Edwards Haps and Mishaps

I can’t believe I am finally not pregnant! Thanks for all the congrats and well wishes! We are all doing fine at this point, and even Preston is coping well so far. Hopefully it stays that way!

Shaun did a pretty good job of describing the whole story of the birth…it was LOOOONG, then short, and IN-TENSE. Wow. I have always wanted to birth naturally…and honestly this wasn’t TOTALLY natural…before the nurse left for lunch she injected half a dose of something into the IV…which, in my opinion, did absolutely nothing…no relief. Luckily, I had read my hypnobirthing book (I know, sounds kind of crazy…but it isn’t as out there as it sounds) and had been practicing and I was able to keep myself calm for the most part. I may have died if I hadn’t practiced that! My mom and Shaun were awesome too! I may also have died if they weren’t there. And I know that you’ve all read the story below so I don’t have to go into too much detail…but seriously, I had been at 2-3 cm the last time the nurse checked. Then she left. Not too long after I thought “Okay, either my water is about to break, I am going to poop myself, or this baby is knocking. GET SOMEONE IN HERE!!”  And at that point I knew if those contractions I was feeling weren’t transition, then I was in for one wildly crazy (painful) ride. Thankfully the other nurse agreed to check me since my nurse was still out or I would have delivered my own baby…and I seriously wanted to when they told me I had to wait for the doctor because I was fully dialated.

I never had that urge to push with Preston since I had an epidural. I could feel pressure but no urge. And this was like the gag reflex, no stopping it…they wanted me to act like I was “blowing out a candle,” really?! Couldn’t someone else just catch the baby? Isn’t that all the doctor was going to do? That was the first time I felt not in control of myself and I wanted to cry…I’m pretty sure I did. It hurt. At this point I was just trying to survive and all I remember is I kept saying, “WHERE IS THE DOCTOR?” “Why do I have to wait?” “I just want to push her out!” Doctor got there…finally. I pushed, I could hear everyone saying “there she is keep pushing” and all I could think is “get out! get out!” so I was going to get her out. Then the doctor told me to stop pushing…she was halfway out. Seriously? Stop? Again, I wanted to die. Eventually, probably seconds later, but it felt like minutes, she told me to push again and out she came! They handed her to me and I sort of forgot I was holding her! I could only think, “LABOR AND DELIVERY ARE OVER!!! IT”S OVER” I always worry about delivery since the story is so unpredictable. I was talking with my sister-in-law Jami, wondering what my “labor story” would be and I finally had it. Labor was OVER, and all went very well. No complications, everyone was healthy, and I actually got to feel the full labor and delivery! It was hard, but hard things make us stronger and I feel so blessed!

So anyway, that was my take on the whole thing. We are grateful to have our little Ada in the family now! I’ll write the name story in another post…to keep you coming back :) For now, here are a few more photos.

New big brother:

P.S. that is the little outfit I came home from the hospital in over 26 years ago!!

Jami brought over the cutest little outfit so we took some pictures of her actually looking like a girl :)

First bath. Enjoying it.