Adelynn's Birth Story

So last you all heard before she was here was the Dr. wanted to start pushing.

It was about 9:30pm and I was checked again for progress. I was at 10cm but one side of my cervix was still a little thick but he decided he wanted to see if I could push past it since it was fairly stretchy. With the first push, I was able to push her head past it and now it was planned go time.

We worked through a few pushes, and while I couldn't feel any pain, I felt pressure with each oncoming contraction and was able to be pretty darn efficient in moving her down. I was quite proud since Olivia took 4 hours :)

I pushed for about 40 minutes with each contraction and finally got her head out. That is when scary happened. She got stuck and I heard the doctor say "this is a dystocia, start the clock." They immediately laid my bed flat out, told me to stop any pushing and a nurse crawled over the top of me to push down on my pelvis. Two other nurses rushed in to push my knees as high as they would go. I couldn't see anything but Ben was watching the whole thing. It was the longest two minutes of my life. The doctor had to maneuver her quite a bit, his whole hand was inside me adjusting her one arm by pulling it up and out to try to get her to fit. After two minutes he was able to deliver her but she came out not moving or breathing. Her cord was also wrapped around her neck (the reason we were having so many Decels during labor) I was scared to death. I didn't even think to ask if it was a boy or girl. A team full of nurses grabbed her and took her over to the table and after about another 30 seconds, I could hear very small cries. This is when Ben told me she was a girl. They continued to work on her for the next 10-15 minutes or so to continue to get her to breathe/cry. She pinked up quite well once she started crying and Apgar scores came back pretty good. At first she wasn't moving her left arm at all but after the nurse was lifting it up and down she decided she was pissed off and starting moving all of her arms and legs, screaming. I didn't get her for skin to skin until about 10:35, roughly 15 minutes after her birth.

After I got her she rested in pretty comfortably with small bouts of cries. She nursed a bit and cuddle with me for about 2 hours. During this time, Ben and I hit full on exhaustion. At around 12:30, she got her first bath and all dressed up, then it was Daddy cuddle time. :) After she was comfy cozy on daddy, the nurse attempted to get me out a bed to go take a shower (on a chair) but I made it two steps out of bed and my left leg collapsed. She needed to lift me up to get me back into bed, my legs refused to support me in any way. We decided some more rest time was in order. :) Since the epidural was obviously not wore off, I decided to try to get some sleep while Ben held Adelynn. I got about 40 minutes before I was startled awake to some strong cries.

At 1:45 we decided to make it down to our new room so at least one of us could sleep. The on call pediatrician made the call that, until Addie was 8 hours old, at least one person needed to be awake if she was in the room. If both of us were sleeping, she needed to go to the nursery. We suspect this is because of the dystocia and monitoring her breathing, so until 6:30am, either Ben or I need to stay awake. Since I got a quick nap in the other room, we decided Ben needs to sleep while he can. I still have vital checks every 30 minutes so its not like I would be sleeping anyway. So, as I type, both Ben and Addie are sleeping and I am trying to get my left leg to wake up!

So they aren't great pictures (I turned off the flash so it wouldn't startle her!) but we would like to introduce you to Adelynn Barbara Mrdutt, born 1/20/16, weighing 8 lbs 11 oz and 20 inches long. Mrdutt head (though slightly smaller than the others), Henrichs nose.

Thank you Grandma Barb for protecting her through that delivery. Apparently she got your stubbornness and just didn't want to share her birthday. Or you decided she needed her own day. :)

We promise to offer more photos tomorrow. Visitors welcome later morning, I think Ben will head home in the morning to go get Caleb and Olivia so they can meet their little sister.