Hi Ya’ll!
You might have noticed it’s been quiet here for a couple of weeks. That’s because I am not a planner, and therefore, had no posts pre-scheduled for when I delivered. Somehow, I thought I would be able to continue to keep up my blogging schedule with two little ones.That may be the case in a few weeks when things settle down, but right now I’m dealing with a 2.5 year old terrorist who takes all of my patience and a newborn who takes all of my time.

For now, know that someday I will return to my regularly scheduled blog posts, but current state- I’ll be dropping in when I can.

Our little Adalyn Grace came three days early, just like her sister. I was due 3/27/15 and she was born 3/24/15. With Everleigh, I was due 10/30/12 and she was born 10/27/12.

That’s about the only commonality of their deliveries!! If you were following me when I had Everleigh, you’ll remember her birth story. Adalyn’s story is very different.

Adalyn’s story starts at 4pm on Monday March, 23rd. I was just finishing up work and hit the bathroom. This is where I discovered the same “bloody show” I had with Everleigh. I knew from that point it could be hours, days, or even weeks before she arrived. With Everleigh, it was about 51 hours later, so I was expecting to deliver in the next day or two.

Shortly after that bathroom trip, the contractions started. They were not nearly as regular as they were with Everleigh, but they were stronger. When I had been at the doctor’s late the previous week, I was 1cm. With Everleigh, I wasn’t 1cm until I was in the hospital with regular contractions.
The contractions finally started to become somewhat regular around 9pm that night. They weren’t spaced quite as closely as they should have been, so I went to bed and decided to wait, wait, wait. If you recall with Everleigh, I made two trips to the hospital and was sent home the first, and almost, the second time. With this one, I was determined to ride it out at home.

Around midnight the contractions started to get so strong they woke me up, so I went down and tried to sleep on the couch. I dozed in and out until about 2pm. At that point I was getting a little nervous. They were regular and pretty strong and I wasn’t sure how quickly things had, or were going to, progress. I knew that we had to leave sufficient time to get my Mother-in-law to our house and then for us to get to the hospital (so roughly about 30-40 minutes). I wasn’t really willing to chance it so at 2:15am, I woke Kyle up and said “call your mom”.

Poor GG hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before because she was waiting for her phone to ring. When we called her early Tuesday morning, she slept right through the calls and texts. Luckily, she’s a short trip away so we loaded Evie up and drove over to her place to drop her off.

When we arrived at the hospital, it was about 3:00am. I went up to the maternity floor and they put me right in a room (I was thinking YES! I’m staying!). At the hospital in PA, they sent me to triage where they monitored me to determine if I was worthy of an L&D room. However, I only found out after getting in the room, that I could still be sent home. 🙁 Somehow, I was only 3cm and my contractions were 4-6 minutes apart and not as strong as they would have liked them to be. They hooked me up to the monitor and watched me.

About an hour later the nurse came in and said, ‘we can let you walk around in the hopes that you progress, but if you don’t, you’ll be sent home’. So, Kyle and I roamed the halls of L&D for an hour. When the nurse came back to check me she said, ‘eh, you’re maybe about 3.5-4cm’. I told her I really didn’t want to leave so I’d do whatever it took to progress. Next step- -sit on the stability ball.

The doctor came in about 2 hours later, I believe around 7am and checked my dilation. Somehow- I was 7cm!

At that point, we discussed an epidural. I was pretty adamant with Everleigh that I did not want one, for three reasons: 1) I hate needles 2) Being a nurse, I would KNOW exactly whats being done and how big the needle is 3) Women have been giving birth for centuries without epidruals.

However, my girlfriends had all talked about how AMAZING it was and given the fact that I was completely traumatized by Everleigh’s birth, I thought a big needle might be OK.

HOLY COW- were those girls ever right. I am COMPLETELY crazy for having done it natural the first time around. The epidural was freakin’ amazing!!!!!

Anyway, so I got the epidural at 7 or 8 cm. My contractions at that point were still about 5 minutes apart and strong, but not completely unbearable. The nurse was shocked that they were still so far apart but progressing me so quickly. Shortly after my epidural kicked in, they ruptured my membranes and we expected to have a baby around lunchtime.

I kind of wonder if I shouldn’t have gotten the epidural, just because the labor was so easy (contractions 5 minutes apart are completely doable). But, I’m still glad I got it!! Besides, even if you survive contractions, you still have to push!

The whole experience was just completely calm and almost enjoyable. There was no screaming, there was no pain, there was just pushing and hard work. I only pushed for about 30 minutes before she arrived at 12:18pm. Just in time for a lunch date 🙂

She has been doing awesome since we’ve been home. We only stayed in the hospital one night, because, lets be honest, who likes hospital beds and food?! She did have quite a bit of amniotic fluid she was spitting up since she was delivered so quickly. But luckily that only lasted for a few days. So far, she is an awesome sleeper and nurser. Yay!

Everleigh on the other hand, is a story to tackle for another day. She’s been quite a terror.