Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving...a few days late!  That seems to be my story lately:).  This year for Thanksgiving my parents were at our house.  So we had a small Thanksgiving group but we had a delicious dinner thanks to my mom!  This was our first time hosting Thanksgiving and we were able to break in our new dining room set and our wedding china and crystal!  Adalyn was a good girl and slept through our entire lunch!  She knew the importance of turkey dinner! :)

Our yummy spread!

 My precious baby was still sleepy after dinner! I had to put a giant bow on her head to make her outfit look girly! :)

 And I just had to post these couple precious pictures of my little angel!  I might be a little biased:)

 She is so alert now! I can hardly stand how fast she's growing!!!

Adalyn's Birth Story

We were scheduled for a 6:00 AM induction on my due date, November 9th.  I kept hoping that I would go into labor before the induction because of the increased chance of C-section from being induced.  Our alarm went off at 4:00 AM and I was not in labor, so I got myself up, dressed and of course did my hair and make-up.  I wanted to look nice for pictures since I could take my time to get ready:)  We left the house at 5:30 after a half-hearted attempt at breakfast.  We were just too excited to eat much but I knew once I was in the hospital that it would only be ice chips for me!

We checked into the hospital at 6:00, got changed, took pictures and waited for an exciting day! 

I got hooked up to my IV around 6:45 and when they checked me I was at 3cm and 50% effaced (which was what I was the previous Friday at my last doctor's appointment.)  After they started my pitocin I didn't feel much pain...that is until my doctor came in around 9:00 to break my water.  I had back labor and once my water was broken, that along with the pitocin had me in serious pain!  They actually had to turn down my pitocin because my contractions were coming so close together and so hard!

When my doctor came in to break my water, I could tell there was something wrong because she started telling the nurse all of this stuff she needed.  It turns out that I had meconium in the water (otherwise known as Adalyn had gone potty in the womb).  So my water was all green!  I didn't realize until later how dangerous this is.  Thankfully we were all calm about it.  They had to hook up a machine that pushed saline into my uterus to try to wash out all of that meconium.  Then they explained to us that they were hoping that Adalyn would not cry at birth and that they would not "rough her up" like they usually do for babies to cry.  They didn't want her ingesting any of the meconium into her lungs.  She would also require a special team of nurses to be present at birth.

Around 10:30 I got an epidural and it was nowhere as bad as people say!  Maybe because I was in so much pain, I really didn't feel the pain of the needle.  And sweet relief!  It felt great!  They were only going to check my dilation every 3 hours and they would "flip" me since I had to lay on a side and couldn't feel my legs to roll over every 2 hours.  So we occupied ourselves by watching HGTV and reading blogs.  Around 2:30pm I was at 4cm and 100% effaced.  It had taken so long to get one cm that I was worried we would be there all night!

At 4 pm I had caught up on all of my blog readings.  (See? Jonathan took a picture as proof!)

I was laying on my left side and started being able to feel my right leg.  I was also starting to feel twinges of contractions.  I called for my nurse and waited.  By the time she came in I was in full pain from contractions.  I couldn't figure out what had happened to my epidural!  They called for the anesthesiologist and he ended up shooting some meds into my regular IV (instead of the line in my back) and about 10 minutes later I got a bit of relief.  They did say that they weren't going to give me a lot because they wanted me to feel enough to push.  They told me the reason that I thought it had "worn off" was because I went from 4 cm to 10 cm in 1.5 hours!! So my pain had sky rocketed and the epidural was a constant so I had to have a boost for it to stay up with my pain.

We were so shocked that I was ready to push already!  We called Billie to come to the hospital asap since she was planning on being in the delivery room to take pictures and video.  Good thing she lives so close!  By the time she walked in the room, my legs were already in stirrups and I was pushing for the nurse!  It was like a whirlwind!

I only pushed about 3 times for the nurse and then the doctor came in and two pushes later our precious little girl was born!  It was amazing!  (I really can't imagine doing it without pain meds after feeling my contractions so much at the end!)  They showed her to me and then the team of nurses started working on her on the other side of the room while my doctor finished up with me.  Jonathan and Billie weren't allowed over to Adalyn until the nurses finally called for them.  I got really sick and it ended up that I had a lower uterine tear that was bleeding uncontrollably.  So my doctor worked on me for a long time.  Jonathan finally got to hold Adalyn but I was so out of it that I didn't really get to actually see her for a long time.  Thanks to some good meds and my wonderful doctor I was finally back to feel among the living!  She came so fast that she didn't get a cone head, but lets just say she left me with some damage:)

Our first family picture!

We got to keep Adalyn in the labor and delivery room with us for an hour but because I was being worked on for so long I actually only got to hold her for 15 minutes before she had to go to the nursery for 5 hours to go through more tests and be monitored due to the meconium.  I had to stay in L&D for extra recovery due to my bleeding so we were just itching to get to the mother/baby room and have our baby with us!!

