Adalyn's Birth Story - Part I

Nine months.  When I look back and think that Adalyn was in my belly for nine months it’s hard to believe.  What a miracle maker God is!  Let’s start at the beginning and let’s just say, if you’re not in the mood to read, don’t start because this may be a long post:)

In the middle of July I was driving to a wedding with my good friend, Nikki, and we were talking about babies and starting our families.  We were, of course, talking about all things baby related, names being one of them.  I shared a couple names I liked and then for some reason the name Adalyn came to mind (I’m trying to remember exactly how…I think Nikki’s friend had a daughter named Adalyn) and I instantly loved it!  It was different enough but not too out there, which is what I like.  So I said to Nikki, if the Lord blesses us with a little girl, we’ll name her Adalyn (of course I ran this by Greg :)).  Well a few weeks later, Miss Adalyn Faith was conceived.  But from the beginning we decided not to find out the gender.  In fact, pretty much everyone had convinced me that I was having a boy, but deep down there was a part of me that thought back to that car ride and thought that I maybe I was carrying Adalyn all along.

Praise the Lord for a healthy pregnancy.  I really had very few pregnancy related symptoms, but I will share that I had an issue with tomatoes early on.  What’s ironic is that Greg and I planted about 10 tomato plants in our garden, so we had an abundance of them!  Yuck, I just couldn’t eat them.  Towards the end of my pregnancy I started to get swollen ankles and feet.  I attribute it to driving an hour to work and then sitting all day.  All things considered, I had nothing to complain about.  Let’s fast forward to the end of my pregnancy so I can get to the exciting part – Adalyn’s birth!  When I was 40 weeks and 2 days pregnant, I hopped on the treadmill in my basement for my usual run.  I had kept up running all throughout pregnancy, with my midwife’s blessing of course, so I didn’t think much about getting on the treadmill that Saturday morning.  Well I don’t know if the run is what triggered it, but after a few minutes my back started to really hurt.  Of course I stopped and just decided to walk, thinking that it was probably something I could walk off.  Not even a massage later that day helped ease the pain.  I spent the next 5 days in pain every time I took a step!  Wow, I don’t know how women with low back pain handle it for months; I could barely stand it 5 days.  Needless to say, my back pain put a damper on the next few days because not only was I anxious for baby T to arrive, but I was now in pain.  I tried to take it easy and relax…easier said than done.  

Alright, a little background before I get to the actual birth day.  Baby T’s head was down from about 34 weeks onward – praise the Lord!  I had been praying that would be the case from the beginning.  At my 38 week appointment, my midwife checked to see if I was dilated, which I wasn’t.  She said she doubted the baby would come anytime soon, which didn’t surprise me since it was my first baby.  So Greg and I headed off to a wedding a few hours away that weekend and I continued to feel great.  At 39 weeks, still no action.  I wasn’t dilated and the baby was still pretty high.  At that point, my midwife mentioned the word – induction.  She was going to be out of town on my actual due date, so she went over all the logistics at the 39 week appointment just in case I didn’t go into labor before 41 weeks.  The nurse actually scheduled my induction for April 28 that same day.  I was still hopeful that I would go into labor beforehand, but there was a part of me that really thought I would need to be induced.  Not that induction is bad; in fact, I’m sharing all of this to say IT’S NOT ALWAYS BAD, I just really had hopes of going into labor on my own and having a natural delivery.  Greg and I decided not to share the potential for induction with many people.  We wanted the baby’s birthday to be a surprise.  At my 40 week appointment, there was still no action.  Keep in mind I really didn’t have expectations of going into labor before my due date, so I was still hopeful.  The doctor who saw me at my 40 week appointment confirmed that I would be induced the following Thursday.  Well my due date, April 21, came and went.  I started to think I would have baby T on Easter.  Nope, that day came and went, too.  The following Tuesday I had another appointment with my midwife.  Still NO action!  I shed a tear or two as the induction was confirmed once again (I’ll blame it on pregnancy hormones).  The good news of the day, however, was that rather than getting an IV with the induction drug, I was going to take an oral drug.  I was really excited about that because part of the reason I didn’t want to be induced was due to the IV and the constraints that it can have while trying to give birth naturally.  I left feeling pretty relaxed about things.  God was in control and I was ultimately just praying for a healthy baby.  

