Almost as soon as I found out I was expecting back in September I looked at the calendar and picked Friday, May 9th for the baby’s birthday. At just a few days shy of 40 weeks I thought it would be a good day while still giving me time between this birthday and Charlotte’s. In the weeks leading up to my due date May 9th began to look iffy when I started having contractions (which I’d never had before) and even more questionable when I was sent to L&D by my doctor on Tuesday with a possible blood clot in my leg. But despite all of that, May 9th ended up being the perfect day to welcome a new baby to our family!
We put Charlotte and James to bed at Mom and Dad’s on Thursday night and went home to try and get some sleep before our early morning. We had a 7 am scheduled c-section and so had to be at the hospital at 5 am. I was so excited and so concerned that a dream I’d had a few weeks before where I’d overslept was going to come true that I woke up to look at the clock repeatedly throughout the night. Sadly, that’s the last night that I would have been able to sleep more than about 4 hours since then so I’m sad that I wasted it.
Regardless, I hopped (or rolled, whichever) out of bed Friday morning excited to meet our new little girl. L&D was deserted when we arrived and as we waited to be taken back we took our traditional last belly and last couple pictures before the birth.
We got back to our pre-op room and they started prepping me. Our nurses worked hard to pump me full of fluids so that I would, hopefully, not have blood pressure or nausea problems. Even though we were scheduled for 7 am, like always, we got delayed and didn’t start heading back to the OR until around 7:30 am.
Jason suited up while I got my spinal (the worst one I’ve had but they’re always terrible) and then it was show time. At 8:19 am we heard the beautiful sound of a little girl screaming and were overjoyed to welcome Hadley Grace to our family!
She weighed 6 pounds and 14 ounces and was 20 inches long. She was perfect and demonstrated her extreme lung power while they were getting her cleaned up and swaddled.
Then I finally got to meet Hadley! They forgot, or didn’t, strap down my arms this time so I managed to stroke her cheek a little when I met her. And, of course, I couldn’t resist a kiss on that sweet cheek. It amazes me every time how they calm down the moment I start talking. The bond between a mother and her baby is such a miracle and gift from God!
We took our first picture with our sweet girl and then she and Jason were headed to recovery. Our hospital has changed the c-section process since James was born and so, instead of going to the nursery immediately, Jason and Hadley went to wait for me in recovery. This meant that as soon as I got to recovery I wasn’t alone and we got to spend time just the three of us before everyone else was around. It was such a nice change and I loved our time together!
In recovery Hadley got her first bath. She’s not screaming in this picture but doesn’t look too happy with it all. She had some problems keeping her temperature up so she immediately went back under the heat lamp until I arrived.
I got to nurse and have some skin on skin time with Hadley while we waited for an hour to pass. Eventually we were released and Hadley went back in the bassinet for our trip up to our room. Our parents and Charlotte and James were waiting next to our room and I love that I asked Jason for my phone before we went upstairs so that I could snap this picture. They were all smitten the minute they saw her just like we were.
