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!!