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My loyal followers...or should I say Tressa,
I know this blog is entirely past due. Honestly, I've struggled with the whole social media and making my daughter a public part of that. However, my husband just KEEPS adding pictures of her to facebook so I guess I'll start talking about her here. To be perfectly fair...we have started a blog for her and we update that frequently. This is her birth story:
Thursday morning I woke up and went about my normal business. My family had decided to go ahead and come up because they knew Adah would arrive any moment, seeing she was late. Everyday I kept saying, “today’s the day” even though I knew that not one thing felt different from the day before…but it has to just happen at some point so I was optimistic Day 8 was the one. Halfway through the morning I had a very serious migraine. I could barely see. My parents thought it would be good to get out of the house, walk around downtown Philly, and get some fresh air. I was still having Braxton-Hicks multiple times an hour but it was not progressing, as it had not been for 2 weeks. Some days I was having as many as 40 so I had just about decided this could go on forever! We walked around Center City for a couple of hours and the cool air helped take away my migraine. The Braxton-Hicks were coming every 4 minutes but still no progression.
I finally decided that I had had enough and wanted to head home. On the way, we stopped and rented a movie. That night while sitting on the couch (it was about 9:30 pm), I felt a contraction. Not Braxton-Hicks, there was a little cramping…. So I waited. About 15 minutes later, there was another one. I leaned over and whispered to Jarod, “I’m in labor”. His eyes were as big as golf balls! We did not want to say anything to my family because we wanted to have our time to enjoy this moment together. Throughout the movie, the contractions continued and I felt progressively more excited this was going to happen! After the movie went off, I decided to go take a bath and just relax and enjoy the last moments I would have alone before I became a mommy. Jarod came in and we just talked. About what now, I cannot remember but it was exciting. After the bath, I went to bed. I ended up sleeping from about 12:30 am to 5:30 am. When I woke up, I was a little disappointed because I thought man…it must have Braxton-Hicks since I slept all night and did not wake. Then I realized that I was having a ‘strong’ contraction at that moment and that must have been what woke me! I went to the bathroom and then came and got back in bed. I have no idea what I did for the next couple of hours because I know my family didn’t wake up until 8:00 so I guess I maybe fell back asleep? We all know how I love to sleep!
When I got up, I took Zuba for a walk and called my friend, Johnna. As soon as I told her, she got so excited because after having three kids, she obviously knew this was real from my description! So there it was. Today (12-21-12) we were having a baby! I continued walking Zuba around the complex for about 30 minutes enjoying the fresh air and realizing I was about to meet my little girl. When I came back in, oh man, did I go a little nuts. Yes, yes I did. I immediately went on a cleaning rampage! Seriously. I washed every single thing that would fit in the washer, dishwasher, and/or sink. I washed all the clothes, sheets, towels, dishes, trashcan, and random things I could find. Then, I vacuumed. Like an OCD person. I had that vacuum cleaner going on high speed. I quite possibly looked as if I had done crack or something. I dusted. Everything. I swept the floors. I made sure our bags were packed. My dad said, “Well do I need to go shower since you’ve washed every other thing else in this house? Of course my answer was “yes go get yourself washed ….you stink!” ha! Finally, around 330 I told my family that I had been in labor since the night before. Then all the questions followed. How do you feel? How far apart are your contractions? What do you want to do? Etc. About 5:30 pm, my mom asked if we wanted to go walk around the mall and try to speed up my contraction. So we all got dressed and headed that way. We got there between 6:30 and 7:00 and Jarod and I began walking. We were walking as fast as we could while I was stopping to breath through my contractions. My doctor had told me 3-1-1. Call when your contractions are 3 minutes apart, lasting for more than 1 minute for more than 1 hour. (Well…the 1st doctor said 5-1-1, the 2nd said 4-1-1 and the 3rd said 3-1-1). I knew I wanted a completely natural birth so I needed to wait as long as possible. While walking, my contractions were maximum 3 to 3 ½ minutes apart and pretty ‘strong’. Twice we sat on some benches and my contractions slowed to 5 minutes but that was the max. There were coming regularly. At this point, I decided I wanted out of my pants, boots, and wool coat and wanted in my pjs. Everyone was hungry though, so we went to the food court to eat. Naturally, I did not want anything! We all piled back into our car (about 9:00 pm) after eating and went home. I changed and came to the realization that this was getting close!
I tried to remember all of my breathing techniques. I sat on my ball and really had to focus. For about 2 hours, Jarod had been saying that I needed to call the doctor and let them know what was going on. I was convinced it definitely was not time to do that as I have always been told that child labor is one of the worst pains in your life and you will definitely know when you are ready. I was tolerating my contractions so I felt that it could not be time yet. About 9:30 pm, I finally gave in to his requests and called. The doctor on call of course was not a doctor that I had met. She assured me that I could not be far enough along because I sounded too calm and that I would be doubling over in half if the contractions were strong enough to bring me to the hospital. She urged me to continue waiting as long as I could if I really wanted a natural birth. I was a little bummed and a little frustrated because this woman did not know me…how does she know what I would sound like if I were “ready”. I am very quiet when I am in pain. I do not get loud or scream out so how would she know? However, I kept assuming that this was going to be the most awful pain I have ever felt in my life so clearly I was not close enough or I would be feeling like I was dying…right?
