happy birthday, hadley!

I'll do my best to tell Hadley's birthday story with pictures as much as I can. Because that's all anyone really cares about anyway ;)

I went to my 'almost-39-week' appointment last Wednesday and upon informing Dr. D that I was "tired, swollen, sore, and ready to have a baby" - he said "Well how bout Friday???"

Ummmm... YES! Haha.

From there on there was A LOT of hyper-drive nesting going on... Making phone calls, setting up sitters, scrubbing, post-it notes and To-Do lists, and - yes - SEWING.



I finished Hadley's crib bumpers at MIDNIGHT before my induction. (After which I made a run to Kroger. Crazy...) I never in a million years thought I'd actually have these done in time, but I got my butt in gear and they're just perfect! Getting those on and cleaning her room good - it feels like she has a 'real nursery' now, even if there is a lot left to do. We also set aside some special Knox-time Wednesday and Thursday. We did a lot of one-on-one playing and took him out for a Big Brother dinner at Johnny Carino's where he got his favorite - PIZZA! We typically never do desserts but we let him pick one that night and he chose the Italian Chocolate Indulgence Cake and ice cream. It was HUGE! I think James and I probably had a quarter of it each, while Knox cleared off half on his own. He'd take a bite with his spoon and then see mine and open his mouth like a little birdie saying I'm waiting... Hilarious! James got some cute pictures on his phone, so I may try to add those later...
Got up early Friday morning, showered and got pretty (I delivered among MANY co-workers. It was the least I could do.) and arrived at the hospital at 6am to get the party started.


[39 weeks - Before we left for the hospital. Can we say BACK PAIN?!]

Not gonna lie - my first 3 hours there were pretty rough. I was INCREDIBLY anxious. (a) Because I was starving. NPO since midnight, and this is the girl whose blood sugar bottoms out if I don't eat every 3 hours. And (b) I'm a nurse. I'm incapable of being a patient.

I spent the entire time obsessing over the monitors and rearranging them on my belly. Needless to say - it didn't take long for the L&D girls to hide the monitor and get a hold of the anesthesiologist to get my epidural in just so they could keep me STILL! Bless them, but they were such good sports. We're all the same when it comes to having to be on THAT side of the bed...


[About 8 hours in to labor. This is my I'm tired, swollen (probably on my third bag of fluids here), and HUNGRY look. I think that was rainbow pop number 4. I told Dr. D we needed to get things rolling because I was NOT gonna be a happy girl if I missed my dinner tray. Ha!]

Along with the 85 other cords, tubes, etc. being attached to me - the epidural was definiteley the most nerve wracking experience out of the entire day. It was when I had Knox too. Not a fan of needles. Especially ones after my spine! BUT... After getting all of that taken care of and a few silent 'CALM ME' moments with God - I felt much more relaxed.


[Knox came to visit while we waited...]

A relatively non-complicated labor, other the fact that for the first 5-6 hours I was just hanging out at 4cm without progress. Basically the monitor was saying my contractions were out the roof, so they weren't upping my pitocin, but when they placed an internal monitor for a more accurate reading, they saw that they were actually just baby contractions so I wasn't progressing. (This same thing happened with Knox's induction.) So UP went the pitocin!!! And then there was about 2 hours that my epidural wasn't really working, but luckily it was taken care of in the knick of time.



Miss Hadley entered the world at 5:49pm on Friday August 20th. It took a grand THREE pushes, all within the same contraction, beating my 8 minute pushing record with Knox by nearly 5 minutes. (How the heck will I beat that the next go round???) So yeah, she was LOW and READY! I actually had a laughing attack in between pushes. Not sure why. Hormones??? I just remember being ridiculously happy to find out she had hair.  And thinking I can't believe I'm having a baby right now and I don't feel a thing. To each his own, but those au naturale Birth Plan women are CRAZY... Yeah, seriously, that's what I was thinking and it was hilarious to me at the time! And on that same (but different) note - when Dr. D had asked me Wednesday if I had a 'Birthing Plan' I told him "Yeah, the plan is I get my pitocin and epidural and you do whatever it takes to get my baby out safely." He said "Ahhh a Cadillac Birth. I like it ;)"

Anyway - She came out crying and pink and my first thought when they placed her on my belly was This child is GORGEOUS! But is she mine?? Haha! I couldn't pick out anyone of our features in her, she had hair, and she was HEAVY.



7lbs 11oz and 19.5 inches. A far cry from the 6lb baby we were all expecting! I thought for sure since my belly felt smaller this time around she'd weigh less than Knox (7lb 6oz). And Dr. D had estimated 6.5lb and I think he was a little disappointed; he said - 'Well where was SHE hiding???



My "Labor Team" - Mom and James, my fabulous nurse, Monica (I'd actually never met her at work before, but we ended up spending half the time gossiping and such. She was awesome!), and of course Dr. D...



He's SUCH a goofball, but I wouldn't trust anyone else to bring my baby in to the world! I told him when I come back for my check-up this pic better be front and center on his board ;)



Right after her bath. We wasted NO time getting a bow on that girl. (Of course - me being the the thermoregulation-conscious NICU nurse - I stiched a ribbon loop on this hat instead of a bow band.) I have to laugh at  how CHUNKY she looks here! But she was hanging out so low for so long I knew most of it was probably swelling, and sure enough within the 48 hours she looked completely different. (Except she still has cheeks to DIE FOR!) When we went home, her weight had dropped to 7lb 4 oz and I'm willing to bet 80% of that was just extra fluid she had lost.


[Our first mommy-daughter picture. I look rough. She's gorgeous ;) I'm sure that will be the story of my life from here on out!]


[Daddy and Hadley's first picture. He's so proud, and she's already got him WRAPPED!]