We finally got moved to our mother/baby room and my parents made it to town (Jonathan's mom had been there the whole day) and finally around 10:30 pm Adalyn was wheeled into our room!!  Our precious little girl! 

Adalyn with my parents!

Adalyn with Jonathan's mom!



Our M/B room was great!  We had a double Tempurpedic bed so Jonathan didn't have to try to sleep on a chair at night!  We had some great nurses in both L/D and M/B.  Our night nurse in M/B happened to go to our church and so did one of our daytime nurses! (It's such a big church that we didn't know either one but they read on my file that I worked there and brought it up!)  We felt blessed to be in such great hands!

We got discharged Thursday morning/afternoon and drove our Adalyn to her home for the first time! 

 Going home outfit!  Adalyn's first real clothes!

 Leaving the hospital!

 All ready to go!

 Dakota is greeting Adalyn!  He didn't know what to think but he now loves his sister and is great with her!

All in all this labor and delivery was great! I couldn't have had a better experience!  I thank God for his hand of protection on Adalyn and myself through the process.  We have had an amazing support of family and friends!  So far it has been two weeks and we are still receiving yummy meals every other day from our Sunday School class! It's such a blessing!  I can't believe how fast time is already flying! My baby is two weeks old!!

Introducing: Adalyn Crystal!!

So we haven't fallen off of the face of the internet!  I just don't really have words for how amazing this past week has been.  I still need more processing time before I post about labor and delivery and motherhood.  But in the meantime I feel like the bloggy world deserves to see some pictures of a mighty cute newborn.  Of course I'm a bit biased, but I think she is the most beautiful baby! 

Adalyn Crystal was born Tuesday, November 9th at 4:38pm.  She was 7lbs 7oz and 19 3/4 in long.  Here are a few pictures to hold you over until I post again...which will hopefully not take me a week this time!

Ready to go home!  My first real clothes!

We are doing weekly pictures of Adalyn and took her 1 week pictures this past Tuesday so I'll post those soon!

Today is the BIG Day! 40 Weeks!!

This morning marks 40 weeks and I'm getting induced!! I wanted to do a comparison of my belly pictures from 10, 20, 30, and 40 weeks.  My, how I've grown!!  So while I'm laboring, you can be amazed at the transformation of my body! :)  I'm sure it will deflate just as easily as it inflated! HA!!! Riiight:) (Can you tell that the first two {dark} pictures were with our old camera and the last four {bright} pictures are with our Canon Rebel?)

10 Weeks

20 Weeks

30 Weeks

40 Weeks

Yes, I am half asleep in this last picture. We had to leave the house at 5:30 AM!! But I wanted to make sure we got that last belly picture:)

And here we are leaving for the hospital!!  Bye Coda! We'll bring you home a little sister!!

Hopefully we will be posting some pictures of our girl soon!!  Thanks for following this journey with us!

Last Day of Pregnancy!

Today is my last day of being pregnant! So crazy that the day is here already!  When I went to my doctor's appointment on Friday, they hooked me up to a non-stress test.  Adalyn's heartbeat was wonderful! yay!! But my blood pressure was high (well it was high for me but not crazy high... I've had really low blood pressure this whole pregnancy.) and so my doctor said that if I hadn't been scheduled for an induction tomorrow that she would make me have an induction tomorrow.  She doesn't want to mess around with high blood pressure.  I love how cautious my doctor is.  She really does look out for my (and Adalyn's) best interest!  On Friday I was at 3 cm and still 50%!  So we're moving.  I still haven't felt a single contraction which at this point, I'd like to feel!  I'd love to have things move naturally today before we have to get induced tomorrow at 6am!  I do have crazy pains in my back every so often, so I don't know if that is back labor or not.  It's hard to know when you've never been through labor before...I have no clue what to feel for! 

Since I've been on "vacation" from work for the past 2 weeks, my swelling in my feet has been sooo much better!  I actually put my running shoes on to run errands on Saturday and it was glorious! (I have a recurring issue since college sports of plantar fasciitis - horrible pain in my foot- and since I've not been able to wear supportive shoes since my feet have only fit into flip flops my foot pain has flared up BAD! So half the time I'm limping/waddling it's not from my belly.  It's from my foot! I'm hoping that after birth I'll be able to be more careful with wearing supportive shoes and my foot will heal so I can get out running asap!! :)  I miss it so much!!

I cannot wait to meet Adalyn and kiss her sweet face!!  It's crazy to think that I'll meet her tomorrow!  I know that I will miss feeling her squirm and flail around in my belly so today I'm trying to soak that in!

