Hadley's Birth Story

Finally...I'm forgoing sleep/nap to post this because I'm scared I'm going to forget and that's something I don't want to do in the least especially since this was such a pleasant experience. (yes it's possible! but only thanks to an epidural, I swear. I'm no hero, folks.) (ps. it's a long one)

And here we go, Hadley's birth story...

Before Friday, Dec. 9th, I was starting to seriously doubt my midwife's (Kim) firm belief that I would go by the weekend. Nothing had changed, I was still at 1cm dilated and 80% effaced - I'd been at this stage since 36 weeks (so roughly 2-2.5 weeks). Then, Friday morning came. I was at school working my tail off to try to get last minute things done "just in case" Kim was on to something and around 10am I discovered that some "things" had changed a bit. (let's just say it was a little sign that something's about to change. I'll leave it at that.) By around noon, I was pretty sure I was slowly losing my plug and some of my normal braxton hicks contractions were starting to get a little stronger. Nothing that made me stop in my tracks by any means, but they'd changed.

I started timing them just to see if there was a pattern and b/c it helped keep me focused on work and not sitting around waiting for the next one (b/c what if this was it?!). They ranged from 4-13 minutes apart and were by no means regular although I'm not going to lie, the 4 minute ones made me jump a little...I went to my afternoon meeting and was able to get through it fine without letting on my excitement that maybe things were changing. I went home to get Morgan and wait for Adam to get home from work.

Once Adam was home, I told him a bit about it (although I'd kept him posted all day) and that the contractions were getting a bit stronger. We decided to go out to Applebee's and make the night special for Morgan again, "just in case," and right when we sat down, I had a long, hard contraction that had me unable to talk much and breathing through it a bit. We got through dinner with a few more that weren't quite that intense and had lots of fun with Morgan before bed. I gave her a bath, Adam did bedtime, and then around 8pm, we started timing the contractions again b/c they were getting more regular and strong every time. I was pretty sure we might be going in later but wanted to wait.

I called Kim shortly before 9pm and just told her what was going on - all contractions were somewhere under 10 minutes apart (varied) and hurt enough to make me breathe through them to some degree. I continued to maintain that I didn't know if "this was it" or not and she said if it turned out I couldn't sleep through them, I should come in to be monitored. However, she was pretty sure I was in labor and would see me later. I was to call her before we left so she could meet us at the hospital. (ps. I LOVE Kim. I'm so lucky to have had two amazing medical professionals to have my babies with...but Kim was exceptional.)

My dad was planning to come visit this very weekend and got in around 9pm. I managed to be able to walk and breathe through contractions and he had no idea about them until right before we all cashed in for the night at 10:30pm and I told him, "Ok, Dad, things have been a little "squeezy" today so if, by chance, we have to go in to get checked and see if I'm actually in labor, this is what's going to happen (Morgan to Mary's, told him about feeding the dogs, etc). By about 12:30am I gave in and had been unable to sleep and breathing through each contraction while resting in bed. Walking around helped but they weren't going away so I told Adam it was time. We finished packing bags, I woke and told my dad (who was quite shocked - he didn't really realize/know that I was that close!), and brought Morgan to Mary's on our way to the hospital.

We got there and they hooked me up to the monitors. Hadley was a stinker and liked to dodge the heart monitoring machine but was doing well once they found her regularly. We were there about 1-1.5 hours before I was checked and Kim announced I was 5cm. I did all but hoot and holler b/c I couldn't believe I'd made it that far on my own and was still rather alert/coherent during contractions. Don't get me wrong, there were a few that tested me but I really concentrated on breathing through it and Adam my monitor watchman was amazing at letting me know when they were coming back down so I could focus better.

I was VERY eager to try the tub and see how that made my contractions feel. Turns out Kim was right - cut the pain in HALF. Well, for a while. Then when she said that if I started feeling "pushy" to let her know so we could head back to the room, I immediately told her to call the epidural people. :) I did NOT plan to push this baby out without one, as I stated before - I'm no hero. I stayed in until the Epi lady got there and then got out and back to my room. Contractions were getting pretty intense by this point and I had to stop and really concentrate to breathe through them. When I got to my room was when the contractions really got to the point of almost being bad like when I had Pitocin with Morgan. PS. The epidural hurt a lot more this time b/c I could concentrate and be aware of my surroundings. Totally worth it.

