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)

Weeks leading up to birth

My last update was August 15th - and now that I'm looking back, I'm so mad at myself for not keeping up with this! Grrr...so much has happened and now instead of writing out exactly how I was feeling during the moments, I have to remember and write about it.  Not the same, but I guess it will have to do.

So, August 17th, my blood pressure was up a lot.  I took it and it was 140/95 - I took it a coupe minutes later and it was 150/100 - a couple minutes later is was 155/106.  So, I called the doctor knowing that they were just going to tell me to come to the hospital :( I packed up my bag and Daniel drove me there.  Mom met us there since she was on her way home from work. They admitted me of course which meant bed rest in the hospital until delivery = NO FUN.  I literally was going insane being on bed rest and the hospital made it that much worse. I still got my ultrasounds every week - she looked great.  The only thing they told me was that my fluid was elevated a little, so when my water breaks I would definitely know!

Saturday August 21st was my last baby shower Daniel's side of the family was throwing for me.  I was stuck in the hospital, so several of them came up to the hospital.  It was really sweet - they brought me plates of food, all the gifts for me to open, and the yummy cake!  We all hung out and they all watched me open up all of my gifts - Hadleigh of course got a ton! She's a lucky little girl!

Tuesday August 24th I had some visitors.  Kristy & Lily came to visit and Jen also came.  It was nice for them to come and break up the same boring days in the hospital.  There's only so much TV and word searches you can do.  Oh and facebook was blocked for most of my stay! even better!  Daniel was still going to work, so I would only see him for a couple of hours every night.  He was still staying at the house every night because Isis & Duke were still at the house.  I remember being upset that the last couple of weeks that we should have been enjoying with eachother was hugely disrupted by me being in the hospital.

By this point I was really going insane being in that hospital bed. I could only get up to go to the bathroom - thank god they let me shower everyday.  I had wheel chair privileges (about 30 minutes a day), but I didn't start using them until the 24th.  I hated feeling so vulnerable in a wheel chair when I could physically walk just fine on my own.

On the 26th, Cara, Ragan, Jessica, and Michelle all visited me! It was great to see them all and catch up a little with them.  That night I remember being extremely frustrated.  My blood pressure would randomly go up and all the nurses would do was to tell me to lay on my left side.  I also had a constant headache going on 3 days by now.  My doctor would tell me she was coming by to see me, but then send the doctor on call.  Which really ticked me off - I already had questioned whether or not I wanted to stay with her throughout my pregnancy, and in hindsight I totally should have switched docs and listened to my gut. But anyways,  when the doctor on call came by hat evening I expressed my concerns.  At this point my induction was scheduled for September 4th.  With the headaches and visual disturbances, and my blood pressure - I didn't want things to get so bad to the point where they would immediately have to give me a C-section to get her out.  I wanted to try to have a regular birth.  The on call doctor, listened to me, and then stepped out to call my doctor.  She came back about 10 minutes later and said, "How does having the baby Sunday sound?" ummmm WHAT?!  yes!!! Relief!  I was finally going to meet my precious baby girl and I was finally going to get out of this hospital! It all seemed surreal and nerves started kicking in, but I was super excited (and of course impatient as always)

Baby Update

Everything is going well with the pregnancy, just a few bumps here and there.  I've been going to the doctor a lot more regularly because my blood pressure has been a little elevated.  Nothing major, but it's been on the borderline of "mild preeclampsia" so they've just been watching me and running blood / urine tests every couple of weeks to make sure everything's OK.  Well, we got back from vacation and I felt good.  I had a doctor's appointment, and it was still a little elevated, but nothing out of the norm.  I went back on Thursday 7/28 to drop off my urine sample and they wanted me to come by to get my blood pressure taken - no big deal.  So I went by, got my blood pressure taken and it was spiked at 140-something over 90-something.  Not crazy high, but once it hits 140/90 they become very concerned.  Especially since my normal throughout most of the pregnancy was 120/70 (minus when it was slightly elevated at 130-something /80-something the past few weeks).

So next thing I know, I'm being sent down to labor and delivery for monitoring.  They took blood, sent my urine off to get tested, and continuously took my blood pressure.  My blood work came back normal, but then my urine tests came back - I had too much protein show up which is a sign of preeclampsia.  They ended up admitting me in the hospital to the antepartum unit for bedrest.  After laying down most of the day, my blood pressure came down and then my protein levels ended up coming down as well.  On top of those symptoms, I had visual disturbances (floaters) and sharp pain in my upper abdomen - which are all classic symptoms of preeclampsia.  So I was diagnosed with a mild case of that.

They did ultrasounds and monitoring on babygirl and she's perfect, which was great news! She wasn't being affected by anything going on at all.

I was discharged by Saturday 7/30 - thank god!  But ever since then I've been on modified bed rest, so I've been at home pretty much!  Work is letting me work from home, which has been great to have something to do during the day.

I see my doctor again this Friday for a check-up, so we'll see what she says about when she thinks I'll deliver.  At one point in the hospital they sad they wanted me to make it to 38 weeks, and then we'd talk about induction.  We shall see.

Because of all this craziness, I get an ultrasound every week to make sure baby is doing fine.  She's great and gets a score of 10 out of 10 every week! Last Tuesday when I went, she was 5 pounds 9 ounces. Getting close!