Monday, June 4, 2012

Adelyn Jane

Adelyn Jane Sutton was welcomed into our crazy world on March 27, 2012 at 3:08am at 6lbs 14oz and 19 in long! She was definitely ready to join our family and took no time at all to let me know! Monday morning (March 26th) I woke up and immediately told Jeff, " I think we might have a baby today, keep your phone with you". I went to work like normal and started telling people that I really felt like she was going to come early, even though I was only 36 weeks, I had the strongest feeling that she was ready! All day I worked as if nothing was different, I did notice I was having some cramping, but nothing to out of the ordinary. Because I had such an easy pregnancy, I never thought much of any little discomfort. I remember leaving work pretty quickly that day, and if I knew I was going to go into labor in a couple of hours, I probably would have prepared my classroom a little more that afternoon. When I got home Jeff was also home pretty early for no particular reason, I remember telling him I was really hungry and we decided to eat dinner around 4:30 that day... weird. I started to feel a little worse throughout the evening, I told him that I wanted to go on a walk with Stewie because I felt like he wouldn't have a chance to have many more walks with just him. We ended up going on a walk around 6:30 and the entire time I kept telling Jeff that something wasn't right because I just continued to feel bad cramps and my back was aching sooo bad! I feel like I have a pretty high pain tolerance, so I almost felt guilty complaining  so much that afternoon. I received a phone call from one of my best friends and I tried to act like nothing was wrong, but something definitely was because as I was talking I was curled up on my bed trying to keep my voice from showing any pain. I also got a call from my sister. She wanted to let me know that she was going out of town in the morning and that I was not allowed to have the baby till the following week. I think that was the first time I admitted to myself that I may actually be in labor. I told her that I wasn't feeling great and it could be possible that I was going to have a baby that night.

7:30 came around and Jeff wanted me to start timing my "contractions". At this point I still thought there was no way I was in labor and that what I was experiencing was contractions. I tried to time them on a handy little app on my phone and when we looked at it after an hour, Jeff said they are about a min long and around 4 min apart, he then forced me to call my doctor. I really wanted to wait till morning because I felt silly bothering my doctor after hours and I DID NOT want to drive all the way to the hospital and then have them send me home! We headed down to the hospital and arrived around 9:30. ( It took me a while to leave the house... I had to shower, make the bed, pick up around the house and say good bye to Stewie) They immediately admitted me and I was 3 to 4 cm and 75% effaced. Even after hearing that I continued to ask " so was it good that I came in?"

It was so surreal, everything happened so quickly and not at all how I thought it was going to go. It was not like the episode of Friends where Rachael delivers or any other movie EVER that had a person going through labor. Within 1 hour of arriving, I was receiving an epidural (THANK GOD) and completely comfortable. Around 11:30 I was 6 cm and my doctor told me to sleep for a couple hours and relax... YEAH RIGHT! There was NO WAY I was going to be able to sleep, I was too excited and anxious! 2am came around and she told me it was time to push! At this point, Jeff was sleeping (surprise surprise) and I looked his way and said "did you hear that?" I asked the doctor if I could wait, because it was happening SO much faster than I could have ever imagined. I thought I would be someone who was in labor for 30+ hours... NOPE! She told me we could start around 2:30am. The next 30 min was the fastest 30 min of my life! All I remember is shaking like crazy and calling my sister telling her and my parents that they better hurry up! 2:30 came, I began pushing and 30 min later our precious Adelyn arrived!

I couldn't even begin to tell anyone the feeling I felt when they handed her to me! It was my baby, and she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen! I loved her so much more than I could ever imagine!

Now one thing that I would like everyone who has had a child and did not inform me of was that the delivery is not the hard part of having a baby, it is the recovery, breastfeeding, emotions, ect... that follow not only hours after but days, and I am sure months to follow! Now Adelyn is 3 weeks and I finally feel pretty close to normal, besides the fact that I now have a tiny human being in charge of my life, and I absolutely love it!

Everyday is a new day, she teaches me things every moment! I am now very skillful with only one hand and any fear I ever had of holding an infant is GONE. Some days are easy and she follows a schedule like a champ, those mornings I enjoy the Today Show showered with my coffee and finish breakfast! Some days (today) I have half a face of makeup on, coffee cup sitting under the Keurig for 2 hours, no food, and she has chosen to eat ALL morning long! Either way, I make it through it and I love every second of it!

I want to thank everyone especially our families for all of the love and support! We could not have done this without them! This is only the beginning and I can't wait to see what little Ms. Adelyn has in store for us...