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Hadley’s Birth Story

 

Even though Hadley was born 11 weeks ago (What?! Already?!), I still feel like the details of her birth are crystal clear. I tell a much better (much more comedic!) story in person, but here goes the version I’m comfortable sharing on the internet.

 

Hadley was due on Thursday, November 14, so by the 15th I was really about to freak (call me patient). I was so ready to have this baby. I had Jamie laughing at me for days as he watched me scour the internet in attempt to try every single way of inducing this baby naturally. On Friday night (the 15th), we had just sat down to eat dinner (a frozen homemade chicken pot pie that a sweet friend from our church life group made and gave us! Thanks Trinity!), and I started feeling contractions. Like everyone said, they came on strong and fast. I never had any Braxton Hicks throughout the pregnancy, but I knew these were contractions. I downloaded a contraction timing app and sure enough after an hour there were lasting about a minute each about four minutes apart. By 8:30 p.m. I told Jamie to put on a jacket and walk around the block with me. We walked a mile, and when I got home I had a couple more definite signs that this was, in fact, the real thing. We called our families and my mom hit the road from Alabama. Jamie’s mom and brother also hit the road from Austin, Texas. Jamie jumped in the shower and we started getting things ready. We were both physically shaking and giggling with nerves and excitement. This was it!

Or so we thought. We went to the hospital at 10:30 p.m., they checked me, and even though my contractions were strong I was only one cm. They sent me home to walk a few miles and told me to come back in a few hours. I was bummed, but at least Hadley was on her way.

 

By the time we got home at 11:30 p.m., mom had arrived at our house. She and I leashed up Teddy and set off to walk while Jamie took the opportunity to get a few hours of sleep before the lifelong chaos.

 

It took mom and me two hours to walk two miles. It took everything in me to put one foot in front of the other; the contractions were literally taking my breath away. Even though I was in pain I was so excited that this was finally happening. I was dying to meet this baby girl. My neighbors were pretty funny though. One guy was outside letting his dog out and made a comment about how I looked like I was trying to walk the baby out. I sure enough confirmed that was exactly what I was doing, thank you very much! I also saw someone peeking at us through the blinds. I’m sure they were all What the heck are those two women doing walking the neighborhood at 1 a.m.?!

 

At 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, November 16th we were back at the hospital. They checked me and I was still only 1 cm. Cue the hysterics! I was a wreck. The nurse told me that this was just false labor (are you kidding!!!) since my contractions weren’t doing what they should be doing, and that it’s possible that it could be another week before I have this baby. I was in so much pain, so they gave me a high dosage of benedryl and a shot of morphine and sent me home sobbing. I was devastated that I was in all of this pain for nothing. Oh, and my mother- and brother-in-law were already five+ hours into their drive to Tennessee. And apparently I’m not in labor. This is fabulous.

 

We got home, and Jamie passed out. I laid in bed moaning through contractions for an hour before I crawled in bed with my mom in the guest room. She timed my contractions all night; those pain meds were not helping a bit.

 

Fast forward to 11 a.m. and we were back at the hospital. There was no way this was nothing with the amount of excruciating pain I was in. They checked me, and I was 3 cm. They’d admit me at 4, and they told me that they’d check me again in an hour. If I wasn’t at 4, they were going to send me home.

 

Five minutes later my water broke. HALLELUJAH!  It’s GO TIME! They immediately admitted me to a room and I immediately requested the epidural. I have a very low tolerance for pain, and the hospital had told me during a birthing class that they’d give the epidural at 4cm. In fact, I’m pretty sure I was asking for it while we were walking down to the hallway to the room. I knew that labor would involve pain (duh), but I wanted it to be as minimal as possible. Call me a baby. It’s okay. I am! Then this happened…

 

To make a long and dramatic story short, I didn’t get the epidural until 6:30 p.m. when I was almost 7 cm because the nurse anesthetist was tied up in a complicated c-section. Jamie, my mom, my mother-in-law, the hospital staff, and anyone within one mile of the hospital would confirm that I was THAT girl. To put it lightly, I was 100% a psycho. I NEVER thought I would be that girl. Those six hours were NOT good. The expectation that I would get the epidural early + very slow labor + a drug called stadol (spelling? It’s supposed to make you feel drunk) = not a good combo for this chick! You girls that do the labor thing naturally – WOW! Rockstars.

