Our Special Delivery

Some of you may be wondering exactly how I wound up at the hospital 5cm dilated when I said I was going to walk into the hospital backwards at the first sign of pain. So I thought I might share a little bit of the details of delivery with you all so you could laugh along with us.

Thursday morning, April 8 I woke up with my first real contraction around 5:30am. Ryan went into work early that day and had already left the house. I decided to start timing my contractions and the whole morning they were between 30 and 40 minutes apart. At lunch they went away so I decided to go into work so I didn't have to take a day of PTO. I probably had a couple contractions that afternoon, but I was busy finishing up things so didn't really pay attention.

When I got home later that evening, I didn't want to eat leftovers so I cooked a pretty good meal and Ryan left for flag football at 8pm. At 8:30 pm I started having contractions again and started timing them (thank goodness for the iPhone!)- both in length and how far apart. This time, they were consistently between 10-15 minutes and lasting around a minute. I knew I wasn't supposed to go to the hospital until they were at least 5 minutes apart, for 1 minute long, for at least one hour. I thought this might be the beginning of true labor so I took a shower, sat on the bouncy ball, breathed through the contractions, and all the other relaxation techniques they teach you in childbirth class. Ryan came home from softball and stayed up with me until midnight, then I watched tv in the den with Skylar for a few hours. Sleeping was not an option since the contractions hurt pretty bad- especially in my back if I laid down. However, they stayed 10 minutes apart until finally at 4:30am I said I was going to call the doctor because they were anywhere from 1-2 minutes in length. The doctor on call told me the only way to know how I was progressing was to go to the hospital to get checked, but she did not sound reassuring since my contractions were not very close. We decided to drive to the hospital, but were pretty confident they were going to send us home. We put all the grandparents on alert but told them not to make any moves yet.

When we arrived to the hospital around 6:30am we were surprised to find out I was 5cm dilated (the nurses were pretty surprised too- considering I didn't look like I was in a ton of pain). We found out we were going to be delivering a baby that day and I was already halfway there! After that, things started happening pretty fast- I was wheeled to the delivery unit, given the epidural, the doctor broke my water, and I progressed to 9cm quickly on my own. In the meantime, all grandparents and siblings were given the go ahead to drive in to Nashville. My mom, dad, and Mema started booking it from Athens, Ryan's sister Rebecca drove back from a quick trip to Atlanta, my brother drove down from Wisconsin, and Jim drove in from a work trip. Since I slowed down a little at 9cm, they gave me a little pitocin to regulate my contractions and fully dilate me. I started pushing at 1:30 and at 2:40 my little Adalyn was born. Ryan did great throughout it all too- he hung back and drank Sprites at the beginning while my two labor nurses helped me, but when I had to change pushing positions Ryan got more in the action. He was a great support! The whole delivery process was amazing to me- I had a mirror up to watch (I think this helped me push since in ballet and pilates I always used a mirror to understand how to use and hold my body) and really was a miracle to me. My labor nurses were fantastic and knew how to get me to push so Adalyn made it through. Everything about my delivery was wonderful, special, and a miracle. The Lord blessed me with a very special day and I wouldn't change a thing.

My recovery has been a little harder than the average delivery and that's been hard this first week wanting to take care of a baby while really having to take care of yourself. The first few days and nights in the hospital were a blur and really tough because Adalyn wasn't on a good schedule. We've since got her feeding around every 3 hours and she sleeps really well at night now. Ryan and I are taking shifts so he gets to sleep more consecutive hours and is able to help out around the house more during the day. Gigi is on her way up here this afternoon to spend the week with us, which will be great help.

We feel very blessed to have a healthy baby, tons of support from family and friends, and the beginning of a strong family. More pictures and updates to come!