It's a girl!

My dreams proved accurate, and our baby is a girl!  Adaline Rose was born at 9:45PM on Thursday February 25, 2010.  Travis was the best support coach a laboring woman could have asked for and he was supported by one of my oldest friends, Julie.  Julie, having had three children of her own and currently working on her fourth, knew exactly where to rub and push to help relieve my back labor.  She was able to relieve Travis and she didn't even flinch when my inner sailor came out and the curse words started flying. She's going to make a fabulous doula, and if you're in Northern California for your next birth, I would highly recommend her.
Adaline came right on time, which surprised me.  Actually she was one day early.  The records state that she was born at 39 weeks and six days. I had been told multiple times by multiple people to expect to be at least a week overdue, as this was my first child. So I got into the habit of telling people I was due on March 1st to get my brain comfortable with being late.  But, I think Adaline's personality is already showing and she's going to be just like me...tell her to do it one way and she'll respond with, "I'll do it my own way, thank you very much."  At birth Adaline was 8 lb. 3 oz and 20.5 inches long.  At two weeks, she is already 8 lb. 6 oz!  We took this picture at 1:30AM just before we left for the hospital.  It's amazing that it was only two weeks ago.

If you're interested in the labor story, read on; if it's too much information for you, stop reading here and have a great day!

We had a long, slow labor totally 23 hours.  Contractions started out at 10:50PM Wednesday night at 3 minutes apart and stayed there for over an hour before I woke Travis up.  I wasn't in pain, but my mother had incredibly short labors (I was born in 1.5 hours) so I was paranoid about our half-hour drive to the hospital.  We arrived and were admitted at 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced, but Adaline was in a posterior position which contributed to my long, slow back labor.  It was only painful for the last 6 hours or so.  I stalled out at 5.5 cm (from 7:30AM until 3PM) so we decided to have the midwife break my water.  The contractions grew stronger, but didn't get much closer together until 6PM.  From there, we jumped from 6 cm to 8 cm where we sat for about an hour.  I suddenly felt the urge to push, even though the nurse had JUST measured me and proclaimed me still an 8.  She remeasured while I was having the next contraction and said, "Okay, you're right, we'll call the midwife back in." From there I pushed for an hour, and Adaline arrived!  It was the most amazing thing I've ever experienced.  True to other mom's statements, I've already forgotten the pain of the actual birth, but I don't think I'll ever forget the pain of the aftermath.  I did tear a bit (TMI, I know) and getting the stitches was horrid.  Also, I was hemorrhaging more than the midwife liked, so she instructed the nurses to get to work massaging my uterus (from the outside, thank you very much) and that was one of the most painful things I have ever felt.  I think one of the nurses was less experienced than the other and I think she was not doing it correctly.  When the other nurse did it, it was much less painful.  Also, I was physically exhausted, not just from labor but from sleep deprivation, too.  I was just getting into bed Wednesday night when labor started and I was unsuccessful at napping much during early labor so I was up for 39 hours by the time Adaline arrived.

Anyway, we are home and doing well.  Travis was able to take two weeks off work to help me and to get to know his daughter.  He returns to work on Thursday and I'm already sad...I don't want him to go!  I'm relying on him less every day, but I'm so enjoying our new little family being together all day.  

The pictures posted here are from her birth and the first week of life.  Again, a HUGE thank you to Julie for all her support (and the fantastic photos!) I haven't taken many pictures this last week but hope to get back to it next week.  Check back soon to see how I've done with that :P