Family

Thank you all so much for your words of congratulations on Monday’s post! It was great to finally be able to share our good news with all of you.

Today I wanted to share Addie’s birth story, because I’ve had a lot of friends asking for details.

(Warning: this is wordy. Please bear with me!)

Addison was due on Monday April 8th. However, April 8th quickly came and went. And still no Addie.

So my doctor scheduled an induction for Monday April 15th, because he does not like to go beyond 41 weeks.

The morning of the 15th, Brandon and I arrived at the hospital at 7:00 am, where I was immediately given a snazzy new outfit to wear.

The doctor started me on a “cervical ripening” medication right away. He explained that for cases like mine, he prefers to use this medication first, before moving to Pitocin. With Pitocin, evidently you are confined to your bed and can’t eat. He predicted that my labor was going to be a long one (possibly 48 hours), so he didn’t want me to be hungry and uncomfortable for that duration of time.

Throughout that Monday, I was able to eat …

… and do lots of walking to try to move things along.

Unfortunately, Addie didn’t appear to be in much of a hurry. Despite my contractions getting more intense throughout the day, by 11:00 pm, I was only dilated about 2 cm.

That was so not what I wanted to hear!

The doctor and I agreed at that time to start my epidural. He then planned to break my water and start me on Pitocin, if he felt it was necessary. Then he wanted me to rest up for the night, because he anticipated a long day the following day.

The epidural was ridiculously easy (seriously … not the scary thing that people make it out to be). After that, I figured the process would be a breeze.

Nope … not so much. Winking smile

Soon after breaking my water, the doctor and nurses hurried back in my room and started moving me around in the bed and talking medical talk. They eventually explained to me and Brandon that following the epidural, my blood pressure dropped (a common side effect). Addison evidently did not like the drop in my blood pressure combined with my water being broken. She wasn’t handling things as well as they would have liked. To try to help her, the doctor decided to start adding fluid back into the amniotic sac. This whole process made me and Brandon nervous, but we just kept praying that everything would be OK.

I tried to sleep for a few hours, but it was nearly impossible. My mind wouldn’t shut off and I just wanted to know how my little girl was doing.

Around 3:00 am, my doctor returned to my room. He checked my cervix and said that I was only 3 cm. He then explained that he had been monitoring me all night, and he was concerned about the baby. Every time I had a contraction, her heart rate would drop. Additionally, her resting heart rate was suddenly increasing from 140 bpm to over 180 bpm. He said that if I was further along with my labor, he would try to have the baby naturally. But since I was only 3 cm, he thought it was best to have a C-section.

At this point, I got pretty emotional because I knew that with a C-section, I wouldn’t get to hold my baby right away. But I also knew without a doubt that we needed to do whatever was best for Addison. So Brandon and I quickly agreed on the C-section, and then prayed and prayed.

The C-section itself wasn’t bad. I got really shaky (like, teeth chattering) because of the epidural, and I sometimes felt like I couldn’t breathe (partly because my nose was so congested from crying!). But other than that, it was an easy process. Brandon sat next to my head the entire time. When the baby was about to be born, they allowed him to stand up and take pictures.

(I actually have some pretty amazing pictures of her coming out of my belly, but I didn’t want to gross anyone out haha.)

After maybe 10 minutes of cleaning her off and making sure she was in good health, they wrapped her up and brought her over to my head.

It was so hard not to be able to hold her right away. I was crying my eyes out, but I was just so incredibly thankful to have a healthy little girl.

After that brief moment together, the nurses took Addison back to my room to finish doing their check-up. Brandon was able to go with them and spend some quality daddy-daughter time with Addie.

I stayed in the delivery room and was sewn back up. After maybe 15-20 minutes, I was finally able to return to my room and hold my baby.

I was also able to breastfeed her for the first time, which was the most amazing moment ever. Red heart

Because I had a C-section, I stayed in the hospital until Friday, which is a little longer than normal.

Throughout the next several days, I slowly started going through the healing process. For the first 24 hours after the surgery, I had to stay in bed. But after that, I was able to slowly start moving around.

The nurses and doctors all commented on how well I was recovering. But I was definitely thankful to have that extra day in the hospital … having nurses and lactation consultants available around the clock was a huge help!! Thumbs up

We also had several visitors, including a few friends …

… Addie’s Uncle Matt (Brandon’s brother) …

… and my mom. Smile

My mom stayed for over a week and was such an incredible blessing. She cooked and froze meals, cleaned, ran errands, and basically just did anything and everything she could think of to make life easier on us!

By the end of the week, I think we were all a little tired of the hospital. Winking smile

After receiving all of our discharge paperwork, we got packed up and ready to head home!

We said good-bye to one of our favorite nurses, Helen …

… and hit the road!

Since being home, we’ve had our good moments and our tougher moments. But overall, we have been very blessed to have a positive transition into the “real world!”

We’ve already discovered that Addie loves anything that swings …