Adelyn's Birth Story

I've been inspired lately to write down Adelyn's birth story before I completely forget the details of that day, AND before I have another birth to write about in just a few short months. Yes, this post is about 2 years past due... but I figured it is better late than never. :o)
*WARNING: There are some details that some readers might not want to know about.... read at your own discretion. LOL.



ADELYN'S BIRTH STORY
I had a fantastic pregnancy with Adelyn. I was never really that uncomfortable, slept pretty well, and felt pretty good overall right up until 41 weeks!!!

At about 27-28 weeks I was told that the baby was really low in the pelvis already and that I will "probably have the baby early, but hopefully not too early!" At 35-36 weeks I was already 2cm dilated and baby was still down nice and low, so doctors still told me there was no way I was gonna be overdue. I didn't really care when the baby came, as long as it was after the 37 "full-term" mark. At about 38 weeks I was about 3cm and the doc could feel the baby's head "right there" and the bag of waters was bulging.... she assured us once again that there was no way we would be overdue and it would probably happen within the next week.

At 41 weeks I was 3.5 cm, with the baby's head "right there", waters bulging, and no contractions. Not even uncomfortable. I didn't mind one bit... I was enjoying my time alone at home. Our doctor was shocked that I had gotten to 41 weeks and still no baby, so she set up an induction for us at 41 weeks 1 day pregnant on Feb. 8th.

We got to the hospital around 7:15 that morning. They admitted us, went through all the details with us and checked my cervix. I was at 4cm (without contractions!!! I was so happy to have gotten nearly half way there without even noticing!). They inserted some gel to soften the cervix and hopefully bring on some contractions, then sent us to walk around the hospital for a few hours. Nothing happened. So, we went and had some lunch in the cafeteria and went back upstairs to labor and delivery.

We waited around until 1pm for my doctor to come and decide what to do next. When she got there, she decided to break my water (since it was still "bulging" lol.) Then they sent us to do some more walking around. In the hallway we passed a nurse that made a joke about how I wasn't going to have a baby anytime soon because I was still smiling and talking. Well, after walking for about 1o minutes up and down the halls, I had my first contraction. It totally caught me by surprise and stopped me in my tracks! I had to stop and lean against the wall to get through it. Once it was over, I thought "ok, that was interesting" and we kept walking down the hall. I had another little about a minute later, and then at the end of the hall way I had another strong one. I was kinda getting nervous because they were so strong and coming so quickly. Then all of a sudden I felt super nauseous. I told Shaun that I wasn't feeling well and about 2 seconds later I threw up all over the hallway... twice. Right at that exact moment the same nurse that made a joke not even 5 minutes earlier, entered the hallway to see me throwing up. LOL. I think she was as surprised as we were. She ran to get the labor and delivery nurses, they came and cleaned up the mess and rushed me back to labor and delivery.

We were finally given a birthing room (we had been in the fetal assessment are up until this point), and they rushed me in the shower. I was so happy to be in there! I was having very regular contractions at this point and it was all in my back, so the water felt wonderful! I stayed in there for about an hour, until they wanted me to come out and be checked. That is when all hell broke loose! The minute I got on the bed, the contractions were instantly stronger and unbearable. They checked me and told me that I was still at 4cm. I was so disappointed to hear that! To make matters worse, they wanted to start me on pitocin to get things "going".... I didn't know what to think of that because as far as I was concerned, things were already "going." I was also disappointed because that meant I had to stay on the bed instead of going back into the shower.

The contractions were getting stronger and stronger and I was barely able to stay on top of them because there was no break in between. I also had a terrible nurse that made me feel insanely stupid, so that wasn't helping. We had a student nurse that was trying to put an IV in my wrist for the pitocin, but she was having trouble (I'm not sure why... I wasn't really paying attention). Then the grumpy old nurse took over and by the time they got it in my wrist I felt like I needed to push. I didn't want to say anything at first, because they had just told me that I was at 4cm and they hadn't even started the pitocin yet... but I told them anyway.

They all looked at me kinda funny, but agreed to check and sure enough I was at 10cm and ready to push. I'm not sure how you can go from 4cm to 10cm in 15 minutes, but it happened. They quickly rushed to get everything set up and get my doctor there.... then I pushed just a couple times and Adelyn was born at 4:01pm after only 3 hours of labor!!!! She was perfect and healthy, with plump little cheeks! Everyone was shocked that she came so fast... one of the nurses even told me that she didn't expect us to have a baby on her shift (she wasn't off until 7pm).

I had a really bad tear that needed to be repaired in the OR instead of just in the room, so I only got to see Adelyn for a few short minutes and then I was rushed away. They had told us that I would only be in the OR for about 15-20 minutes and then back to the room, but it was more like 2 hours later until I finally got to go to our room on the maternity floor. I was so out of it for a long time and didn't really know what was going on. Plus I had a bunch of IV's and a catheter, which made it nearly impossible to take care of Adelyn since I couldn't get out of the bed. I didn't even get to shower until 2 days later... yuck. So, all of that kinda ruined the experience for us.

Adelyn was born on Friday, Feb. 8th at 4:01pm weighing 8lbs exactly. We finally got to take her home on Sunday late afternoon. We were so excited to have a healthy, beautiful little girl! We both secretly where hoping for a girl the entire pregnancy. :o)

Belly Pic

I just wanted to share this belly pic with you. My wonderful hubby took it after a recent photo shoot with some clients. The baby has had another growth spurt since then... so I will have to take a new one soon.

