Hadleigh Olivia - BIRTH STORY

Saturday August 28th, I woke up nervous.  I got in the shower, got ready, and did my makeup.  I needed to be a little cute going into labor! ha if only I had known I'd need several touch ups to look decent for pictures...live and learn.

The nurses wheeled me over to labor and delivery and they set me all up with monitoring.  They started me with cervidil, in hopes that it would soften and maybe even dilate me a little.  I believe they put that in around 11am.  Now we started waiting.....and waiting...and waiting.  The Cervidil had to stay inside of me for 12 hours.  So I passed the day like I normally did - word searches, internet, TV, and finishing up thank you cards.  The nurse finally told me I could take the cervidil out around midnight.  She would be starting the pitocin around 3am.  I remember my stomach tightening up a little, but nothing was painful yet.  Pitocin started at 3am - so I tried to just get some sleep while I could which wasn't very successful. I started feeling the contractions a couple hours into it.  I just breathed through them.  My awesome nurse Elizabeth came on that morning, so she was with me all through labor and delivery.  I think she checked me around 10am and I was only 2cm dilated.  I don't really remember timing that well, but by that point contractions were becoming pretty strong.  I remember sitting in bed and Elizabeth was in the room (turning up the pitocin I think) and I heard this "POP!".  It felt like a bone had cracked - it was pretty loud.  Elizabeth  goes " Did your water just break?"  I told her I didn't think so, because I didn't feel anything.  Ha....then I moved.  It came gushing out just like the ultrasound techs said it would.  I think this was the grossest part of the whole delivery - ew.  I hated the feeling of my water breaking.  So contractions were now stronger than before. Knowing that last time I got checked I was only 2cm, I knew I had a long way to go, so I went ahead and got the epidural (not sure how dilated I was at the exact time I got it).  I little bit into having the epidural, Elizabeth checked me again and I was 5cm.  Good progress!!!  I believe this was about 1:30pm.  Within 30 minutes I was in super pain.  Epidural was not touching the pain I was feeling - I was feeling every contraction and each one was all in my tail bone.  It was horrible.  They kept asking me "Do you feel like you need to push?"  I didn't really know...I just knew it was hurting bad!  So Elizabeth checked me around 2pm, and I was 9 1/2cm! WOAH! from 5 to 9 1/2 in 30 minutes! We made our calls to our parents to let them know it was happening pretty soon.  Elizabeth said that the 1/2cm went away when I pushed, so we stated pushing for a little.  Then my doctor came in (grrrr).  She checked me and told me that the 1/2cm wasn't going away when I pushed.  She gave me an hour - if I was progressing, then she was going to do a C-Section.  Hadleigh's heart rate was fine, but she was under a little stress when the contractions were coming.  So was I cause they hurt!!!  I still think it's crazy I felt every contraction s strong at that point, even though I had an epidural....

So we pushed through about 5 contractions (I got about 3 pushes with each contraction) and my doctor came back in.  She still didn't see the 1/2cm going away, so she wanted to go ahead and do a C-section.  Whatever.  At this point I guess I really didn't care.  I was super duper nervous about having this surgery.  I got a lot more epidural pumped into me to get me prepped.  Once that took effect I couldn't feel the contractions hurting anymore, which was a relief.  They wheeled me back to the OR...scary.

Laying there was weird.  The doctor came in and did a few things and then asked "Did you feel that?" No I didn't feel anything ... "Good, cause I just stuck you with something sharp about 15 times" Awesome - I'm glad that medicine is working! Daniel was brought in to sit next to me - the whirlwind of everything still makes it surreal looking back.  It felt like a long time before Hadleigh was born, but it probably was only a few minutes. Then we heard it.  The best sound in the world at that moment.  Crying! Hadleigh Olivia was born at 4:08pm - she was 6 pounds 7 ounces and 20 inches long.  I immediately started crying, and told Daniel to go over to her while they cleaned her up.  He took some pictures and held her while they were putting me all back together.  Then they wheeled me right back to my L&D room, where Hadleigh and Daniel already were. I felt great at this point.  I could move my toes the whole time they were delivering Hadleigh, so I could still move a little.  Then I finally got to hold my baby girl - she was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen.  Had lots of dark hair and looked like her daddy.  Within 15 minutes of being delivered, she latched and was feeding - I'm a lucky mom I know!

Just minutes after Hadleigh was born!

Daddy in love!

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Hadleigh and her bff Lily (Lily was born 7/28/10)