I decided to do a recap of her first week of life, I don't want to forget these precious firsts we shared together as a family.
The day before I was induced, at 5:00pm we got the call from my doctor saying the next day was a go, I couldn't believe it and went into panic mode. Everything had to be absolutely perfect. All the little tasks that had been needing to be done, but had been neglected, NEEDED TO BE DONE before we checked into the hospital the next morning. I have to say I have a pretty amazing husband who I can count on for anything and who helped me do all that I wanted to get done without any fuss.
January 30th-31st
I checked into the hospital at 8am totally numb and shocked that this was it, next time I would be leaving was with my baby boy or girl(we didn't know the sex). The life I knew before I entered the hospital was not going to be the life I had leaving, it was going to be much fuller and more meaningful from that second on. Leif and I went to the maternity ward where I met my nurse Laura who would be taking care of me while I was there when she was on shift, she was seriously amazing. We got situated into our room and hooked up to a stress test which monitored the babies heart beat and my contractions. Shortly after my doctor had arrived and started the induction, she chose to start with Cervadil which is an insert that softens the cervix to help for more natural and easy contractions and birth. Now was the waiting game!
By 10am the contractions started to come more frequent but compared to the ones later on, these were nothing. Leif had to work that day so he was in and out checking up when he could, luckily we have great support here in Cranbrook and I was able to have company to keep me preoccupied. Leif's main work shed was visible from the hospital window, I would look out and see him at times going in and out from his truck to the building working away. Not having him there with me all day did somewhat suck but being able to see him so close was very comforting.
4o'clock rolled around and I had to go to the washroom, after doing so all of a sudden another gush of water came out of no where. Now looking back at this, I don't know what I was thinking when I had come to the conclusion it was just more pee hiding in my bladder. How wrong was I! Two hours went by and then my nurse asked how my bathroom breaks were going and non shallontly I told her what had happened. Well didn't she spring up from her seat and rush me to the bathroom to do an amniotic fluid swab test, sure enough my water had broke. She quickly got the Cervadil taken out of me(your not supposed to have it in once your water has broken), laughing at me, her and Leif couldn't believe I had just thought it was pee, but at the time it made sense to me. My doctor came at 7pm to check up on me and not much had changed to my surprise and disappointment. I may have dilated another centimetre or so but nothing extreme, I was soo let down seeing as I had contractions all day which are not comfortable to say the least! She decided to leave me over night and see what my body did naturally and then make a game plan in the morning. Well that night was brutal, the contractions came on way more strong and were getting to the point of being unbearable. At 8pm I got a shot of morphine which helped a lot and I ended up passing out until 12am. I woke up to even worse contractions this time and had called the nurse for more morphine, this time the shot did absolutely nothing for me and the pain was to much to handle just lying in bed. To the shower I went which became my safe haven until 6 that morning. Leif slept on the floor of the bathroom while I was propped sitting upright on an exercise ball with the hot water running on my belly and my head rested against the wall trying to sleep. 6am rolled around and Laura had started her shift again, she put my IV in while I was in the shower, I wasn't leaving unless I absolutely had to. I was completely exhausted by this point but couldn't totally fall asleep nor could I fully stay awake. Finally forced out of the shower Leif would hold me standing up while I worked through my contractions and he making sure I wouldn't topple over from being so out of it. Finally Laura had convinced me to get an epidural, I wasn't against them but the thought of putting a needle into my back scared me. Well let me tell you, I LOVED IT! It didn't hurt at all going in and I could walk afterwards to which the nurses were so pleased and shocked about. After that my doctor had come to check on me and had determined I was now 4 cm dilated... ONLY 4?! I thought, this was just getting out of hand. I wanted to meet my baby soo bad. She decided it was time for oxitocin and declared we would be having the baby today for sure, which both calmed and freaked me right out at the same time. Finally I could sleep, the epidural made all the pain go away and I passed out for 10 hours. Our close family friend Tracy was in and out of the room our whole stay there, bringing us food and whatever else we needed, that day she brought us smoothies which I was soo excited to drink because I was starving! BUT I wasn't aloud to! I was soo sad and snuck a few sips here and there when the nurses left the room, I am a rebel. Just in case we ended up needed a caesarean they didn't want anything to heavy in my belly so I mainly stuck to Ginger Ale and watered down apple juice, which every time I woke up for a little bit in those ten hours I barfed up.. Around 6 when I had fully woken up I was checked and was at around 7cm dilated by then, by 730pm I was 9cm which caught my nurse off guard but I was more then ready to push. I did about 40 minutes of pushing, that epidural worked up until that moment and then I felt everything. Giving birth is hard and I will be honest, when it was time to push out the head there was a split second I thought my life was over, I even asked the nurses if we could stop this HAHA I am hilarious! My hubby was so amazing during this whole process, he said I barely even squeezed his hand the whole time. I thought I was destroying it but I think I went very internal at this point and really worked on the task at hand by myself. I felt every single contraction which made pushing soo easy(by so easy I mean I could push for the whole contraction instead of guessing when it was) but honestly pushing was not easy in the sense your squeezing out a watermelon from the size of a pea whole, I was so determined to get this baby out, then with one final push moan and groan and possibly a bit of a scream thrown in there as well BAM at 8:14 my baby was plopped onto my chest looking absolutely perfect, all the pressure and pain I was feeling automatically disappeared, comfort and relief overwhelmed by body(oh and no major tearing for this girl!). Finally, 41weeks of pregnancy all for that moment.
