When Baby Adelaide Came.

Now that I've been a mommy of two for (almost) four weeks, I am finding time to do things I used to.  Like blog.  So blog I shall until Addy wakes up hungry!

For those of you interested, I am going to write about the day Baby Adelaide Lynn Kelley was born.  For those of you not interested, you may want to skip this post.

Addy came on Saturday, October 11th, 2014.  She was 10 days late.  So the day she came I think everyone was a little tired and on edge from waiting for this baby.  And by everyone I definitely mean me.  I did well until 41 weeks, and then I was just soooo ready for her to come.  We had Adelaide at a Birth Center, and they do not induce until 42 weeks, so at 9 days over I was madly asking everyone any tricks and trying some and Tyler was talking about just calling the hospital and getting induced on our own.

Saturday, early early morning I woke up with pretty consistent contractions.  They weren't that painful but they were 7-12 minutes apart so I was like, "this is it!"  I tried to get some sleep, timed them for a while, and because I was a little paranoid that she would be born in the car (we cut it a bit close with Hannah), we headed to the birth center around 7 a.m.  We get there, I'm only measuring 2 cm, and my contractions all but stop.  Oh, I was so down-hearted.  I did stairs for about an hour, but nothing was happening so we headed back home.  I made a promise to myself after that that I wouldn't start timing contractions until I couldn't really stand the pain.

We got home, had breakfast, and headed out to a small nature reserve in Wilmington just to get out of the house.  We had a great time and it was nice to walk around and do more stairs :).

Yes, Hannah's closing her eyes but it's a great one of Ty!

My fantastic mom. <3

The best pic of Hannah all day.  And yes, she is taking her boots off to make a run for it.

Chasing the birds.

 When we got home, we had a late lunch and I was having hard contractions but I willfully didn't time them and still ate lunch.  Since I got a poor night's sleep (and so did everyone else), we all took naps.  I didn't do too much sleeping because my contractions were getting really hard.  I got up after one hour and bounced on our exercise ball to ease the pain.  I started timing them and, though they were still a little over 5 minutes apart, they were painful and consistent.  I concluded that this was it.  It was time to go.  I really wanted to get in the bath, but didn't want to do it at home because I thought we'd have the baby at home if I did.  So I woke Tyler up again, got our stuff ready again, and called the Birth Center again to say we were coming.  It was the same midwife as that morning.  I think she was a bit skeptical due to our morning stunt, because she asked me tonz of questions and I was walking around and wincing in pain and doing my best to answer...she finally just left it up to us and I said, "yes, we want to come in."  Meanwhile, my mom is just thinking, "Leave already! Leave already!"  Tyler wanted to go on a walk but that only lasted a few houses; then we turned around and headed out.

We got to the birth center at 6:45 p.m. and Adelaide was born an hour later.  When we arrived, the midwives were like, "well, let's see if you're any farther."  They check and BAM! I'm at a 7.  Take that, everyone!  Surprise was written across everyone's faces but mine.  Mine just looked relieved.  And a little vindicated.  I got the bath that I wanted.  Seriously, the bathtub is my saving grace in labor.  It just does the trick.  Takes that pressure off, relaxes me, and gets me to transition super quick.  I was in there less than an hour.  I knew I needed to get out, we made it back to the room, and then after 10 minutes or so of pushing, Adelaide was here!

I forgot how intense labor and delivery is.  It is intense.  It's the most pain and pressure I have ever felt, and I can't believe I did it again. But delivering naturally for me is kind of addicting, because the relief I feel immediately after that baby is here is simply amazing.  It's instantaneous; I go from screaming my lungs out and feeling like I'm going to die to pure relief and joy.  It's a rush.  And it's this personal accomplishment, that I did it on my own.  I don't think that I can say I love laboring and delivering naturally, but I can say that I love that I did it :).  P.S. as a sidenote, I wonder why they just call it "pushing."  People ask me, "How long did you push for?"  I feel like a more true-to-life rephrasing of this question would be, "How long did you feel like you were going to die?"  That being said, I don't think I could go natural if I had to push longer than a half-hour.

Addy came out howling.  And she did not really stop for the first 3 hours of her life.  She was mad, mad, mad that she had to come out.  Poor Adelaide.  If it was intense for me, it must've been pretty intense for her.  Tyler and I were worried when she wouldn't stop crying.  Fortunately she did, right before we left.

Right before leaving the Birth Center

We left as soon as we could.  The Birth Center has a minimum stay requirement of 4 hours.  Since Addy was born at 7:53 p.m. that meant we couldn't leave until midnight.  We left shortly thereafter.  Before having Addy, I was really worried about going home so soon after she was born.  After she got here though, all I really wanted to do was go home and sleep in my own bed.  My sweet mom was at home watching Hannah and I was excited to see them too.  Plus, the Birth Center beds are super uncomfortable.  

We got home around 1 a.m.  Despite our tiptoes and whispers, Hannah woke up and was way too excited about her baby sister to go back to bed on our own.  So Tyler, Hannah, Addy and I all snuggled into bed together, a happy little family of four.

A few days after Addy was born, my dad flew out to visit.  I was so very grateful for my parents' help!  Having my mom here to talk to and chase Hannah and support us in every way was a saving grace.  I'm so happy my dad took his fall break to come out too.  I know it wasn't much of a vacation for either of them, but I was so glad and grateful they were here to visit with, play games with, and talk with.  They did all the housework and took Hannah on so many outings, her favorite being "Old McDonalds" and the zoo :).  I love you, Mom and Dad!