Once the epidural was in, Adam and I worked on trying to sleep. I took some serious prayer time first to thank God it worked. I've heard horror stories of epis not working or only working on one side...whew. Hurdle cleared. We rested until about 5-6am when I started to worry that my epidural was wearing off on my left side. I could feel this odd pain, like a muscle pull in my hip flexor, that extended from my hip to the top of my knee. I debated on having the anesthesiologist come back but finally decided to just in case it "got too late" and it wore off right before pushing. I was glad I made this call as shortly before she came back, I started feeling more pain in my lower left belly. By 7am, I was super-epiduraled and resting nicely again. Somewhere before all this I'd managed to progress a bit more to about 7cm which to me was taking too long. ;)

I would say around 7:15am on Dec. 10th (Sat. morning), the nurse (Jennie - she was GREAT and I was sad she was only there for that night and then off for the duration of my stay) checked me and said I was at a 9cm. I was so excited...we were getting really close to meeting Hadley! She went to tell Kim who came in and checked me at 7:25am (yes, I remember this all clearly, hold on...) and announced I was at a 9.5/10cm and we could get everything ready to push. I then quickly asked if I could push now b/c my first daughter was born at 7:29(pm, not am) and it would be so neat if they were born at the same time...but alas, I had to wait. :) Hard to "catch a baby" when the proper equipment wasn't in place. We were all set shortly thereafter and my nurse, Jennie, decided to come back and wait for Hadley to be born instead of leaving at the end of her shift at 7:30am. Again, she was so great.

I started pushing at 7:34am. It was harder to push this time b/c my epidural was more intense(?), effective(??) and I couldn't feel as well as I had with Morgan. Not painful, just not as much sensation. Either way, I worked as hard as I could and sure enough, 6 minutes later at 7:40am, this beautiful little baby girl came into the world. Hadley. Our Hadley was here! They immediately put her on my chest, she immediately grabbed my index finger, and Adam said I kept saying, "She here! She's finally here!" and we both cried. It was so great. I was a little worried b/c she didn't cry as crazy as Morgan did (for hours, mind you) but really she just gave a few cries to ease our minds and started quietly taking in the world around her. (this shocked us - we only know how to deal with screaming constantly babies)

Her Apgar scores ranged from 8-10 although I have no idea why she was at an 8 for any time. She was perfect. And beautiful. She cried while getting cleaned up and checked out, but for the most part, she didn't cry much at all. We worked on nursing as soon as possible and by about 10-15 minutes later, she was latched on and getting it (again, foreign, since the great Morgan sassy pants was NOT a good feeder at first). They finally took her (with Adam) to get the rest of what needed to be done done. We had a LOT more time with her at first before they took her to the nursery and I wish we could have had that with Morgan. She was just such a beautiful baby (Morgan was beautiful too, please don't mistake that one) and I was so proud to have brought her into the world and into our family.

Hadley was 8lbs, 7oz and 20" long. She was born at 7:40am on Saturday, Dec. 10th, 2011 which just so happened to be a full moon (a friend of mine from high school totally called this, btw). I only felt lightheaded for a brief time and did not become sick like I had with Morgan's delivery. The placenta took a bit to come but Kim was great and it wasn't a big deal.

We were so tired but so happy. My dad came later that morning and when Adam's parents got into town, they brought Morgan around lunch time. I already felt 1,000x better than I had after Morgan's delivery - still slow going for sure, but better. I'm so thankful my body knew what was going on this time and wasn't all "wth!? what just happened here?!?" as that was not fun the first time around.

I wouldn't have changed a THING with Hadley's birth if I were to do it over again. I was so thankful that I went on my own and didn't have to have another Pitocin labor. It was a beautiful thing to feel my body going through it that way and (with the help of the epidural) have such a fantastic labor/delivery. In the days and week/week and a half after, I've been amazed at how my body has reacted and "known" that I had more going on at home (with Morgan) and bounced back so much faster this time. I was +30lbs for this pregnancy (so much better than +40 with Morgan) and two days ago I only had 12.6lbs left to lose. I've since eaten tons of carbs (argh) so I'm sure that's slowed a bit, but maybe the increase in nursing will surprise me. I'm not checking super regularly but that's where I was at for last check.

Welcome to the world and our family, Miss Hadley Elizabeth. We are so lucky to have you and couldn't be prouder of the new little sister we've added to our family. xoxo Love, Mommy