The Birth Story

After giving it some thought, I decided I wanted to document the details surrounding Addison's birth and since this blog is technically the only "journal" I keep, I'm choosing to post it here. This way Addison will always know the details of when she was born, even if mommy forgets them over the years.

Thursday, May 28th 2009 - Addison's Birthday!

Little Miss Addibell was due to be born on May 17th but much to our surprise chose to stay inside her mommy for 1 1/2 weeks PAST her original due date. We did have our first induction scheduled to take place on May 19th but we decided to reschedule for a later date and give her a chance to make her debut on her own since Mommy wasn't effaced or dilated at all for that matter and didn't want to chance an emergency c-section.

So, we waited....and waited...and waited...and finally decided to schedule the real induction for Thursday, May 28th (just three days before I hit 42 weeks!) We were definitely ready to greet her and Mommy was beginning to wonder just if she would ever come on her own. So, Thursday morning we showed up to the hospital at 9:30 am and after filling out the paperwork we finally got the Pitocin drip at 11:30 am. Things seemed to progress fairly slowly at first. We spent the day relaxing and visiting. John, Sarah, and my Mom gave me feet rubs, helped me with my breathing, and made sure I was as comfortable as possible. The pain wasn't bad in the beginning but it did creep up on me throughout the afternoon. I tried to hold off on the epidural as long as possible but by the time 7:00 pm rolled around I was in tears and in intense pain. I was dilated to a 4 and finally requested the epidural pronto. At that point the Pitocin was making me contract every 45 seconds so I didn't have much of a chance to recuperate between contractions. I was worn out and needing a break. Luckily the anesthesiologist came quickly and even inserted the needle quickly. I had been paranoid that I would feel pain but he was great. He never once mentioned when he was doing the actual epidural needle - he only announced the pain numbing needle and before I knew it he was done and I was on my back letting the medicine run through like cold water. He did wonderfully and I was finally pain free - well for at least 30 minutes or so it seems. I didn't get much of a break from the contractions before I felt immense pressure. I remember him telling me the medicine would take away the "pain" but I would still feel some pressure - surely I thought this wasn't my definition of "some pressure" - it was a LOT of pressure. According to the monitor I was having contractions pretty consistently - and I could feel them - well at least the pressure of them and it hurt. Up until this point, I had resisted hitting the little pain control button in my hand but because of the pressure I was clicking it as much as possible. I just didn't seem to get any relief even with that. The nurse had another anesthesiologist brought up to see if he could up my dosage and relieve SOME of the pressure. By then the nurse also checked me and I had dilated from a 4 to a 9 1/2 in an hour - no wonder I felt so much pressure. They started prepping the room for delivery and I just laid there in pain. My doctor had visited me earlier but had now already left for home so they had to call her back to the hospital. Apparently she had mentioned to my nurse to go ahead and have me push a couple times in the meantime. My nurse relayed this to us and said there was no way she was going to do that since I was so close to delivery. So we sat and waited and finally Dr. Ford arrived. Everyone assumed their positions. John held my right leg and Sarah held my left, while my Mom videotaped. For some reason I had assumed that my doctor would tell me when to push but everyone just kind of stood there and waited for me to begin the process. So finally, I announced each contraction and pushed as they came. They made me do three 10 second pushes on each contraction. Even though I had an oxygen mask on, I still seemed to get light headed and I started wondering how I would be able to deliver a baby if I passed out. Then I got nauseated and in between contractions I puked three times. After every contraction I kept saying how bad it hurt and how sick I was etc etc until I finally realized what little energy I had I was wasting on talking so I decided to buckle down and shut-up before I passed out on the floor. During the process I had no idea how close Addison was to coming out. Except for when John and Sarah counted to 10 for me each time I could hear their voices go from normal to excited. Even through the pain of pushing I liked hearing their inflection in their voices so I could know I was actually progressing. Otherwise I was convinced I'd be pushing forever. My doctor asked if I'd like to reach down and feel the head - I think I said something to the effect of "No, I'll feel it when she comes out, I just want her out". John also mentioned that Addison had so much hair that between contractions our doctor would just twirl her hair in her hands as she waited for me to start pushing again. I pushed for 45 minutes before Addison came out and I was definitely surprised when they laid her on my chest. She was so beautiful. John and I were both bawling as we looked at her. Then finally the took her to clean her up and John and Sarah headed to the other side of the room with her while my Mom stayed behind with me. It seemed like my doctor was stitching me up FOREVER. It hurt too. She gave me some more numbing shots but it still seemed to hurt. I finally asked her how much I tore and she said it was a 2nd degree tear I think. I don't know why I asked since I had no idea if that was a bad tear or a good tear. I just remember thinking I wanted her to be done already. While laying there in pain, I'll always remember looking over at John & Sarah as they looked at Addison in the warmer and seeing John just break down and sob while Sarah hugged him. It made me tear up just seeing how happy he was. Then they started taking pictures and meeting her while I laid in bed getting stitched up. John later mentioned he felt so pulled in both directions. He'd look at Addison and want to be with her then he'd look back at me in pain and want to be with me. We had previously agreed that he'd be with Addison after delivery so he finally chose to stay with her until they bundled her up and gave her to her Daddy and he came and gave her to me. We had another crying session and I held Addison and just loved how she looked up at me. She was so adorable. I couldn't believe after all of these years John and I were finally parents. Everything was just so surreal. She was perfect in every way. She was born at 8:14 pm and weighed 8 lbs 8 oz. We couldn't be happier being her parents.