So what exactly does Miss Hadley look like? Because pictures just don't do it justice... Now that her swelling has gone down (I'll post more recent pictures in Part II) I can see a little more of a resemblence between her and Knox as newborns. Both had/have perfectly shaped round little heads and chubby cheeks. They have the same button nose and beautiful pouty lips as well. (SO kissable!) The eyes I think are where they differ. Her's are also big, but somehow just look different in shape...


[Her first outfit. It even looks way cuter than I thought it would!]

She's got THE most adorable little dimple in her left cheek. None of the rest of us have one, and we're all obsessed with trying to make her smile just so we can see it :) ...Obviously, she has HAIR! (Knox was BALD as can be his first 15 months.) And although it looks dark at first sight, with the way the light hits it at times, I think we may see it lighten up in the months to come. Her eyes - well, right now they are the standard dark blue/grey newborn color. Daddy has brown eyes, mine are blue/green, and Knox's are crystal blue, so I guess we'll see what they decide to do in time :)

I just know she's gorgeous... Call me a biased mommy, but I'm 2 for 2!



Although she weighed more than Knox at birth, and WAY more than what I was expecting - she is still a little more petite than he was. She's about and inch shorter and her head is smaller than his was. Not smaller in a bad way, she's perfectly proprtional, she just carries her brains in a more girlie package than her brother ;)


[Don't y'all just know I'm loving playing dress-up with my new babydoll?!?]

I think she may end up with my 'Indian-blood' complexion. She's literally had little-to-no jaundice and she's still holding a darker tone. The general concensus among my co-workers was that she looks like me, and I think our families are as flabbergasted as I am as to just who she takes after. I need to try to dig up mine and James' newborn pictures to figure it out...



My mom brought Knox up to visit a few hours after she was born and he was SOOOO cute and inquisitive! I was actually suprised at how much he actually understood. When we introduced Hadley, he was just like Oh yeah - Hadley. So she's here now! I wish we'd been able to get our "first family photo" in the hospital but Knox really only had 2 brief visits before we were sent home.



Anyway - neither of us got much sleep our first night. I had my post-delivery adrenaline rush, so I was pretty much wired all night. And Hadley - well she came out nursing like a champ. Problem was - she was nursing too well and was not to happy about having to wait for my milk to come in. She just couldn't get satisfied :(



She was little Miss Popular though among the nurses. (Are you suprised? She's ADORABLE!) When it came time for me to send her out and take advantage of some sleep time, there was nearly a knock-down-drag-out over where she would go - the nursery or the NICU to be 'babysat' by my co-workers. In the end she went to the NICU and from what I hear she was held and loved on the entire time.


[Hearing screen.]

Actually - we both got the Princess Treatment throughout our entire stay. I was kind of iffy about the idea of delivering ON the unit I worked on, but it ended up being a huge PLUS. We got the best nurses (although ALL the ones on our Women's Services are pretty awesome) and I think they were all happy to be assigned to us because they knew I knew the routine and was pretty low-maintenance. It made for LOTS of visitors throughout the night and day though!


[Snoozing with Daddy.]

Our second night was a MUCH more restful one. We all conked out after watching a little pre-season football (COME ON, FALL!), and at one point throughout the night it took my nurse 5 minutes to wake me up for vitals. I woke with my bed straight up, the lights on, and she and James mildly freaking out. Ha! Hadley slept like a log too. I found that she got my love for snoozing to Jeremy Camp so I let my JC Playlist run throughout the entire night. Worked like a charm and still is! I'm now in the market for an iHome for our bedroom :)


[Ready to ROLL!]

Our pediatrician and on-call OB cleared us for discharge Sunday morning and we headed home to join Knox and NaNa. Mom had a big lasagna lunch prepared and I soon found out she had been cooking up a storm. She made double batches of everything and then some. James thought he'd died and gone to heaven with the way we've been eating this past week. YUMM! Between her cooking and my overproduction of milk, I think we'll be hitting up Sears Outlet for a deep freeze very soon.



My recovery has been awesome this time around. Actually - I didn't think I had it bad with Knox. I just had a little more (ahem) "trauma" with his delivery so that complicated things a bit. But by the time we were discharged I swear things were almost back to 'normal' again, besides being a little bit sore and some cramping with nursing. Just the normal postpartum process has been SO much quicker this time around. My nurses were suprised when palpating my fundus (sorry, I don't know the non-nursing word for it) at how tight and low it already was. Again I heard - I can't believe there was just and 7lb 11oz baby in there! This was a VERY welcome suprise for me because I'd been fully prepared (although dreading) the whole after birth 'stuff'...


[LOVING his Red that sissy gave him.]

I haven't had to take any pain medication since the hospital and even my belly has gona WAY done since delivery. I still have a little pooch, but my skin has tightened up again, and until I'm cleared to do my exercises I'm thrilled with that! It always amazes that things could ever go back to normal after 9 months of pregnancy. I always think - Yeah there's no turning back from this, but the human body never ceases to amaze me!


[Counting her toes...]

So Hadley's birth = 100% POSITIVE experience. Surpasses anything I could have hoped for. She is as healthy as can be and like I said - I'm feeling GREAT!

So I think this is enough for one post. I'll put a Part II together on what we've been doing since we got home. Yes - with LOTS more pictures, and hopefully I'll be able to hook up the Flip soon because we've gotten a lot of great video since she arrived. A little bit of everything :)

As for today - my mom left this morning (we both cried) and James is going to be downtown for work all day so it's officially my first day home alone with both babes. Not really nervous. It just gets difficult at times because Knox doesn't understand why I can't lift him. Or why he can't sit on my lap while I'm nursing Hadley... Wish me luck!