I never understood why people would be so excited about a birthing story. Truth is we all have one, I can vaguely tell you the story my mom has told me about my birth. To be honest I'll likely never share the thoughts truly deep in the darkness of my mind during Adalyn's birth! However, I have been asked and of course I love to blog. Since I'll be at home with Adalyn most of her baby life I thought instead of sharing an overload (which we do anyway) of excitement I would have a place to post so that one day Adalyn can come back and read every adventure she had from birth on.
How did we get here--
I didn't make my pregnancy an easy one, between freaking out about my sugars, to wondering why my child wasn't moving, or I couldn't feel her kick, not to mention the trips to specialist, the money spent (while I wasn't working) etc.. However, on June 27th I got the word I had been waiting for! I had made it 37 weeks 1 day and our doctor said lets get this girl out July 11th. I can remember crying and the staff at our OBGYN being so excited for us. July 11th wasn't ideal for our family because we really wanted to be fair to Steve's brother having a special wedding day. However, after some prayer and support from those around us we knew this was the best decision for our pregnancy.
July 11th, 2016
Alarm was set for 3:15am! However, Steve and I both were up at 2:30am in separate rooms unable to get any sleep. At 3:45am we had one final picture take as a party of 2! My goodness was my weigh showing! Whew!
4:05am we arrived at the bay doors of the emergency room. After a few signatures we were taken to the maternity suit to being the process of induction. As we walked in we were greeted by the overnight nurse. Our Doctor told me when I got there to go ahead and tell them at I wanted a epidural so they could begin the fluids etc to make it easier so when it was time I could get it. They started my IV and the pitocin shortly after 4:45am. I was 3 cm dilated when we arrived which they bragged about!! At about 8:00am I begin to feeling small contractions. Not unbearable but enough that I knew we were on track. Of course that wasn't my biggest issue. I struggled my entire pregnancy with being able to breath out of my nose. I asked over and over again for nose spray and they weren't able to give me any... at this point I was getting really upset which caused a crying fit! Thank goodness an hour later my mom had, had enough and ran to the store and got me nose spray. At around 9:15am our doctor came in and broke my water. At this point the contractions where starting to put me on my knees. We were checked and I was 5cm dilated and I need that EPIDURAL fast! Of course this meant they were going to turn off the pitocin and we would have to start over from the lowest level a lot of times making labor longer. It wasn't until around 11:30 that they actually came in to give me the epidural. Everyone was asked to leave the room so my mom and Steve went to get things out of their cars. Doctor "Magic" he wasn't magical for me! Anyways he got me in position and gave me the pre shot-- NOTHING, gave me another shot and needle--NOTHING, third time said to take a deep breath of course I am in tears from pain and then.. NOTHING. To which he said "Sorry, you aren't a candidate for epidural." I was devastated! I was in so much pain! I lost my cool and everyone in that hospital wing heard my screams and uncontrollable crying. The nurse ran down each hall of the wing looking for anyone that was with me to help calm me down. A few minutes later they found Steve, my mom and now my dad (who had just arrived). She gave them the news which they didn't need to hear as they could hear my screams from down the hall. Quickly my parents ran to my side with Steve. All full of tears as they knew that I was in great pain. This was the first time I had seen my father so naturally like any little girl when I saw him he was the only comfort I wanted. I'll never forget that embrace for the rest of my life. A true daddy's girl moment. Him and I had a similar moment at their home in Mount Holly weeks before we found out I was pregnant because I was overwhelmed with sugar issues and trying to get pregnant. My daddy held me with a rose in his hand and said "you will do this." Steve of course knew the pain level cried with me as I watched the monitor go up for each contractions. I knew at this point there wasn't a good chance that I would be able to handle the pain of birth. Call me a wimp but all you "go natural moms" good for you! That was NOT my plan! We called the doctor in and talked pain management and options. It was either you have this baby on your own or we do a C-Section that you will be asleep for because if the epidural didn't work the meds for an awake C-Section wasn't an option. She did tell us there was one more doctor, a female that could try for the epidural one more time if I was up for it. I said yes. She came up within minutes since after checking my dilation and I had progressed alone no meds to 7 1/2 cm, we were running out of time. This doctor well SHE WAS DOCTOR MAGIC! her first try to get the epidural in and within minutes I went from pains I couldn't handle to numbness.
Praise the Lord! I prayed God would provide and He did! Just like I am sure if I hadn't gotten the epidural He would have given me the strength to do what I needed to to have Adalyn. Our nurse came in and did a check 9cm and going strong. Keep in mind this is WITHOUT pitocin so my body was ready! We were told there was a mom ahead of us in the process so we would have to wait before pushing. To our surprise our doctor came in and check and said we were ready. For 47 minutes I pushed. I still to this day don't understand the concept of pushing but apparently as my doctor would say "your a rockstar pusher and we are having a baby." The only other words I can remember in those moments were breath, deep push, she has a lot of hair, here she comes, let me help you she is stuck and then pressure, pressure and BOOM our daughter came into the world. Pretty pink complexion, head full of hair, lungs made for singing and a long body. Seeing Steve look at his daughter for the first time was perfect in my mind. "He got tender" for a moment and so did my daddy! At 3:47pm our 8lbs 10 oz and 21ins long active lady arrived. She was over a pound heavier then expected and because of my small bone structure it would have been nearly impossible for me to have a much bigger baby. My doctor was impressed with my 8 hours of labor and only pushing 47 minutes for my first baby! In her words your next will be FAST!! (In my words next?)
The aftermath, I don't care what people say you never forget the pain. My daughter is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, she is perfect from head to toe, I sit in awe over how God touched this precious little girl broken bones, bruises and all! But the moment they gave her to me I had tons of emotions and the pain was real. The pain is still real. The understanding of a natural birth until the end is REAL! I might be one of a few that can actually say that the pain didn't go away once they gave her to me. I had a 3rd degree episiotomy, many stitches and tons of pain! I will say the pain is worth it when I look at my daughter. It's not forgettable but it was and is WORTH IT! Every cough, sneeze, rip in walking and pain is so WORTH IT! The emotion is high in our house. I'll be a full time stay at home mommy starting tomorrow and Adalyn will be 1 week old. I am not nervous because she is an awesome baby! But I selfishly have LOVED having my husband home with me the last month. I am struggling with breastfeeding but I have decided to pump what I can, give her a boob when she wants it and of course bottle feed. Might not have been my plan but my entire pregnancy and labor wasn't what I planned. I am doing my best to breath through the overwhelming feeling of judgement by all the gold star moms who breastfeed. But the truth is selfishly its not what I want to focus on. I don't want to spend the next months upset or worried that I haven't fed my daughter. Instead, I want to capture every moment with her and for these moments to be full of positive thoughts and happiness. Bones will heal, her bruising is gone, she has gained weight and her jaundice has clearned up! She is happy! Mommy is happy! Daddy is so in love!