The nurses and our doctor were in agreement with us that no one would tell us the sex of the baby. We wanted to find out for ourselves and film the raw emotional moment. They were itching to say but held it in, around a half hour or a little more after I had given birth we had decided to find out if the life Leif and i had made was either a boy or a girl. I was nervous and excited to find out, the moment I lifted the blanket and saw we had a little girl I think my heart skipped a beat. I am getting teary eyed just remembering the experience. I was a mother to a beautiful baby girl, she was mine and she is absolutely perfect. I was also very shocked because we were dang positive it was a boy and most everyone guessed a boy as well.
Feb 1st
The next day Leif and I held her and enjoyed our sweet little one, staring at her and examining every precious little part of her. She was ours, God blessed us with this beautiful little girl and I was overfilled with joy and gratitude. We still hadn't named her by this point, we wanted to make sure it was going to be perfect and a name we would love calling her. Around noon we had decided on Hadley Anne Strom, which suits her perfectly. We fell in love with the name Hadley earlier in the pregnancy and had it on our list with about 6 other girl names, Hadley is also an old family name from my mothers side and Anne is from me!
My parents were here by noon! Oh how excited I was to see my amazing mother and father and to show off my little girl! Seeing how proud they were of me and what I had accomplished really touched me, when they get emotional I get even more emotional. I loved seeing them giggle and laugh and take countless photos of her and just stare at her in awe, because she was finally here and now they have some one to call them Nani and Grampie! (Unless Hadley chooses her own names for them which in that case I hope are hilarious). They had left to go eat and get settled in at our house and would be back later to have more snuggles with me and Hadley.
That night we were visited by many who just couldn't wait to meet our little chunk muffin:) it was so endearing to have people come so lovingly to see the biggest accomplishment I have yet made. We truly are blessed with amazing friends here, I heard the quote "friends are family we get to choose" and its true the friends we have made here are our second family, being away from both of ours can be tough at times especially for me because unlike my husband I knew absolutely no one coming here. I was scared and nervous to be all alone, but boy was I ever wrong. I have never felt so welcomed and loved by a group of people.
We had many more visitors but I didn't take photos of everyone who came to see Hadley Leif and I. :(
Feb 2nd
Okay I was fed up by Sunday and needed to leave, I had a new nurse whom I was not pleased with at all, we shall call her Stricty McStricterson and I just had about enough of her. I was very nauseous and sick still from what had taken place and earlier Laura showed Leif where the Ginger Ale was so he could grab it for me instead of always asking. Well didn't Ms. Strictpants have a problem with that and once Leif had left the room she tore a strip off of me for drinking it. That was my breaking point so I made Leif give it back to her (she of course refused and felt a bit bad after that) and then when my doctor came to check up on me I begged her to be released. Which she said we could be by 2 pm but it was up to the Strict nurse if breast feeding was going well. Which made me want to cry because I felt like she was never going to let us leave and we would be stuck there forever.
Around noon Leif's parents joined the party and met their granddaughter for the first time. Of course they were smitten and had some fun cuddle sessions with her. It was fun seeing his dad's face light up with giddiness at his new gran baby. I always heard grand kids turn grandparents into softies but I didn't really believe it until I saw it happen right before my eyes!
