Harper Adelle Roberts was born on January 14, 2013 at 12:15 PM. She weighed exactly seven pounds and is 21.5 inches long.
This is going to be a long post because I will be writing about my birth story. If you don't care to read about it, scroll until you see pictures!
Last Sunday, the 13th, we went to church and then lounged around the house watching the Falcons' play-off game. As expected, the hospital called us and asked if a 4:30 check-in time would be okay. We told them we'd be a little later than 4:30, but didn't disclose that it was because we were watching football. Luckily, they were just fine with it. (Honestly, I was surprised I didn't go into labor because of that game.) We had our bags packed and ready to go the night before, so we piled them in the kitchen so we weren't rushing around at the last minute. I wanted to feel as calm and prepped as possible because I was really afraid of this huge life changing event that was about to take place. I was pretty emotional, having a few crying spells throughout the day. I felt guilty leaving the cat all alone for three and a half days, so I made sure to cuddle with him and tell him how much I love him. Crazy cat lady in the making. I wear that badge proudly. After the game we went to Rhea's for our last meal out as a couple without a baby. (Best burger in Roswell!)
We got to the hospital around 5:30 and were greeted with a lobby full of pregnant ladies and their husbands all wearing Falcons gear. I guess we all had the same idea! I was extremely nervous and when they called us back I felt like there was a huge weight on my chest. I was shaky and pretty close to tears. The nurse brought us into the delivery room and told me to go ahead and strip down to a hospital gown and she'd be back to explain everything and answer our questions. Once that was done I settled into the hospital bed and answered a very long list of questions and signed a ton of papers. My vitals were taken (BP was 135/90 due to anxiety!), I was hooked up to a fetal monitor to watch for contractions and fetal heartbeat, and the nurse explained how everything would work. Basically, she was going to vaginally insert the Cervidil patch and that would pretty much be it until morning. In the morning they would be starting the Pitocin drip to begin labor. Turns out I had all that anxiety for nothing and I started to relax. I was most concerned about how the Cervidil would make me feel. Plus, I had a strong, nagging feeling that I'd go into labor because of the Cervidil. I had heard it could trigger strong contractions and start the dilation and labor process, but that it was pretty rare. My nurse said I may feel some minor contractions but it would not start labor. I tried to pry more information out of her - mostly I wanted to know what symptoms to look for if I suspected labor had begun. She told me if for some reason I felt contractions and they were painful I could have a shot of Morphine and Phenergan. The only rule was that I had to lay down for the first two hours after it was in. After that I could only get up to use the bathroom. (As expected, about 20 minutes after it was in I had to go REALLY badly...so that was a long two hours.) The Cervidil was in at 7:50 PM, but the placement was so painful it drove me to tears. Harper's head was very low and the nurse had trouble finding my cervix because of that. Luckily she was as gentle and understanding as possible, but it was still excruciating. After the first hour I started feeling crampy. We were following the little graph on the fetal monitor and it showed that I was having minor contractions about every 8-10 minutes. They weren't too strong and just felt like period cramps. After the initial two hours were up we expected them to come in and check on us but no one did. By then I was having contractions pretty regularly - they had started at ten minutes apart, then dropped to eight, then dropped to five, and finally I was having them two to three minutes apart. They weren't horribly painful, but they were definitely getting stronger and I had to grip the bed rails at one point. We gave it another 45 minutes or so and then paged the nurse. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be having such regular contractions and wanted to make sure I wasn't starting to go into real labor. A different nurse came in to see what was up. Turns out the woman in the room across the hall was in active labor and she and the baby were in distress which is why no one had been in to check on us. The nurse acted very irritated to be in my room answering my questions and said she'd do a dilation check if it "made me feel better." (Um, yeah. It would make me feel tons better knowing if I may or may not be in real labor.) She was very rough and gave up pretty quickly saying she couldn't find my cervix and asked if I'd rather someone else come in to try. (I'm making her sound much nicer than she actually was, by the way.) Our original nurse came in and checked (again, painful and brought me to tears) and told me I had actually dilated one centimeter, but there was no cause for concern about being in labor. Still, a good sign for the next morning! She said I was welcome to get up and use the bathroom if I needed to, and I had until midnight to eat something if I was hungry. She ordered that shot of morphine and phenergan I mentioned earlier, since the contractions were stronger than expected. The next hour or so was pretty nice. Taylor brought me McDonald's chicken nuggets and I enjoyed my morphine high. The contractions slowed down due to the medication and we popped in a movie and settled in to sleep. Another hour later I was wide awake (this was about 12:30 AM) and the contractions had come back every three to five minutes. A different nurse came in and gave me 5mg of Ambien. It didn't work, so at 1:30 AM she gave me another 5 mg. In hindsight, the Ambien was a pretty terrible idea. I never actually got to sleep and felt really loopy. Every time I'd nod off a contraction would hit and I'd be up again. Except I wasn't all the way awake - I was in some weird "twilight" state of mind because of the drugs. I think I did eventually fall asleep but not for long. (Later I found out I was texting all kinds of people at 4:30 AM and making no sense at all...and I really have no memory of this.)
