Adalyn Jo: A Birth Story

Please love the title of this blog post (TLC anyone?)

Our sweet baby finally came! I want to write down the story before I forget the details. I will spare everyone of anything gross (maybe) we"ll see.

On May 13 (38 weeks, 6 days) I was laying in bed at 10 am, since I had stopped work the Thursday before I had no reason to get up, and I didn't want to. Anyways I am laying there and all the sudden I felt a big gush of something. I thought, "Did I SERIOUSLY just pee my pants?" So I went to the bathroom and when I stood up I was sure my water had borken. I was in shock! Usually your water has to be broken during labor! This is just like the movies!

I called Cory, luckily right when his class got out and said, "Cory I think my water broke." And he said, "haha really? Call the doctor!" So I called the doctor and they wanted me to come in right then, they wouldn't even let me wait for Cory to drive the 30 min back home.  So I drove myself to the doctor and had to wait in the waiting room because they didn't have a room open for me yet.

When my nurse, Leslie brought me back she said, "You probably just peed your pants, it's a lot more common than you'd think!" I was thinking 'yeah right I have NEVER peed for 15 minutes straight' but I just said, "yeah, maybe!" My doctor came in and they have a test strip that detects amniotic fluid, but he didn't really have to use it because.. well you know he could tell that it was not urine. He told me he was calling the hospital to let them know I was coming and I needed to go right then. Again, I asked if I could wait for Cory to get home and he told me I could.

Cory got home 5 minutes after me, and I was ready to go, luckily I had all the bags packed with everything we needed.  We drove to the hospital, checked in and then waited in the waiting room so I could have a room with a window.

By this time it was 11 am. I was impressed with how fast everything got started. I got in my gown and got my IV in by 11:30 and they started monitoring my contractions, which I was having but couldn't really feel. Since my water broke first, my doctor wanted to really make sure the baby was okay so he wanted to use an internal monitor, which hooks into the baby's head. So.. I got my epidural at 3 cm, around 1 pm, I wanted an epidural, I am no heroine. Getting an epidural really isn't bad. It kind of feels like when you hit your funny bone, but down your spine for a minute, but after that it is good.

That epidural lasted for about 8 hours, then I started to feel everything on my right side. I shifted so gravity would help numb my right side, but it didn't work! I was really starting to feel everything on the right, I was 4 cm when I started feeling everything. It didn't bother me too bad to feel it on one side. The anesthesiologist came in when I was 6 cm and wanted to try to do another epidural. So, I got my second one and it worked for about 3 hours and then I started feeling it in my back!! I had heard terrible things about back labor and at this point I started to get scared. After an hour of back labor I started feeling everything in my front. Then my catheter was not emptying so I felt like I needed to use the restroom! I could feel it every time they checked me (which I hate). At one point I just lost it, I could feel everything, I was no longer numb ANYWHERE. Cory tried helping me but I just needed him to tell me I was doing a good job. He did help me realize though, that I had to pull it together, and I could do it!! So I just kept telling myself 'I can do this, I can do this'  At 3 am I got a new nurse, her name was Catherine and she was a gift from Heavenly Father, she was so encouraging and she would breathe with me and she was just so amazing.

At 8 cm my anesthesiologist came back and wanted to try a third epidural. This was around 4 am. It is so hard to sit still through a contraction while you're getting an epidural. So hard. By this point, I wanted to push more than anything. The contractions were about 1 minute apart and lasted for 1 minute. I thought I could bear the 15- 30 minutes more of contractions before the third epidural would kick in.

Well, the third epidural never kicked in.  I felt everything! It was incredibly painful. I never knew to what degree I would want to push. I would have given my left leg if I could have pushed when I wanted to. I was at 9 cm and needed to thin out a little bit more. Catherine went and called my doctor, came back in and checked me and told me I could start pushing. I was SO HAPPY. then they started setting up the room for delivery, and turned on 2 huge spotlights. With every contraction I bore down and pushed until I thought I would pass out, and I had dry mouth so Cory was ready with the ice chips. After 6 minutes of pushing my Dr came in and kept encouraging me, which was so helpful. Cory was back and forth between me and the end of the bed. He kept saying things like "I can see her head!!" and "Good job!" and "Get mad Hayley, get mad!!" So I did get mad and after them telling me it usually takes 2-3 hours of pushing for a first time mother, I had her out in 16 minutes!!

It was the most surreal moment of my life. I really felt like I was in a dream. There was this baby covered in cream cheese on my stomach and all I could do was hold her and gasp for air, but I didn't cry! I think I was really dehydrated.  I will never ever forget that moment, it is one of those ones that will be etched into my mind forever.

After I nursed her (which she just latched right on! What a champ!) Cory helped give her a bath while I watched. Then family came and congratulated us.

I can honestly say that I have no idea how I got through 19 hours of labor. I know that I didn't do it by myself, and that every prayer during every single contraction was answered and I was able to do the hardest thing I have ever done and ever will do, physically.

I ended up losing a lot of blood and I had to get a shot in my leg and I almost passed out! Which is weird, I have never even come close to passing out. I am still anemic and I am on iron supplements, but other than that my recovery has been so awesome and it is really great to have my body back, even if it looks way different than before.

We are so so grateful to have our sweet Adalyn here with us. She is such a sweet, content baby and we could not love her more!.

Adalyn Jo- Born at 5:02 am on 5/14/2013 7lbs 14 oz, 20 in 

We think she is pretty cute!