Greg and I drove to the appointment together because I wasn’t driving due to my back pain.  Greg went to work after my appointment and my mom picked me up.  I shared the news with my mom and I just remember her saying that I really needed to pay attention to see if I was having contractions.  She said I most likely wouldn’t feel them in the beginning.  Okay, I thought, well I haven’t felt anything so I’m not having them!  We went to the farmer’s market later that morning and as we were there my mom felt my belly.  This wasn’t out of the ordinary.  She liked touching my belly and talking to baby T :)  But as she did, she said Amanda feel how hard your belly is.  I felt it and thought yea, it’s hard.  Then we waited and it went back to normal.  She said that’s a contraction!  Really, I thought?  This is what I wanted…to experience all of these things, so I began to pay closer attention.   I don’t remember how far apart the contractions were at that point, all I know is that they weren’t painful.   

Wednesday rolled around…I began receiving texts from people at work and friends, all wondering if baby T had arrived.  One more day I thought to myself.  My mom and I had plans to go to lunch that day.  We went to a cute place and I ate a big pesto chicken Panini.  My contractions were starting to get closer together, but I was still feeling good.  We headed off to the outlets.  There’s nothing like some good old retail therapy to distract a pregnant woman.  It seemed like everywhere I went someone asked when I was due.  I responded by saying a week ago, but I’m hoping to have the baby today!  I remember going into Coach (I left empty handed, in case you’re wondering) and two women working there started chatting baby stuff with me.  They tried to convince me right then and there to have my mom and other members of my family in the delivery room.  I love my family, but definitely didn’t want them in the delivery room.  That was reserved for just Greg and I.  My mom and I proceeded to Gap.  I looked at the baby stuff and bought a new lightweight robe I thought I might wear in the hospital (I didn’t).  My mom was still checking out when I thought, man these contractions are starting to get more intense.  I stepped outside and kind of walked that one off.  I now know that my mom sensed I was pretty tired so went were on our merry way.  My midwife told Greg and I to go out for dinner that night and try to relax before Thursday.  Since Greg worked until 7 and I was pretty wiped out, I opted to just make a big salad for dinner.  It was delicious – BBQ chicken, avocado and some ranch, just to name a few things.  The contractions seemed to get even more intense as I was making dinner.  Greg got home, we chatted about the day, but mainly about the next day!  Pretty soon it was time to get ready for bed.  Even though I had showered that morning I decided to shower again right before bed, just in case we went to the hospital in the middle of the night.  Everyone I had talked to said that it just felt good to be clean, so I decided to hop in the shower around 9:00 PM.  The contractions didn’t stop when I was in the shower or the rest of the night.  In fact, I didn’t sleep a wink!  I tried to lie down, but every time I had a contraction I had to get up to get my mind off of it.  I spent most of the night sitting on an exercise both, swaying from side to side.  I told Greg to just sleep because I knew the next day would be a big one.  He eventually fell asleep.  I did end up waking him at one point asking him to time the contractions because they were getting more intense.  Part of me thought we would go to the hospital before my 8:00 AM induction.  It turns out that they weren’t quite long enough or close enough together.  Morning rolled around and it was time for another shower.  I put on some comfy clothes (black pants and a black shirt to be exact) and my raincoat.  It was raining pretty hard when we left the house.  Greg packed the car and picked me up outside the front of our house.  We were on our way, but first we had to stop for a bagel.  Greg asked what I wanted for breakfast and all I could think about was carbs.  Carbs for energy!  Greg  grabbed me a toasted honey wheat bagel with butter.  It was SO good.  About 15 minutes later we arrived at the hospital.  Let the fun begin!  I’ll be back another day to share some more :)