Adalyne May: LABOR and Delivery

Well, little Adalyne is here! She is beautiful and wonderful and we just can't get enough of her. The birth story is below...sorry if it is way too long and there are way too many pictures! Her official birth stats were:

Adalyne May Randall

Born at 10:23pm June 30, 2011

6 lbs 9 oz

20 inches long

Gorgeous beyond belief.

Chapter One: My Body Is In Labor But Won't Dilate

It all started on Tuesday when I began getting pretty painful contractions, but they weren't consistent until that evening when they started getting worse and worse, closer and closer. I seriously had no idea that contractions were so painful...I swear, someone could have warned me :) By 2 am, I was dying...breathing through each contraction, tears on the way. We finally headed down the canyon at 3:30 to Utah Valley hospital to check in. By then, the contractions were 2 -3 minutes apart, 60 - 80 seconds long, and I was sobbing through each one. Unfortunately, despite the extreme pain and being in obvious labor, I was only dilated to a 1 - GRRRRR. They kept me for a long, painful hour (without meds) to see if I would change, but I didn't, so they sent me home with a morphine shot to the hip and said, "If it is real labor, you'll keep contracting, so come back."

We headed to Jon's parent's house where we zonked out for 6 hours (thank you, morphine) but during my entire nap I was still contracting. When I woke up at about 7pm, the contractions had slowed, but they were still just as painful as when we left the hospital. But I had to wait until they built back up in frequency and so began another LONG, PAINFUL night of counting contractions. At about 1 am, we were so exhausted that we stopped counting and by 3 am, I had hit my patience limit. We headed to the hospital when I was only contracting 5 -6 minutes apart, but they were so intense I could have begged for an epidural.

When we got to the hospital, I was only a 2.5! I was so frustrated. Again, they couldn't keep me unless I progressed in an hour, so they told me to walk. And walk I did...I did probably 40 laps around the Utah Valley Maternity floor, stopping in the middle of the hall for each painful contraction. One ornery nurse told me as I walked by for the 20th time, "Honey...if you're not in labor yet, walking won't change anything." I wanted to hit her. And then the hour came and they came to check and I changed!!!! Only .5 cm but it didn't matter! At 7:30, they officially admitted me and got me that epidural within 15 mins. Oh, heavenly bliss. I do not know how any of you have natural births. I am blessed to be born in this age of modern medicine!

Chapter Two: My Body Is In Labor and SLOWLY Dilates

Thus began the waiting period...from 7:30 am to 8:00pm, I slowly but surely progressed. They thought several times about using Pitocin to speed up my progress, but because my body was doing it on its own, they decided against it. Too bad my body takes its own sweet time! From a "5 plus" to a 6, from a 6 to a "6 plus", it was torture, but I used the time to get some MUCH needed sleep, and so did Jon. Poor Jon was such a trooper, staying up with me, counting contractions, making me as comfortable as possible. He has such a difficult time when I am in any sort of pain and I know that this was really hard for him, but he was such a wonderful coach and support!

Chapter Three: I Take Forever to Push This Baby Out

At 8:00pm, I was finally at a 10 and I was allowed to push! Wooohooo! By then, my body was exhausted...almost 50 hours of continuous, painful contractions wore me out! It felt so weird to push, but feel nothing down below...thank goodness for that epidural. After two and a half hours of pushing, she was finally here! They did have to do an episiotomy, but everything went well. Jon watched the whole thing...I couldn't believe it! He coached me through all the pushing and kept me motivated.

When she finally came out, all the nurses exclaimed at how long her umbilical cord was...haha...apparently it was a few FEET long! Unfortunately, it was also wrapped around her neck three times, so she had some difficulty breathing at first. There was no lusty cry when she finally came out and I was so worried. They brought in the respiratory specialists and Jon and I kept asking if she was okay and they would just say, "Oh, she's having a hard time breathing..." Um, okay, isn't that the main source of life here - AIR. But she ended up being just fine and after several minutes with them, I finally got to hold her.

We are SO happy she is here. She is such a blessing in our lives. We think she is absolutely the most beautiful thing in the world. I love cuddling this little girl close to me and hearing her breathe. It still astounds me that just a few days ago, she was in my belly and it is even more insane to think back to when she was just that little poppyseed.

Her first few days were a struggle...she had low bloodsugar levels, I had difficulty breastfeeding her, and she ended up jaundiced. She had to spend the last day in the hospital under the lights and then she had to sleep in a straightjacket billibed to get rid of her jaundice. But we are happy to say that she is now doing VERY well and is super healthy. I will post her two week stats in another post soon to come. Enjoy these last few pictures