 

Finally got the epidural, but I hated it. Obviously it was much better than contractions, but it made me shake violently for hours. My back was also on fire, but I couldn’t adjust how I was sitting since I couldn’t move. By this point I had also spiked a 103 degree fever, so I was just a mess. I think this was also about the time that I posted a bizarre status about having a hellish day (so not me to do that!). I usually try to be a “glass half full” person even in negative situations, but this labor thing was just no good for me! I didn’t get totally comfortable until around midnight when the self-proclaimed bartender (aka anesthetist) sat in my room giving me more “juice” until I couldn’t feel a DANG THING. It was AWESOME.

 

Around 11:30 p.m. my birth photographer showed up! I knew I wanted Hadley’s first moments captured, but I also knew that I only wanted Jamie in the room, so hiring someone to JUST take pictures (and good ones!) made sense. A lot of people looked at me like I had three heads when I told them I was going to have someone there to take pictures (“What exactly is she going to take pictures of?” They’d ask.) but I am SO glad I did. My photographer Angela Ashcraft has a heart of gold and is so selfless. She made me feel totally comfortable, and she actually gave me very welcomed labor tips since she’s been through it three times herself.

 

 

 my attempt at trying to presentable. what a joke. I was out of my mind, I tell you.

 

At 1 a.m. the nurse said that it was time to start pushing, so Jamie led my family in a prayer for a safe delivery, and out my family went to the waiting room (to take a snooze we later found out! Haha).

 

 

Thank you Bethy for Jamie’s shirt! You are amazing and so sweet.

 

 

 I pushed for an hour, and it may sound crazy, but that hour was one of the most incredible of my life. I was in zero pain and I was finally about to meet this baby. Talk about adrenaline! It was also so much less dramatic than I thought. The only people in the room were me, Jamie, the photographer, and two nurses. At one point I asked where everybody else was (I always imagined a whole team of people being in there), and the nurse told me that they will all come once she’s about to pop out. I definitely made everyone that came into the room giggle when they saw my socks (thank you Bethy! You are a goof!).

I only pushed about nine times, and at 2:03 a.m. Hadley Lynn DeSpain came out screaming. She could work that bottom lip from the second she was born. They immediately placed her on my chest, and Jamie and I experienced the most beautiful minute of our lives as we admired this miracle we’d created. I’ll never forget that flood of emotion. I didn’t cry like I thought I would though. I was just so happy. (I’ll spare you the “bloody” pictures, but trust me when I say that they are beautiful!)

 

The doctor took Hadley for about 20 minutes to clean her up and do everything they needed to do about 10 feet away from me. I just laid there watching my husband participate in everything they were doing with Hadley. It was so incredible watching what was going on.

 

Maybe if you’ve had a baby you can relate to this, but for the first time in my life I felt the meaning of pure shock. Even though I’d felt her moving for months, I still couldn’t  wrap my brain around the fact that I grew this perfect little human. She was ours.

 

 

 

 

They gave her back to me, I quietly nursed her, and then around 3 a.m. Jamie went to get our families. It was incredible. Our moms said they both teared up when they were in the hallway about to walk in my room and they heard her cry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

holy swollen face

 

At 4 a.m., everyone except Jamie left the room and gave us a few hours to quietly snuggle her before they moved us to the mother/baby unit where we would stay for a few days.

 

For this kind of love, I would do it all again a thousand times!

I want to end this post with a shout out to my husband. He was absolutely, positively the best coach in the world. I needed him to get through it all! Looking back, I’m still in awe of how incredibly loving and supportive he was/is. My love for him grew ten-fold after this experience. I love you, J.

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