Wow, what an experience, what a miracle children really are. And each choose to come in their own timing. Here is Hadley's birth story:
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| 7 lbs 4 oz. |
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| 21.5 inches tall. |
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| Daddy putting on her first diaper. |
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| Me and Hadley, Rachel, Trinette, and Tayah |
Thursday August 30, 2012 around 1:30 a.m. I woke up feeling a little damp so I got up to go to the bathroom and had the suspicion my water had broke, but wasn't sure. About an hour later I wake up feeling more dampness and figuring it must have broken for sure. Rob woke up and asked me what was going on, I told him my water had broke. I went downstairs to call the midwife and just let her know, telling her I would be in touch when I started having contractions. I am thinking to myself we could have this baby by 8 or 9 that morning, woohoo! Rob and I hardly sleep that night, he keeps asking if anything has started yet, I keep saying not yet....we're just waiting and waiting. We get up with the kids and get them off to school, not really telling them much but they know something is up when they see me getting the diaper bag and my bag ready and when Grandma shows up to spend the day with them. At 9 a.m. we head into the midwife so they can make sure my water really broke, which they did confirm. They tell me I look exhausted and send me home with some Tylenol PM to help me sleep and tell me to call them after I get a 4 hour nap or if my labor starts. We head home, I take a nap, Rob runs to work for a bit, and his mom is at home taking care of the kiddos for me. Around 2 p.m. we call the midwife again and they want me to start the homeopathics, so Rob and I go to Good Earth, then Sunflower Market to get the right ones and I start taking them, alternating the two every 15 minutes, about 2 hours later nothing still. We call Rachel, the student midwife, and she says to come in at 5 p.m. and we'll get a plan figured out. They wanted me to be in active labor by 2 a.m. Friday morning or I would have to go into the hospital since the risk of infection goes up significantly at 24 hours when you water has broken. Kathy loads all the kids up and takes them to spend the night at her house since we figure one way or another we will have the baby that night. We head into the midwife, again, and this time they tell us our options, our last ditch options. They placed a Foley bulb inside of me, which looks like a long rubber band that they fill with water and is supposed to make my cervix dilate to 4 cm and then it would fall out. They also tell me the last option is to drink castor oil. I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed at this point, nervous about why my labor hasn't started on its own and worried about whether or not we will be heading into the hospital. We leave the midwife and stop at Wal-Mart where Rob runs in to grab the castor oil and root beer to mix in it. I stay in the car because I am leaking fluid everywhere! We head home and Rob mixes up my drink and I gulp it down, it is about 6:30 p.m. by now. By 7:30 p.m. I am starting to have regular contractions, but I am so worried they are going to stop, so I kind of keep quiet about it to Rob at first. I am sitting on the couch on a chuck feeling so exhausted and trying to just stay calm and know I can do this. Around 8 p.m. Annie and Duncan stop by, Rob and Duncan give me a blessing which offers all the reassurance I have been looking for, safety for me and the baby, and a healthy arrival of our sweet girl, and the knowledge that I am strong and my body can do this. I feel like my contractions are close together from the beginning, anywhere from 3-5 minutes apart, sometimes with bigger breaks up to 8 minutes maybe, but still pretty close and consistent for most of my labor. I get up and start pacing around, using the wall as support during contractions, all while Rob takes a little snooze on the couch. Poor guy had been up for a long time already! I check in with Rachel and she says she doesn't want me to come in until the Foley bulb has fallen out, which I try to wait it out, but finally around midnight I call her and say I am ready to come in. It hasn't come out but my contractions are getting intense and I want to be at the birthing center, so she says they will meet us there. I wake up Rob and we head in, for the third time that day, and are met by Trinette, Rachel, and Tayah. I seriously love the atmosphere at the birthing center, there is low lighting and hushed voices, and only the utmost care and respect for the laboring mother. The midwives are so encouraging and uplifting and simply the best. They first off check the baby's heartbeat when I get there and she sounds good, but they continue to listen through a contraction and her heart rate drops a little. So they do a vaginal exam and find that the baby has moved down and the Foley bulb is up and over her head a little bit. They release the water from the Foley and take it out and monitor her again, this time she sounds great through the contractions. Relief! They also said I was dilated about a 7. They start filling the tub for me and when it is ready they help me in. My cervix is posterior and so they want me to labor on my side to help the cervix come forward. Pretty quickly I am feeling the need to push, but I more just breathe down and try and move the baby down with my breath. They check me and say I am still a 7, though I don't feel that could be possible with how my body is feeling. Rachel tries to help my cervix come forward by holding onto it while I am having contractions to help pull it forward. The contractions are so intense, they remind me of Hannah's labor and I think it is because my water has been broken for so long and I have lost a lot of fluid that helps to cushion the contractions. Rachel gets up to go get a stool and I have a contraction where I just push and push and I can feel her head moving down and stretching and then come out! Rachel rushes back and calls for Trinette and they both come in to deliver the rest of her, to help her shoulders and body come out. And then they put her up on my chest and I am in awe and amazement at another beautiful baby that is both part of me and of Rob, who grew in my body and now has come to join our family. She is a miracle and I am so grateful she is here and she is safe and healthy! I am again amazed at how as soon as she is born my body and my mind changes, clear and free from the labor as I hold her in my arms and soak in her newness. She is so alert and looking around and I rub her body and kiss her head, so grateful to be holding her in my arms. She came into this world on August 31, 2012 at 2:13 a.m. She nursed almost immediately and was so quiet. Because Hadley was born in the middle of the night we didn't call anyone, we just spent some quiet time with her alone, tried to get a few hours of sleep and around 7:15 a.m. started letting the news out that she was here! We headed home around 7:45 a.m. that same morning.