By 2:00 we were let out, thank goodness, and headed home, of course when we got into the truck before leaving the hospital I burst into tears, overwhelmed with the emotion of just giving birth and now having a little girl who is mine forever. It was so surreal.
When we got home Leif's brother James was there to greet us, the hospital had a strict policy with visiting hours for the maternity ward and if they weren't grandparents they weren't allowed otherwise. They got their cuddles in and had a little visit an then they were on their way as well.
After all the fuss and hullabaloo that had taken place over the weekend It was finally just Leif, Hadley, and I now, our little family. This is what these past months were for, to be able to grow in a number and have our hearts filled to the breaking point with love for our new little one. Now what to do? Hadley and I passed out for a few hours and Leif made supper and we had a quiet evening. But man oh man did it start sinking in, I had a baby who is mine and I am her everything. Heavenly Father entrusted me with this little gift and I felt so inadequate and not worthy for this amazing blessing. Luckily I have amazing friends who came to the rescue and came to give me advice and guidance with my fears and many questions of how to be the best mom I could be.
Feb 3rd
Leif had got it so he had today off so we could adjust into home life, the night prior Hadley slept so well. I was astonished and had chalked it up to a little coming home present, which I found out the next night that I was right. It was a real relaxing chill day with a few visitors. All in all we just unwound and let the reality of our new life sink in.
Feb 4th
Leif was back to work that day and was I ever sad! My loving husband was now back to his old role and I was at home with my new one. Prior to Tuesday Hadley was an amazing breast feeder and I had zero problems until this point. Until she started refusing to feed on my right side. I was in so much pain and it was so tender because it was so backed up with milk. Luckily I had a doctors appointment that day followed by a public health nurse visit later in the afternoon. The doctors appointment went so well, Hadley was 7lbs8oz when she was born and when she was discharged from the hospital she went down to. 7lbs, on Tuesday she weighed at 7lbs2oz. My doctor suggested a breast pump if Hadley refused to feed from my right side any more but we would decide a plan of action after I saw the health nurse. When the health nurse arrived I was quite nervous, I didn't want to be pegged as a bad mother and was sure I was doing everything wrong! Well she said the complete opposite, Hadley is doing very well and is extremely healthy and everything I had done for her this far was right on track. She taught me some tips to help Hadley feed from the right side and it worked! Just a few massaging tips and everything softened up and Hadley ate like a little piggy (she is a little snorter) but man oh man was I ever relieved!
This is Hadley's typical look after a good feeding!! Milk-coma!
Feb 5th
Wednesday rolled around and I was amazed that I had made it 4 days being home with her and we were both still alive and happy as ever!! Anther relaxing fun day with my girl! That night was pretty up and down with her, at 4am I went to change her and didn't she pee EVERYWHERE. Everything was drenched and I was frozen not knowing where to start. I ended up having to wake Leif up and have him come help me with our crying child and pee soaked EVERYTHING. We couldn't help but laugh at ourselves at out "New Parent Moment", I wish we had a video camera documenting the ordeal, it was truly hilarious.
Feb 6th
Thursday was pretty boring all day, Hadley and I took many naps and just hunkered down and snuggled, I think it was more interesting than that, but my mind is escaping me and I am to tired to really dig into my brain to remember what really happened. We did go out that night very quickly to Target and Walmart which was Hadley's first debut into the real world. Cranbrook is a small city so everyone starts to know who you are, when we went to Walmart all the cashiers huddled over to us so excited to meet our new baby. Its really lovely how you get recognised and how people show their love and interest towards you in a lower populated city.
Feb 7th
Well today is the day Hadley is a week old! It has been the best week ever and I cant wait for many more to come!! Hadley had another doctors appointment today to see how her first week went and she has a clean bill o health!! So she started at 7lbs8oz and went down to 7lbs and then to 7lbs2oz and now she is 7lbs12.5oz!! Our doctor was so impressed, she said infants usually gain 30grams a day and Hadley is gaining 70grams. It makes me feel so special and kind of powerful that I am making her grow big and strong.
I love my little family and can't wait for more exciting memories to come. I love my life and all who are in it. I am truly blessed and know that Heavenly Father is always watching out for me. I would be crazy to think he wasn't.