27+ weeks!

Just wanted to give a quick pregnancy update...

We are now 27 weeks 2 days! Yipee! The end is within' reach... which is starting to freak me out a little bit! By this point in the pregnancy with Adelyn we had everything ready to go and in it's place... with this one... not so much. We have to work on getting Adelyn down to her new bedroom and then we will be able to start painting the baby's room and getting it decorated. We also have to get our room painted and decorated somewhere in there too... sigh.

ANYWAYS.... Here is what is going on in there this week:
At 27 weeks baby weighs almost 2 pounds and is about 14 1/2 inches long. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on.


This is what s/he looks like in there:
This is a picture of a baby born at 27 weeks... just to give you an idea of what our little muchkin looks like now:

So mad I could scream....

So.... last night around 1am Shaun got sick... REALLY, REALLY sick. We spend the next 3 hours scrubbing and sanitizing every wall, and flour in the house... not to mention about 5 loads of laundry. That's how sick he got. Sigh.

On top of that, all the craziness woke Adelyn up and she was screaming because she had no idea what was going on and was so stinkin' tired. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a 1 year old away from a mess like that.... not fun. So, Adelyn and I bundled up at 2am and went to Superstore for ginger ale and more cleaning supplies. To be honest, it was nice to get away from the mess for a little while.

When we got back it was more scrubbing and laundry, then off to bed.

Now, to the part of the story that has had me in tears ever since this whole ordeal started..... my business laptop was the first thing that got "hit".... a short time later it gave us the black screen of death and a terrible beeping sound (kinda sounded like a smoke detector or something).... GRRRRR.............. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've already been stressing out about our photo business lately because we have about 7 shoots booked for January and the idea of being 30+ weeks pregnant during these shoots didn't thrill me... not to mention that I will have no time to edit all of these shoots. NOW, I have no computer to edit them on!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRR again!

We just bought that computer in summer and it was a sacrifice to buy it in the first place, but we desperately needed to because our other computer has issues and won't run my editing software or videos or anything like that. So, I am extremely ticked off about that... but then I realized that all my business documents, appointments, phone numbers, email addresses, and back-up photos from previous shoots are (our were) all on that computer. AHHHHHH!!!!!!! This is the part when I feel like screaming! We also lost all of our personal photos from this entire year. That is a whole years worth of photos that I will never get back. I am beyond upset about this.

GAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please understand that I am not mad at my hubby for being sick... just mad at the situation. I have poured everything I have into this business and now it is all gone.... I have no idea how I am going to re-create everything I lost or edit all the shoots we have coming up in January.... and I have no way of replacing all of the photos we've lost (personal and business).

Some Christmas.

Sewing Projects

I've been getting antsy lately about this new baby coming, and I've had a wonderful break from photo editing... so I decided to fill the time with some sewing projects!!!

When we had Adelyn, someone bought us a few of these First Years -Easy Wrap Swaddlers. It is one of the best inventions ever! You can swaddle your baby, without fussing over receiving blankets, etc. It has velcro tabs to keep it in place, and it worked wonders!
We have a pink one and a yellow one, but since we don't know what we are having this time around, pink might not work and I'd like to have more than one (since they have a tendency to get spit up, peed and pooped on. LOL)
SO....... I decided to get some funky fabric and make my own. (Yes they look a little boy-ish, but I think that turquoise can go either way, so who cares. lol.) What do ya think?


I also took my left over scraps and made a blanket out of them....

So, those projects are completed and I just finished the new crib bedding as well! Yay! I've had the fabric for that sitting around since WAY before this baby came into our lives, so it feels so nice to finally be done!!! I will post about that soon.

-T

Belly Comparison...

I was digging through some old stuff the other day and came across a disc full of pictures from when I was pregnant with Adelyn. I thought it would be fun to compare my baby belly this time, to when I was pregnant with her to see if there was much of a difference.
What do you think? Is there much difference?...... Minus the fact that I actually had time to do my hair back then :o) LOL.

14 weeks with Adelyn
(don't mind the puffy hair please!)

14 weeks with "Sprout"



20 weeks with Adelyn
20 weeks with "Sprout"

22 Weeks!

We are at 22 weeks already, can you believe it! The last month has been a blur! Crazy.... but awesome! Since we are snowed in today (not to mention the fact that we are all under the weather, especially Adelyn... poor thing!), I decided it would be a good day for blogging.

Here is some info about the baby now:

• The fetus reacts to loud sounds.
• Baby starts having a regular sleeping and waking rhythm.
• The mother's movements can wake her baby.
• Taste buds are forming on your baby's tongue.
• The baby is 28cm long (crown to heel) and weighs over 450 grams.
• The weekly weight gain has increased to around 70 grams.

Your baby is about 11 inches long and weighs in at about 1 pound. The eyebrows and eyelids are fully developed, and the fingernails cover the fingertips. Sounds from a conversation are loud enough to be heard by the fetus in the uterus. If you talk, read, or sing to your baby, it's reasonable to expect him or her to be able to hear you.

By this week, your waistline is definitely gone. The top of your uterus is now about 1 inch (3cm) above your bellybutton.