Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Adaline Jeanette!

The following post will be a somewhat detailed account of Adaline's birth so there might be moments of "to much info" I use this blog as a journal so feel free to skim/skip the parts that are "to much".

We had a Dr. appointment set for Tues. at 8:30 in the morning, I had been having a miserable time so I was really hoping that there would be enough progress that she would say "head over to the hospital"! I had all the plans made and in place, I even packed my hospital bag (which I left at home so that I wouldn't "jinx it") I was pretty desperate! My allergies had also kicked in to high gear and had started turning into a sinus infection, so over all I looked and sounded pretty terrible. We arrived right on time and the Dr. asked "would you like to have the baby today?" I thought I had died and gone to heaven! My answer of course was that would be amazing! She checked me and I was already at a 3 so she said I could head over and they would get me set up, she asked if I just wanted my water broken or if I wanted pitocin, I opted for the pitocin since once my water breaks it gets pretty rough. We had Koen with us so Kevin dropped me off at the hospital and ran home to get my bag and take Koen to my Super Amazing Friend! (she ended up with all of my children and it was wonderful not to have to worry about them!)

I got registered and changed into my hospital gown, got the I.V. going by 10am and then just waited. I watched a lot of television while waiting for Kevin to return, the Dr. had said that she would come by around noon to break my water and as 11:20am rolled around I started getting nervous that Kevin wouldn't be here when the Dr. arrived and I would have to wait!  At one point I was all alone and had to use the bathroom, my IV pole was on one side of the bed and the contraction and baby monitor cords led to the machine on the other. I had to get the IV pole around the side of the bed and then unplug the other monitor cords, this wasn't to hard but when I was finished it was a little more tricky getting everything plugged back in and then getting back into bed! I was glad that I had never had to be alone before. Kevin arrived in my room a scant 10 minutes before the Dr., she arrived at 11:30 and I was at a 4 1/2 so she broke my water upped the pitocin and said "make sure you call me BEFORE you feel like pushing!" My good friend Jamie had wanted to come to the birth so I had Kevin let her know we were there and she could come whenever she wanted. She arrived at about noon bringing Kevin lunch, we played Monopoly,we have played Monopoly during every labor so it is kind of a tradition (I of course ALWAYS lose!)  and watched a little T.V. Jamie took a lot of pictures and the contractions steadily became stronger and closer together. Jamie was great she seemed to know what I needed before I did.

By about 1:30 we made bets on when she would arrive, I said 2:30, Kevin said 3 and Jamie said 3:30-4. Jamie won! We also didn't have a name finalized yet so we used the white board in the room and wrote down all the names we were considering, we started to narrow it down but still had 6 -8 names on the board. The contractions started to get really painful and I decided I would get an epidural. The anesthesiologist came and he was really funny, he kept cracking jokes and it was very hard to hold still! He was super quick and soon I was feeling better. I could still feel the contractions but they no longer hurt, I could not however feel my legs at all! That was a very weird feeling for me. By now I was at an 8 and I knew it wouldn't be to much longer and I would want to push so I asked them to let the Dr. know.  The epidural seemed to stop working so the nurse called the anesthesiologist back in and he gave me another dose, this did little to relieve the pain in my upper abdomen but managed to completely block all feeling in my legs and pelvis!

Finally is was time to push! I was thinking in my head "push", I was doing everything I thought I was supposed to, but due to the anesthesia I couldn't tell if I was "doing" anything! I was freaking out in my mind, I was really concerned that I would have to have a c-section. I asked the doctor " am I pushing?" She laughed and said "Yes, her head is almost out" I was extremely relieved to hear that. Once she was born the nurses put her right up on my chest and cleaned her and took her vitals right there! It was wonderful. We still hadn't decided on a name and as soon as I saw her face we were able to rule out all of the names other than Adaline Jeanette. She weight 6lbs and was perfect.

I was transferred to the mother/baby floor, and the kids came to visit their new baby sister. Keith, who had been somewhat disinterested once he found out the baby would be a girl, was the most effected by how small and cute she was. He said to me "I had no idea how tiny and cute she would be. How much I would love her" He was almost in tears and very content to hold her and look at her as long as he could. Koen was unsure about everything and the rest of the children reacted as expected. Once everyone had a chance to hold her and love on her the nurse came and took her for her bath. I had several friends come and visit while we were in the hospital and it was nice to have the company. She slept really well the first two nights and once we got home we settled into a routine pretty quickly.

I wrote this post the week after Adaline was born and then never posted it! 

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