Alright so here is the story of my first son's arrival into this beautiful world. I never got around to posting Adelai's story so I'm very excited to share these intimate moments with you. I must first give credit to my sister Holly for taking most of these hospital photos. Thank you for being willing to take on a task that I often micromanage. You did an excellent job capturing this special time in our lives.
We start off on Sunday morning of April 14th with very mild contractions. In fact I wasn't even sure they were contractions, but I noticed throughout church that they were pretty consistent. We carried on about our day and my contractions started getting stronger by the hours. Now last time around I had early labor for two days, so I wasn't about to jump the gun and go rolling into the hospital once they started to progress. Around 4pm we starting packing our bags, because my contractions were about 6 minutes apart and lasting around 45 seconds. We were invited over to my brother and sister-in-laws for dinner so we headed their way, but left Miss Adelai behind with Tamaw since we were pretty sure we'd be heading to the hospital that night.
As I labored in a leather recliner for about 3 hours at their house my contractions seemed to be slowing down so we decided that I needed to walk. We never even made it to the sidewalk before my water broke! Yes, so here we go to the hospital at 8:30pm.
When we arrived I was 4cm in triage, then by the time I was admitted to my room I was 6cm. Progress that's what I wanted to hear. So my contractions started getting harder and way closer than I remember with delivering Adelai. I got sick again but this time my awesome husband caught it in a cup in the nick of time! (Thanks babe I know the nurses appreciated that.)
10:45ish rolls around and I'm squirming like crazy and having a really hard time not pushing that baby out. They check me again and I'm still at 6cm! No progress? What? I was very discouraged and then gave in and asked for an epidural since I could barely keep from pushing at every contraction. 11:00pm, they check me again and I was now at 9cm! Ok so I think I can do this now without the epidural especially since I don't think I could have held still for the procedure to even happen. 11:07pm, doctor comes in and they tell me I can push. Love to hear those words. Seven minutes of pushing and I had baby Gideon in my arms. I also remember my husband saying he was so glad to have his wife back. Apparently during my labor I like no one to touch me or ask me questions. You never know how labor will make you react. Last time around I had my sister and husband rubbing my back and coaching me through each contraction. So very different this time around.
My amazing delivery (family) team: Sister-Nicole (Aunt Cole), Husband-Jesse (Daddy), Sister-Holly (Aunt Lala), Mom-Lydia (Mama Lydia)
My dad-Ralph (Pa Ralph) and step-mother-Jo (Miss Jo) even made it out for the delivery. My mother-in-law-Tammy (Tamaw) visited with us the next day.
Three most amazing Aunts to my children. The last one is my sister-in-law, Erin (Auntie Erin).
First Bath.
Adelai's first and second visit to the hospital. She kept asking "Baby?", but after showing her baby Gideon she would then be more interested in the balloons or something else in the room.
Aunt Lala brought Adelai a present. A baby brother book and her favorite, a pair of shoes. Thanks Lala!
Adelai finally started having some interest in her baby brother on the second visit.
My wonderful family. Thank you God for your blessings. You are truly one amazing God and I hope we can glorify you in all that we do while here on this earth.
Huxley meets Gideon.
My mom stayed for three days to help us out with the transition. She was a big help. Below you will see she kept our 20 month old occupied with another favorite, stickers, or as Adelai calls them "Stickies". My mom also treated me to the most amazing 45 minute massage outside in the awesome spring air. I then continued to lay on the massage table for another 45 minutes napping. It was so relaxing! Thanks mom.
The next morning I awoke to a delicious breakfast my husband made for me and the family. So yummy! Thanks Jesse!
I will hopefully have later this week Gideon's portraits up on the blog. So stay posted to see our more images of our sweet little guy. I also want to send out a thank you to all those who had us in your prayers during this pregnancy. We love you all!
