Little Adalyn Mae was born on Friday, 1/14/11, at 9:47 a.m. She was 8lbs, 1oz, exactly like her brother, and was 19" long. It's taken me awhile to get this announcement up, but I guess that's life with two little ones for ya! I rarely have more than a few minutes at a time to hop on the computer.
My contractions started up, like usual, on Thursday night as I was trying to fall asleep. Instead of laying in bed and getting my hopes up like I normally do, I decided to just jump up and take a bath, something I knew would make my contractions go away because it always does. This time, though, I continued to have contractions and then I felt a pop, similar to what I felt when my water broke with Ben. But when I got out, I wasn't sure my water had actually broken. I called the doctor anyway and she wanted us to come in, so we packed up and off we went.
We checked in and quickly found out that my water hadn't broken. I was so discouraged and thought that we would be headed home shortly. When they hooked me up to monitors, my contractions showed up. I guess that was the little bit of hope I needed to hold onto. I was still only 5 cm dilated, though, so they suggested I walk around. I knew it would have the opposite effect since my contractions always stop when I get active. Sure enough, I was right.
After walking for 30 minutes and not getting contractions, I opted just to lay down. Pretty soon after, my contractions started getting stronger, longer and closer together. Each one hurt a little more than the last, and when they checked me a little while later I was 6 cm dilated. I was pumped!
My doctor came in around 8:45ish Friday morning and broke my water. I braced myself for what was to come, and very quickly I was hit with a monster contraction. And then another, and another and I looked over at Tim and said something along the lines of, "I don't think I can do this without an epi, after all." He and the nurse reminded me that it was just about getting through one contraction at a time. I had planned on doing all sorts of things to handle the pain: the birth ball, the bath, walking around, moaning, anything. But as it turns out, the only thing I was capable of doing was demanding that Tim play the same song over and over (How He Loves Us, David Crowder Band), gripping the rail on the left side of the bed for dear life and screaming through every contraction, just sure I was going to die. I felt like my pelvis was breaking and the nurse rubbed my back really hard. It helped a ton.
Not too long after, I felt the urge to push. More than that, my body started involuntarily pushing. The nurse checked me and bolted out the door to get the doctor, who was at her office in another part of the hospital. I kept screaming at them that I needed the doctor there NOW, and after what seemed like an eternity, she finally ran in, gowned up and sat down just in time for me to push Addie out in one contraction! In retrospect, I was pretty upset that we chose to deliver where we did with who we did because they made me lay flat on my back to push her out even though I told them over and over again that trying to lay on my back was the most horrendous, tortuous pain ever and then they took her out of the room to bathe her even after Tim reminded them we specifically asked for them to bathe her in our room in our birth plan.
But it was AMAZING going natural and feeling every sensation, even if it was, by far, the worst pain of my life. Adalyn is a beauty and the perfect baby. She doesn't cry, she nurses like a champ, she makes the cutest little noises and she's just an angel. Ben still isn't too sure what to think of his "sisser." :)
And I just have to add in there that I accomplished my goal of only gaining 25 lbs this pregnancy! Yippee!
Adalyn Mae Hibbard's birth video from Chelsea Hibbard on Vimeo.
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