Adalyn's Here!

So I woke up at 2:30 am on Tuesday the 9th because I felt a pop. I wasn't sure what it was so I just laid there and then felt a trickling sensation. I stood up and there was a huge gush. I knew that my water had broken. It was so weird because I wasn't having any contractions and because of that, I wasn't sure what to do. I ended up waking up Shawn and telling him that I thought my water had broken. He bolted out of bed and immediately started packing up our bags. I just stood there in shock trying to decide what I was supposed to do. I finally snapped out of it and we got ready to go.

When we got to the hospital, I was still gushing and it was making me laugh so hard. It felt so funny. We went up to Labor and Delivery and they got us set up in a room. They checked me and I was 4 cm and almost completely effaced. However, I wasn’t having any contractions. They decided to let me wait for an hour and if my contractions didn’t start then they would start me on pitocin. Well the hour came and went and no luck. So they hooked me up to the pitocin and at the same time, they offered me the epidural. I said yes. That was a piece of cake! I was so afraid it was going to hurt so bad.

Well to shorten the story, it took all day to dilate completely. The pitocin would have worked but every time they started me on it, Addie’s heart rate would plummet. It was making everyone nervous so they took me off the pitocin. Finally just after 6 they said I was complete and ready to push. 30ish minutes later, we started pushing and an hour later, Addie was born! It was such an incredible feeling! I was numb from the epidural but I had enough sensation that I could feel what was going on. I had to have a small episiotomy because the doctor thought I would tear but it was not bad at all.

She didn’t really cry at all when she was born. It wasn’t that she wasn’t breathing, she just is super content and chill. They took all her measurements and she weighed 6 lbs 9 oz and was 18 ½ inches long. Everything was perfect! They gave her to me and we had some skin to skin time and then I tried to nurse her. She wasn’t having it. So we sent her to the nursery to get cleaned up and that’s when the weird stuff started happening.

The nurse gave me some time for the epidural to wear off enough to get in the wheelchair and get moved to the maternity ward. I couldn’t move my legs. It took two nurses to get me in the wheelchair. Well over the next 12 hours my condition didn’t improve and I had to have a catheter placed because I was stuck in bed. It took 3 nurses over 15 minutes to get the catheter in and I wasn’t even swollen!! That was the worst part of the entire labor.

They wouldn’t release me and we met with so many doctors. Anesthesiologists, neurologists, physical therapists, OB’s….you name it. Plus add in all the nurses and the lactaction consultants and it was utter chaos for 4 straight days. It was such an emotional rollercoaster. One doctor would tell us it should go away soon and then another would tell me that I probably have a severe neurological problem like MS. It was horrible. I was so scared. Finally a neurologist said that he was pretty sure that I damaged both my femerol nerves which run down your thighs. He thinks I did it during pushing and that it will take 10-14 days to heal and then I’ll need physical therapy. It’s slowly getting better and I’m walking around with a walker but I can’t bend my legs while standing or I completely collapse.

It’s really hard to not be able to walk and pick up Addie or change her diaper on the changing table or even go to the bathroom by myself. But she’s healthy and Shawn is so supportive. He is willing to bring me anything I need so that I can take care of Addie. Phew…it’s been an emotional week!

She is basically the cutest baby ever! She is so content to just sleep or look around. She makes the funniest faces and loves to be snuggled! I just love her so so much and we will be posting a million pictures! Enjoy!