Our little girl, Adeline Faith, came into this world at 5:09 pm on March 15, 2009. Being our first, we were very anxious, nervous and excited for this little one to arrive. Original due date was March 12 so she was running three days late (inherited this characteristic from my side of the family). My pregnancy, for the most part, was great. I would say that I had the most difficult time during the first 3 months when at 6 weeks I entered a dreadful world of 24/7 nausea. Seriously, it was horrible…makes one never want to go through it again! But somewhere between 3-4 months it died down and closer to 4 months completely went away and life returned to normal. Second trimester brought no problems and then third trimester was just uncomfortable because I just got so big. I value my sleep and trying to turn sides, not sleep on my back and going to the bathroom every other hour seriously put a dent on my sweet dreams.
But then it finally just happened. During the evening of March 14 (a Saturday) my husband and I settled down for the evening to relax and have a movie night. We were watching “P.S. I love you” and my hormonal self was already tearing up 15 minutes into it. I had some Braxton Hicks off and on all day but half way through the movie it started to get a bit more intense. (come to think of it we never did finish that movie…) As the contractions began to get stronger and stronger we forgot about the movie and quickly called my sister – who is conveniently a nurse and appointed to be at my side throughout this process (lucky me). She quickly came over and confirmed that yes, I was in fact in labor (I’m not quire sure why we needed confirmation, but I guess I didn’t want to panic everyone with a false alarm).
The emotions that you go through are crazy – nerves, anxiety and excitement all at the same time. My plan was to have a natural childbirth at our local hospital. I attended a practice with a medical midwife and a doctor, the midwife was going to be by my side. I have heard that labor may be a very long process with your first child, so my goal was to labor as much as possible at home so I wouldn’t just have to sit at the hospital bored and in pain. The inconvenient part about going into labor around 9:30 – 10:00 pm at night is that you can’t exactly sleep through contractions (not that I didn’t try). Walking appeared the be the best way to bear through it…so walk I did… with my hero of a husband following behind for safety precautions. I would literally sit on him at times, I think he was sore for a whole week after doing squats with a pregnant woman. So there I was, walking the dog at 5 am with my exhausted sister and husband following me…quite a site. Eventually we went to the hospital at around 8 am (Sunday morning) and we were all very excited to hear that I was already 8 cm dilated – yay!!! Great news and for a moment (just a moment) I thought that this might actually not be so bad. Contractions were extremely painful and it was getting tougher and tougher by the minute..but hey, I already survived ALL night and felt pretty mentally set to do this. But THEN…it kind of just stalled.
Contractions kept coming but little Adeline was just not coming down all the way. For hours I walked, sat on bouncing balls, went into the shower…etc..I’ll spare you all the details. It felt like I was trying every possible thing to get this baby out – I was finally given a little bit of Pitocin, tried every position and even pushed for three hours. I was beyond exhausted, hungry (starving actually) and very much in pain. Yes, I am insane for putting myself through this natural torture, but I was determined to push this baby out. After 19 hours of labor there were growing concerns for Adeline’s safety and my own, the doctor came in and advised that the best decision would be to move forward with Cesarean (C-section). Ughhhh!!!! After all that?! But to tell you the truth, however disappointed I was, I was ready to just get this baby out of me.
So into the operating room I went with the most supportive medical staff, sister and husband on hand. Everything at that point happened very quickly. Before I knew it I heard that little cry and she was here…at 5:09 pm all 21 inches and 10 POUNDS 4 OZ of her – Adeline Faith Labocki…. and yes, I did say 10 lbs 4 oz. (seriously, who has a 10 lb baby?!) No one expected that one…no wonder I couldn’t get her out. And although I did get quite large during my pregnancy, I wouldn’t say I was “10 lb baby large.” But our blessing was finally here, one of the most amazing experiences and gifts God has chosen to bless us with. Despite the long labor and C-section, she was a perfectly healthy, gorgeous, BIG little girl. My birth story didn’t exactly go as I may have had it planned in my head. But that’s okay, everything happens for a reason and I am so thankful that our sweet Adeline had a successful delivery in her own way. A whole new element of happiness entered our world that day, along with a whole new journey of motherhood and all that comes along with it!
photography by the amazing Gina Leigh Photography
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[...] despite my strong will to not have one – you can read about my first delivery experience HERE . So when we got pregnant with our second, I was bit anxious on what to do with this second [...]