I don't remember everything that happened next in detail, because of the Ambien effects - a lot of this story was told to me later by Taylor, my mom, and my mother-in-law.
Around 6 AM I was woken up by a new nurse who came in to ask if I wanted an enema. Now, as disgusting as the concept of an enema is I definitely wanted one in order to save myself the embarrassment of possibly pooping on the delivery table. Sorry if that's TMI, but that's why they offer one to you. The enema wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be - it was no walk in the park, but it wasn't painful. I showered after that and they checked me for dilation progress - still one CM. They decided to hold off on the Pitocin since I was already having contractions and starting to dilate on my own. At 8:30 the nurse and a mid-wife came back to check again since my contractions were getting to be pretty painful and uncomfortable. I was 5 CM dilated! No wonder! They decided to break my water and called the anesthesiologist for the epidural because I was progressing so quickly. In the meantime they administered pain medication directly into my IV to take the edge off of the contractions. I'm pretty sure it really didn't do any good by that point.
The difference in contraction pain after your water is broken versus before it is broken is crazy. I thought they were bad before...but once they hit after they broke my water it was almost unbearable. No no, it WAS unbearable. I felt like I couldn't breathe and I was white-knuckling the bed rails. I'm pretty sure I was yelling in pain and cursing and everyone was trying to get me to calm down and breathe through them. It's a lot harder to breathe through a very strong contraction than it sounds. Once the anesthesiologist came in I had to sit up for the epidural. NOT fun. I thought I was in the most pain possible while laying down, but sitting up was a whole new ball game. I'm not sure what exactly happened during the epidural process but all I knew was I felt a prick in my back and my next memory is of me lying back down and starting to feel tingly from my chest down to my toes. I think this is when my mom and Taylor's mom came in to see how I was. Maybe. Apparently I was in and out of sleep after the epidural. It really does numb your entire body to the point of no pain! Plus you can't really move on your own. And FYI, you will get a catheter if you opt for an epidural. The only thing I felt after the epidural hit was pressure, but it was not painful at all. Thank goodness! I did feel like I needed to push when the pressure would hit and I verbalized this to my nurse but was advised to hold off for a while longer.
At 10:30 a nurse performed another pelvic check - I was 8-9 CM! They said they'd be back in an hour and that would be when the pushing would start. I have no idea what went on during that hour except that I'm pretty sure I was in and out of sleep and I do recall the nurse turning me from one side to another every so often because of the baby's heart rate.
The doctor came in about noon-ish and it was go time. We sent my mom and and Taylor's mom to the lobby to wait with my dad and sister. During the pushing process Taylor was on my left holding my hand (facing me) and the nurse was on my right side. The way it works is you push three times for ten seconds during a contraction. It was easy to tell when I was having one because of the pressure, so I didn't really have to wait for them to tell me to do it. I'll spare you the pushing details, but I only pushed for about fifteen minutes all together. On the final push (I think) the doctor ended up performing an episiotomy. It was only a second degree cut though. Could have been worse!
It was a complete surprise when the nurse announced that we had a baby girl! We had completely convinced ourselves over the past few weeks that we were having a boy.
Taylor went and checked her out while I got stitched up. He told me she had dark curly hair and that she was beautiful. I patiently waited for them to finish cleaning her up. They finally brought her over to me to hold for the first time. It was such a surreal experience! I had carried her for nine months and in a matter of six hours I went from being pregnant to holding my first baby. I have a daughter!
We were moved to a permanent room upstairs in the women's center of the hospital and that is where we stayed until Wednesday. We did not get a lot of sleep or get a chance to establish a feeding schedule because of the constant stream of nurses, medical techs, lactation consultants, and doctors coming in and out to check on us multiple times per day and night. They continued to monitor my glucose levels four times per day, but I was no longer having the high readings that I had during pregnancy. No more diabetes!
That is pretty much it! We are home now, attempting to establish a permanent schedule and trying to get sweet Harper to reverse her days and nights - she has them mixed up, but apparently this is completely normal. I'm biased, but she is such a good baby and she is just gorgeous. We are such lucky and proud parents. It will be so so hard to go back to work in four weeks. I love her SO much!
Oh! We've had a lot of questions about how we came up with her name. Honestly, I had heard the name Harper years ago and thought it was a very pretty, feminine, and traditional name and it always stuck with me. We also wanted a name that not everyone is using right now. Luckily, no one I know or Taylor knows has used the name Harper at all. Adelle is a family name on my mother's side (also my middle name) that goes back many generations. (We did NOT choose Adelle because of that horrendous singer, FYI. It's not even spelled the same!)
I'll leave you with some photos of us and the baby.