As a little celebration of meeting our girl, I wanted to post a few more of our maternity shots that Jes took. There were so many amazing pictures that I can barely choose which ones to post! I don't know how I'll ever decide which ones to blow up and frame!! If you're in the Lexington area, check out http://www.jesmeeker.com/ and set up an appointment for yourself! (No I'm not getting paid for the endorsement...I just love Jes!)

 This one was so hard to balance the blocks on my belly. I started laughing and they all fell off.  I only had one "A" block, so Jes did an awesome job of photo shopping that second "A" in there!

Our little family.  You had to know Dakota would get in a few pictures! :)

 I love how the pictures at the orchard turned out. The unending row of trees is awesome!

 I think this might be my favorite picture.  It is so "us".  I love that Jes was able to capture our personalities in our pictures!

I could post tons more, but I won't put you all through that!  I'm just so happy with how they turned out!  I still can't believe that tomorrow is the BIG DAY!! (or, you know, today could be the big day too!)

Happy 30th Birthday Jonathan!!

Today is Jonathan's 30th birthday!!  All he wants for his birthday is for Adalyn to be born and so far that isn't happening...  Hopefully today will be a wonderful 30th for him anyway!

Jonathan,

You are the perfect man for me.  You have been a wonderful leader in our household and such a caring partner in life.  We have had so many ups and downs over the years.  I cannot wait to walk through this next stage of our lives together.  I just know that you are going to be the best daddy ever!  And I cannot wait to watch it unfold!  You already are a wonderful daddy...coming to every doctor's appointment with me and being hands on with baby shopping and the nursery!

I am so lucky to have you in my life!  I feel so blessed!  I hope you have an amazing birthday and enjoy our last dinner out together as a family of two!  Happy 30th!!

39 Weeks

Yesterday ended my 39th week!  I can barely believe it! It is so crazy to be so close to meeting Adalyn.  It's hard to wait when you don't know how long the wait will be!  (Will it happen today? this afternoon? tonight? tomorrow?)  Friday we had an ultrasound and appointment with the doctor.  I was 2 cm and still 50%...so I'm moving in the right direction.  She wanted to see me two times this week and then we scheduled an induction date for the 9th (next Tuesday!!)  I had an appointment yesterday and I was still at 2 and 50%, had an unexpected ultrasound and everything was good!  I'll go back again on Friday for my final appointment before the big day!!

My first baby appointment, I was given November 5th (this Friday) as my due date.  After all of the craziness of thinking we lost the baby and then getting a heartbeat, they decided to move my due date back to November 9th (Tuesday).  The doctor has been using the 9th as my due date to be conservative, but in the back of my head I've had the 5th has my "finish line".  (I know in the scheme of life, there really isn't much difference in those dates, but when you're waiting by the minute for something to happen, there's a huge difference!)  So the fact that we scheduled the induction on the 9th, will give us a few days past what I believe is my due date.  I'm really hoping to go into labor naturally before the 9th!  But at least we do have an actual date to count down to... and it's less than a week away!!!

Here is my belly picture from yesterday!  If we get to the 40 week picture, I'll probably be half asleep since we are scheduled to be at the hospital at 6am that morning! :)

Adalyn is VERY active and ready for life on the outside.  In my ultrasound on Friday they could tell that she was practicing her breathing well and her heartbeat was perfect.  (She was so low that they literally could not get a reading of her entire head!  I think she just has her daddy's small head!)  She's so scrunched in, that we could not get any good pictures of her.  We got a picture of her foot and her ear:)  I think she just wants to come out and meet us! :) Soon...

My llittle Dracula

This is our last Halloween to only have a fur baby to dress up.  Next year we will have an almost one year old to dress up too!  Crazy to think about!  We always dress Dakota up in a different costume and he greets the trick-or-treaters.  He actually behaves himself pretty well (I think he gets overwhelmed with all the activity).  This year, Jonathan and my dad picked out his costume.  He was a little Dracula.  He actually didn't mind wearing it like he has other costumes in the past. 

Poor thing is a bit shaggy.  He goes to the groomer tomorrow.

We had a great time handing candy out.  It was so mild out so we sat outside in camping chairs to greet the trick-or-treaters in the front yard and talked back and forth with our next door neighbors who were doing the same thing.  I love the community feel that our neighborhood has!  We were worried that we would run out of candy because there are always tons of kids playing in our neighborhood so we figured we would get tons of trick-or-treaters.  And we got quite a few trick-or-treaters for the first hour and then it was over and we were left with a full unopened bag of candy, a half bag of chocolate and the remainder of candy that was in the big bowl that we were using to hand it out.  Our old neighborhood would have gone through that easily.  Oh well.  I guess we just have to eat the candy ourselves:)

We go back to the baby doctor today so I will update tomorrow on our progress.  I'm living up this whole not working/hanging around the house thing!  Pretty awesome:)  But it makes the whole waiting for Adalyn even harder!