Adalyn's Birth Story

41 Weeks pregnant! Ready to be induced.. SO ready.

In my mind Adalyn's story was going to be just like McKinlee's. My mom was going to come the day before my due date. We would walk like crazy on my due date, and Adalyn would be here the next day. Obviously my plan was flawed because Addie wasn't even close to coming- or at least that's what the Dr. told me the day after my due date. I was really depressed after that appointment and just felt helpless. We decided to schedule the induction date for the following Monday (41 weeks), so I would have an end date no matter what. I worked my booty off that entire week. I walked, I curb walked, ate pineapple.. the works, but still no Addie. After a particularly long walk I thought my water was maybe leaking, so we made the drive out to the hospital that night, but no such luck.

That drive home from the hospital was another upsetting one for me, made even more upsetting when we found out that Arby's milkshake machine was down. Can't a 40+ week pregnant lady catch a break?!
Soon enough, Monday night rolled around. Instead of having us come in early in the morning like they instructed with McKinlee, we were told to come in that night at 7. My mom wanted to come help us get settled, so we dropped McKinlee off with some friends and got to the hospital at 7:45. Our room wasn't ready for us, so we waited in the lobby and watched the season premiere of the Bachelorette haha. We were escorted to our room and introduced to our awesome nurse, Kim. She was perfect for us. I feel like I've hit the jackpot with my 2 deliveries so far. Our nurses have been the best. I got dressed in my gown and hooked up to the monitors by 8:30. I was at a 2 and extremely posterior still. Kim reassured me that it was good that I was being induced because my body was just not doing it on it's own. That made me feel a lot better. At 9:15 she checked me again with no change, so she gave me the cervidil to help ripen my cervix. At this point she told us that being induced could take longer than a day- I had no idea! I had a mini freakout until she told us that she was confident we would go quick. She said my body was ready and since it was my second, it would go fast. I was getting hungry and Kim said I could eat up until I got an epidural, so I sent Stafford out for Jimmy Johns. We ate and judged the contestants on the Bachelorette. My mom left at 9:45 to go pick up McKinlee and put her to bed. At 10:20 we got a surprise visit from the Dr. who was there for another delivery. I had never met her before and was nervous, but I absolutely loved her! I am so happy she was there to deliver us. She checked me and said she could stretch me to a 3 and insert the hook to break my water!! WHAT?!! Already?! She said, "Well we're here to have a baby, right?" We laughed. I guess that's true. Why drag it out? She stuck this long plastic hook up me and broke my water. There was no pain from the hook. It was a slow leak at first, then an occasional gush. After that I think my body was a little shocked because my legs started shaking and I would shiver, but I wasn't cold. I couldn't really control it, but it wasn't scary. Apparently totally normal. It went away after 10 minutes or so. The next time Kim came in to check on me I told her I was ready for an epidural. My contractions were getting strong enough to be a bother and I wanted to get an epidural while I was still able to sit still through them. At some point I threw up. If I had known things were going to go this quickly I wouldn't have eaten a sandwich an hour prior! haha.

The anesthesiologist came in and I had my epidural in by 11:15pm. He stayed for a bit to make sure it kicked in, and I'm glad he did because I had the same problem of my left leg not feeling as numb. He gave me an extra dose and I turned on my side. Just like that- all the feeling was gone. It's always weird to lose control of a limb. By midnight things were starting to settle down.

I sent out a few texts to family (including this lovely "I'm doing great" selfie) then Stafford and I turned on a movie and tried to sleep. Kim checked on me again and gave me some Zofran for my nausea at 1am. I felt much better! Next time I won't wait so long. There is absolutely no way to get sleep when you know you're about to have a baby. The rest was nice though and at least Stafford could sleep for a bit. At 2:05am I was dilated to a 7 and more effaced. My cervix had also moved forward a little, thank heavens! My contractions were every 3 minutes, but I didn't notice them at all. Kim had me turn on my left side (with help) and she put my right leg up in the stirrup to open up my pelvis. She said that baby girl's head was facing up a little bit, but she would probably turn as I pushed. She said it could be just a few hours!! Ahh! At 2:39 Kim had me start doing some practice pushes because you know... "why not?" Seriously the whole process went so fast! We joked with each other about embarrassing things that could happen during labor and she gave me some pointers on pushing. With McKinlee I remember just squeezing everything together and kind of pushing down. I pushed a couple times like that for Kim, and then I tried it the way she described it and she could tell the difference! We pushed a few more times while the Dr. was on her way down. All of a sudden Kim told me to stop and that if I kept going we would have a baby without the Dr! We waited for a few minutes until the Dr. got to our room. The baby nurse was there and ready to go as well. Ah! Kim got me up in the stirrups and had me sit up a bit. Stafford held a leg and got to watch again. Dr. Haws had me push through two contractions. I felt like Addie's head was stuck right there! There was so much pressure. I asked if I could keep pushing without the contractions and she said I could if I wanted to. Apparently it wasn't helping because they had me stop to rest before the next contraction. After a couple more contractions I saw a gush of amniotic fluid fly out (sorry Doc!) and felt so much relief. Her head was out and after another push the doctor laid her right on my chest.

She's here! At 3am Adalyn Rose, my beautiful baby girl was here. She was gorgeous! She looked just like McKinlee to me. I don't think I could process everything right away. It all happened so quickly it's like my mind couldn't believe she was actually here! I just held that baby as long as they would let me. She was so beautiful and so perfect. 7 lb 11 oz of perfect brand new baby!

I loved that they laid her on me right away. The nurse rubbed Addie down while I was holding her and checked her out right there. It was nice to just hold my baby after such a traumatic experience for her. At one point I think she even went potty on me because they hadn't put a diaper on her yet.

My amazing Dr. on the left and Kim, my superhero nurse, on the right.

I held her for what I thought was a little under an hour and then they took her for measurements and to get her wrapped up. They didn't even bathe her until the next day which was kind of weird because she still had some vernix on her, but I was tired and it obviously wouldn't hurt her. The nurses helped me to the bathroom so I could clean up a bit while Stafford was left with our new little beauty.

I breast fed soon after which was a total success! It didn't hurt nearly as much as it did with McKinlee and I just felt more confident in it. We moved to another room in a more secluded part of the hospital which was nice and got settled in for the night by 6am. It was a long night, but absolutely amazing. I love birth. I may sound crazy for saying that, but it is such an amazing, spiritual time. It's just magical when you get to bring a tiny human into the world. What a gift!

This girl has been a dream and is the perfect addition to our family. We can already tell that she has a calmness about her and this sweet girl is very easy going which probably helps her survive hurricane McKinlee.
We love you Addie Rose!

Here is McKinlee's birth story which was a little different.