fast. 

Around noon, Dr. Sutton came in to check me and I was about a 3 and almost fully dilated, which wasn't much of a change and my contractions were weak.  She broke my water.  If you've ever had your water broken, or it broke naturally (like mine did with Caden), you know that the contractions become evil afterwards.  About 1:30 pm, I'd say that active labor started.  I was uncomfortable and mean.  I yelled at my Mom and Rob for talking about the release of the iPad that weekend.  How dare they talk while I'm laboring?  ;)

About 3:30 pm, I wanted my epidural.  The nurse told me that I needed to wait because I was only 3 1/4 dilated.  A 1/4 of a centimeter?  Are you kidding me?  Get real.  My room was across from the nurse station and she apparently heard how unhappy I was with that response because she came back in shortly telling me that she called for my epi. 

4pm-ish, the Anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural, which was more painful this time than last.  It also didn't work like my first one.  The nurse checked me and I was at a 5.  I was very much looking forward to a nice nap, but before I could get comfortable, I could feel "the baby" (didn't know her gender) moving down.  A very cool feeling since I was completely numb with Caden.  I told Rob.  He laughed and said, "This is coming from the person in labor."  And I responded with, "NO, I can really feeling the baby coming."  He called the nurse in, which was in disbelief since she just checked me.  By this point, I was starting to freak out because my body was wanting to push.  She checked me, sure enough, we were ready to have a baby!  She called my doctor to come over to the hospital from the office since she didn't think I was close to pushing.  The nurse told me not to push, but I kept telling her the baby was going to fall out.  haha.  She kept reassuring me that the baby wouldn't just fall out.  I worked with everything I could to not push.  It really is a natural instinct.  If you aren't going to willingly push, your body will.

Less than an hour after I received my epi, my doctor showed up and I started pushing.  About half-way into my 18 minutes of pushing, my body stopped contracting.  Adalyn was stuck with her cord wrapped around her neck.  I feel in my heart that this is why my body dilated so quickly (5 to 10 in less than 20 minutes) to get her out.  My doctor looked me the eye and said, "You have to get this baby out."  I pushed with everything I had and she was born.  We asked no one to tell me the gender before Rob, but I was so excited when I saw that I just blurted out, "It's a girl!" then I started crying.  I didn't realize right away that she wasn't crying or very alert at all and her arms and legs were blueish.  As soon as I realized that she wasn't moving or crying, I instinctly moved her away from me, it was a strange feeling.  All of this stil makes me sick to my stomach.  Life is so precious.  I started asking why she wasn't crying and the nurse was forcefully rubbing her.  Within a minute or so, she took her first cry.  Those few minutes seemed like forever.

Adalyn swallowed amniotic fluid and she had a fever of 101.  We're still not sure why she had a fever and it was never written in her medical records.  My doctor told me that her face would be bruised, but to be honest I never noticed it much until I saw pictures of her later.  She was just beautiful and perfect to me.  After we spent some time together, they took her to the nursery to be cleaned up, which was another new experience.  Caden never left my side.  I started questioning where my baby was and was told that she wasn't regulating her temp so she had to stay in the nursery for a bit longer.  They were nice enough to let my mom go take pictures while she got her first bird bath.

The first night was rough.  She kept choking on the amniotic fluid so we had to kept suctioning it out.  We were supposed to go home Saturday evening, but due to her bruised face her jaundice levels were dangerously high.  She had to stay in the nursery under the bili lights until Monday morning.  We could hold her for 30 minutes every 3 hours.  That was tough.  My heart aches so much for any parent that leaves the hospital without a baby.  When we walked out without her, it was so unnatural.

On April 5, her original due date, we brought our beautiful baby girl home. 

8 lbs 5 oz, 20.5" with a head FULL of dark hair
4ish hours long labor