Adalyn Denise Leiser

I planned to lay down and take a nap, but ended up here on the blog instead.

I figured I should blog about the birth of Adalyn while I still remembered some of it... I'm fairly positive that I will have full on Dementia in the next 20yrs. Or maybe it's just post pregnancy brain bcuz I typically have the most amazing memory ever.

Any who.

At the moment I can't remember the exact date, maybe the 13th of April, my mom and Aunt Elma arrived from Texas to help prepare for the arrival of little A.

We all thought she was going to come a little sooner than she ended up coming because my OB told me that I wouldn't be going past my due date, and at 34wks I was already starting dilation and effacement.

 

Once mom and Elma arrived the waiting game started. Well.. not 'waiting' exactly. It was more like "Project force Adalyn out of the womb right now and get overwhelmed and frustrated if things didn't work as fast as hoped."

It wasn't always fun. I was soooooooooooooo over being pregnant and wanted her out, and others wanted me to make her come out also and I couldn't, at least not as fast or soon as we wanted.

On Monday April 23rd, I woke up having contractions. I had contractions all day. They lasted from about 7am to 11pm. I even had a doc apointment that day and when I was checked I was 'two fingers' and 50% effaced.

 

My Mom kept asking me that day if I was feeling anything. I'd just shrug it off because I had had contractions on and off for probably 2months by this point and was even sent to the hospital one of the days during that time frame to get IV fluids to make the contractions stop. (they were dehydration enduced)

Tuesday the 24th came and I wasn't feeling any contractions at all except maybe one per hour..

I don't exactly remember what all we did on Tuesday. Every other day we were out and about running around to shopping or eating or trying to do something kind of fun, or getting more things needed in prep for Adalyn's arrival.

 

I went to bed Tuesday night convinced that I would in fact be pregnant for at least another week and go all the way to my due date and my mom would have only 2 days left to get to know Adalyn, then her and Elma would leave and I'd be stuck at home with a 3day old infant and a 3yr old todler..

Thankfuly that didn't happen.

I woke up around 4am to use the restroom. I figured my stomach was hurting due to constipation. I felt crampy. After sitting on the toilet for a bit, I went to the living room and got on Valley Medical's website to look at "signs of labor and when to call" lists, as I would usualy do in the middle of the night when I wasn't feeling the best...

 

I had/have the list memorized, so I probably just got on the site to look at the signs and rule them all out and talk myself out of calling the doc. and going back to bed.

 

I took some Tylenol in hopes that it would take away the little cramping then went back to bed. The Tylenol had no affect what so ever and I kept getting up and going to the bathroom... sitting on the toilet felt comfortable.

By 5am I decided, "oh my.. today is the day.."

I decided to sit on the couch and try to time this "cramping" and maybe sat there for 2 or 3 of them and decided "oh, I guess they are 3min apart." I honestly couldn't focus long enough between contractions to actually time anything. All I was thinking about was "hmm, when should I wake somebody? maybe I will just wait it out until my doc's office opens and call them at 8 or 9am if I still feel this way... but this is starting to hurt.. so, how much longer should I wait.. if I tell mom how I'm feeling, we would be headed to the hospital.. am I really ready to go to the hospital?"

 

After 15min. of battling my thoughts to myself, and realizing how much things were starting to hurt, I went back to my bedroom and told Ricky, "you aren't going to work today." he of course asked me 'why?' and I said "because my baby is coming out!"

Ricky got up and went to the couch to lay down and I was back and forth between the couch and the toilet because I started second guessing everything again despite the pain and told Ricky that I wanted to focus and time things for 30min... again... yeah right!

My mom ended up coming out of the bedroom to use the restroom and saw us up and I decided not to fight it anymore and said "It's time to go to the hospital." Once I decided that it was time to go to the hospital, I wanted to go.. right that second.. but Ricky and mom wanted showers before leaving. (REALLY?) I made my thought known when I asked in a groaning/frantic voice, "You're taking a shower!?"

 

Any way, we finally got in the car and on the road and in to the labor and delivery unit at Vally Medical. They have a new area and system now (at least new to me since giving birth to Hyrum almost 4yrs ago) where you have the be triaged and monitered and checked by nurses in a triage unit within the birthing unit for whatever amount of time, until the OB on call looks at your stats and info. via the nurse's to decide if you are at a point to be admitted.

When I arrived and got hooked up to the monitor so they could check my contractions and 'be checked' (dilation and effacment), I was 5cm dialated, 80% effaced, and contracting every 3minutes.. the OB at the hospital at the time was about to head home, and shift changes were about to happen. The first OB nearly sent me home!!

Thankfuly the next OB arrived, the new nurses were on their game and comunicated with the OB right away to get their shifts started, and I was admitted!

Things moved along, but sometimes not quick enough.

At 9:20am I got an epidural, and at 9:21am my water naturaly broke. The anesthesiologist joked that his needle did it... scary thought?

Any who. We got settled in, aunt Elma and Hyrum came to the hospital to join us.

Things weren't very exciting for a long time. They were reluctant to check me very often because they wanted me to finish at least 3 rounds of antibiotics before delivering. My mom and aunt kept checking the monitor to see what my contractions looked like and they kept comenting on how big they were, and were surprised when I said I felt nothing.. not even pressure.

I think about 1:30pm I was way past ready for SOMETHING, anything to happen. I was literally BORED. I asked my mom, "what's going on, what are we waiting for?"

Finally around 2:55pm the nurse came in and my mom comented on how long it had been since my progress had been checked. Nurse looked at my contractions, and finally decided to check me.

My nurse was training a student on this day, and I allowed the student to be there and a part of everything... but unfortunatley for her, when the nurse reached between my legs with her fist and discovered that I was 100% effaced, 10cm dilated, and a plus 2, and was asked to do a 'practice push' and babys head came poking out, she was pushed to the side and no longer allowed to help, only watch, because my baby was coming and the nurse had 5min to take apart my bed, and set up the room and trays for the doc. to come in and deliver.

At 3pm I started pushing. At 3:25pm Adalyn entered the world.

I had Ricky, mom, Elma, and my big boy 3yr old Hyrum counting with me and encouraging my pushing.

I think I summed it up best when I got on Facebook for the first time after arriving home and posted this status-----

"3yr old son holding my arm helping count to 10, mom forcing nurses to do their job in a timely manner, aunt Elma helping keep peace and control, Husband making fun of student and hospital staff to make their job harder/more fun, and ONLY 25min of pushing a sunny side up baby girl =most awesome--priceless delivery experience ever... ---Ricky Leiser--Denise Brock Milligan--Elma Hernandez Milligan. Baby Adalyn Denise Leiser arrived 4/25 @ 3:25pm. 7lbs 9oz. 18in."