Jarod kept urging me to go ahead and get ready so we could go to the hospital because at this point, I had been having contractions less than 3 minutes apart for about 5 hours. AND I had been in labor for 27 hours. I, being a little bit stubborn, refused. It was nuts, with every contraction, I went to the bathroom to pee. At this point, there was NOTHING in there. Literally, a drop might come out. TMI? What was up with my body? Around 11:30-12:00, my contractions were about 1 ½ minutes apart lasting anywhere from 1 minute to 1 minute and 20 seconds. I was not getting any relief from them to even catch my breath. Jarod finally put his foot down and said, “get your clothes on or you’re going to the hospital in your pajamas. We are leaving.” I complied.
When we left home for the hospital it was 1:10 am and snowing! What a beautiful sight. The hospital was 30 minutes away and now looking back it is hard to remember the ride. I do remember that every bump felt like it was going to push her right on out. About a block away, I became super hot and starting slapping Jarod’s arm to have him pull over. I did my business…unfortunately all over the door and a little on my foot. Oops…
I am pretty stubborn as we all know and I was convinced that I was not going to be one of those women that roll into the hospital screaming and panting in a wheel chair while her husband runs around like a chicken with his head cut off. In fact, I had made my mind up I was going to just walk right on up to floor 4. Ha. They brought out a wheel chair and I refused. Then my contraction came and I dropped to my knees for a second. All the while, I am telling this nurse that I will walk just give me a second. Truthfully, it would have taken us probably 20 minutes or more because I was having contractions so frequently I would have been stopping about every 3 feet. My dad told me to get my butt into that wheel chair…I complied. They quickly took me up to labor & delivery.
It was roughly 2:00 am when we checked in and began doing all the “checking” that they do. Lots of questions. Leaving. Coming back. Leaving. Coming back. Seriously, what is the pre-registration for if they are going to ask every single question again? Somewhere in there, the nurse asked if I was in the military and I said no so she said well then are you from the South, to which I replied, “Yes mam” and she said, “I knew it had to be one of them since you kept saying ‘mam’”. Glad to know I did not lose my manners! After a few minutes, I felt something very warm and realized my water had broken. At this point, it was just Jarod and me and my mom was hanging out for a few more minutes before we went to the next phase. My mom went to tell the nurses and they FINALLY came in to do the actual “check”. The nurse’s eye got big and she let me know I was dilated to at least an 8/9. I was so happy to hear that. I think I was a little delusional because I said, “So I don’t have to go home and come back?” She assured me I was definitely far enough to be checked in and in fact, I would be having a baby very soon. That was the only time of the whole night and months before that I cried. I could not believe it was here and I was about to have a sweet little baby girl!
Fast forward about an hour and there I was ready to deliver. I told my nurse I was ready to push and she assured me I was not I just “felt” that way and I needed to wait for my doctor to hurry up and arrive. Once she finally came in, she told me she was proud of me for waiting so long and that she heard I thought I was ready to push. She said she would check me out and sure enough, she said…yes, you are ready! Start pushing on the next contraction. Wait…Whhhhhhhaaaat? You mean it is time? And there we went. I only pushed a few times and there she was at 4:09 am on December 22, 2012. Roughly 30 ½ hours after we began… Sweet baby Adah Noelle Ring stepped into our lives! She was 8 pounds and 3 ounces. Supposedly, she was 21 inches long but at our 5 day check up they informed me she was just then 19 ¼ inches (so apparently she was only about 19 inches at birth). They do not say it feels like you are “sitting on the sun” for no reason. We will just leave it at that. It is amazing though how quickly it all just stops! There is your baby and boom….contractions are gone. It’s over just as quickly as it came and I fight to make sure those memories do not fade.
Baby Adah was perfect. 10 days late and perfectly on time! Perfectly aware of everything around her. Taking every moment in from the moment she arrived. Even more now as we have watched her grow for 5 months. She rarely cries. She smiles often. She sleeps so well. She’s every parents dream. If you do not believe me, ask ANYONE who has met her. Every one keeps informing me that “babies just aren’t like this”. So that makes me a little nervous about the next one. I will just keep on thinking it is our stellar parenting skills that keeps her rocking like rock star.
Now our worlds are forever changed. No longer are we a couple. We are a family. No longer are we just married, but parents. Gone are the days when the decisions we make, affect just the two of us. God is incredible. And even more than before, I want to adopt all the babies in the world.
Sarah
