I'm excited to share Ada's birth story but I'm not quite sure where to start. Everything about Ada's labor and delivery happened so suddenly and quick. I'm going to try and remember everything before it becomes a blur. I warn you this will be a long post. :)
On Thursday the 19th I got off work around 4 pm and when I got home I immediately started packing up boxes since we were planning on being completely moved to Brian's mom's house by Saturday the 21st. (Brian's mom is going on a mission and asked us to live in her house while she is gone.) So our plan was to take a load of our stuff over to her house that night. I think moving that stuff is what sent me into labor. I'm pretty sure I over did it. When we were done unloading our stuff at her house we headed to Salt Lake where we had plans to meet up with our good friends Ali and Robbie at the Clark Planetarium at 8 pm. We had discount tickets to the U2 laser show. Just before we arrived at the Planetarium I began to not feel very well. Nothing serious, just some abdominal discomfort that made me feel like I needed to go to the bathroom. A feeling like I might have diarrhea or something. (I'm sorry if you get grossed out by anything I say. Usually birth stories have some facts to them that aren't pleasant.) My stomach didn't hurt the whole time, it would come and go throughout the whole laser show. It was kind of frustrating because I would feel good one moment and then sick the next. All I could think about was the fact that I wanted to go to the bathroom and get some relief. Once the show was over our friends invited us over to their house for some ice cream. When they invited us I felt fine but by the time we got to our car I told Brian we needed to go home because I didn't feel well and I needed to rest.
Once we got home my discomfort just continued to get worse. I felt like I was having menstrual cramps and colon cramps at the same time. All I wanted to do was sit on the toilet but that never made me feel better. I was getting frustrated because I couldn't find relief. I was experiencing moments of relief but nothing long lasting. In the mean time, Brian was still packing up boxes and I was trying to help. (My help wasn't very effective. I think the only thing I accomplished was pulling all of the dishes out of the cupboards and putting them on the counter.) Then something gross happened and I won't share the details but let's just say my mucous plug came out. Then my lower back started to hurt and cramp up. I finally started to realize that I might be in labor. Brian told me to time how long my pain lasted and how long I would feel relief in between. There were about 5 - 8 min between each bout of pain. This confused/worried me even more. I was told that contractions would start out being 20 min apart. Why were mine already 5 min apart? I was frustrated and scared to the point of tears, and I was in a lot of pain so I decided to call my midwife to see what she thought I should do. It was about 12:30 am by this time and I really didn't want to wake her up but I didn't know what else to do. I didn't want to show up at the hospital and then have them send me home because I wasn't really in labor. When my midwife answered I started crying. I explained everything I was experiencing and she said, "Well it sounds like you are in early labor. If you want you can go to the hospital and they can assess you and see how far along you are." I apologized for waking her up but was glad that I got to talk to her. I told Brian what she said and he calmly told me that if I wanted to go to the hospital that was fine, we could go. (I'm pretty sure he didn't think I was in labor.) I decided that I did want to go to the hospital because I was scared and the pain was getting worse. So Brian rushed around the apartment trying to pack a hospital bag for us. We didn't have a bag packed yet because I wasn't due for another 2 1/2 weeks. Why would we get something like that ready early? ;)
On the way to the hospital the pain in my back and lower abdomen got really intense. All I could do was squeeze the over head handle as hard as I could and move my legs around to try and mentally handle the pain I was experiencing. It wasn't very successful, I couldn't help but moan and cry the whole way there. I think it was then that Brian finally came to realize that I really was in labor. He tried to comfort me the best he could which I appreciated. All I could think about was getting to the hospital. That was the longest 20 min drive of my life.
We arrived at the hospital at 1:30 am and the sweet security guard at the entrance got me a wheelchair and took the time to wheel me up to labor and delivery himself. (He is probably supposed to do that for any laboring lady but he made me feel special in my moment of agony.) We got to the labor and delivery and nurse Lynnette quickly registered me and wheeled me back to my L&D suite. Once on the bed she told me that I was dilated to a 5. I asked her "Does that mean I can stay?" She laughed a little and replied, "Yes, you can stay." She proceeded to ask me if I wanted an epidural and I said "Yes, please!!! (I want to take a second and praise those of you that go natural. You are amazing. I have no desire to do that, ever.) Once I got the epidural from Dr. Bell I was a much happier person. But about 30 min later my water broke and I started to feel my contractions again. They had to call Dr. Bell back in to redo my epidural. I'm not excited to see the bill for the extra epidural but I'm certainly grateful it. I couldn't feel anything. I've never been so excited to have my legs numb. And I finally felt like I could relax and let labor really progress effectively. It didn't take long for me to progress from 5 to 7 then to 10. My midwife Gretchen came in somewhere between those last two numbers and she stayed with me until Ada was born. I highly recommend certified nurse midwives. They are amazing! Well atleast Gretchen is amazing!
Once I was a 10 they explained to me that we would start pushing soon. They told me to take a deep breath and push as hard as I could for 10 seconds in sets of 3. I could still feel part of my ab muscles which made pushing more effective. They started me out pushing on my back but Ada's heart rate went down while doing that. So they had me push on my side. The atmosphere in the room was perfect. It was calm, quiet and there were only 3 people helping me: Brian, Gretchen and Lynnette. All 3 of them were coaching me and telling me when my pushes were most effective. It was the perfect support team. Between pushes I would close my eyes and relax until they told me it was time to push again. After about an hour of pushing Ada made her entrance into the world at 6:04 am. They immediately placed a towel on my stomach and placed her on top to clean her off. They asked Brian if he wanted to cut the cord and he enthusiastically replied "YEAH!" Once she was mostly clean they placed her on my bare chest. I guess there has been a lot of research done showing that immediate skin contact is very beneficial to the baby. And I would add it is beneficial to the mother as well. I loved every second of it. She was so precious and I am so happy that I got to spend the first moments of her life so close to her. After about 10 - 15 min of holding her on my chest they took her over to be weighed and measured.
They rounded up and said that she weighed 6 lb 11 oz and was 19 in long. They all commented that that was a pretty good size for only being 37 weeks and 5 days along. I'm glad she decided to come a little early. I'm not sure I could have handled a baby any bigger than that. I still can't believe she fit inside of me. After weighing her they placed her under the warmer and Brian got to spend some time with her. I loved seeing him over there watching over her.
We were surprised by how quickly everything happened with this being our first baby. Labor started around 8 pm on Thursday, we got to the hospital at 1:30 am Friday and she was born at 6:04 am. I feel very blessed that neither one of us had any complications and everything went so smoothly. We are so blessed to have this precious and perfect angel in our lives. It's amazing how much you can love something so small and helpless. She is with out a doubt a beautiful blessing from our Heavenly Father.
We love you Ada Mae!!!
