On Tuesday, March 6 I went to my regular prenatal checkup and the doctor felt my cervix to see how dilated I was. I was about 3cm, so she predicted it would come this week or early the following week. I know you can't really tell from how dilated you are, so I didn't plan on it coming any earlier than a week. I didn't want to be disappointed so I made no changes in my schedule, but I did pack my bag and get as many things ready as I could. On Thursday, March 8 I had Play School at my house as I always do but this time I was in charge of it. I got all the supplies ready and taught the kids about the letter U. Later that afternoon I watched Lena's kids for 3 hours, as I had planned to do. It was a pretty exhausting day but I managed to keep the kids entertained and even clean up the house quite a bit once Lucy and Reed left. Jeff didn't get home until 7pm so I fed everyone and then started getting the kids ready for bed. Jeff came home and helped me finish up getting the kids to bed. I was glad the day was over, and my body was definitely feeling tired! I asked Jeff to give me a back massage and he had just had a long day too, but obliged and I told him maybe only a few more days and then my back won't hurt so much anymore! He's always so good about giving me massages at night when I'm pregnant and sore!!
Anyways, I watched some TV and then headed to bed around 10:30. At 1am I woke up a little uncomfortable so I went to the bathroom and then turned to my other side to go back to sleep. Then suddenly a thought came in my head, "was that a contraction?" Seeing it was 1am I told myself "no, no no, not right now! I want to sleep first." But after I had that thought I couldn't get back to sleep and sure enough, started feeling more contractions come and go. I packed some last minute things, put in my contacts and put on a little makeup. I woke up Jeff once I was sure this could be the real deal and, as usual, he got out his contraction timer app and we timed them. They were 5 minutes apart or less and a minute long already! I packed some more things and got myself ready...looking back, I wouldn't have taken my sweet time. Jeff called Scott, as we had previously arranged, and luckily he answered on the last ring. He hurried over to sleep here so we didn't have to wake up the kids. It's so nice to have them living just down the street! He told us later though that Bentley ended up crawling into bed with him that night and he awoke confused where he was with her staring at him! Luckily she just thought it was pretty funny he was there.
Well we drove to the hospital and arrived probably around 2:30am. At this point I was in a lot of pain and had to breathe through my contractions. They checked me in and then felt my cervix, which was now 7cm dilated. I asked for an epidural immediately so they took me into the delivery room and gave me an IV. Luckily this time it worked on the first try (I had 3 tries to get an iv to stick with Deacon). They told me they had paged the anesthesiologist, but he seemed to be taking forever to come! I didn't think I was going to make it at this point. I was in so much pain and I started feeling sensations to push, but I so badly wanted the epidural before I had to get the baby out. I didn't want to experience the "ring of fire" I've heard about and the thought of pushing with no epidural scared me. I was already in a ton of pain and the contractions were long and so close together I hardly had any relief. She checked me again and told me I was at 9cm and might not be able to get the epidural. I begged her anyway and he finally showed up to give it to me. I never felt the needle or any bit of pain when I got the epidural, in fact I did a lot better knowing that relief was coming! The nurse told me probably 3 more contractions until the epidural starts to work, so with that hope I was doing good. It took longer than that though...she said since I was so far it sometimes doesn't work very well. The anesthesiologist came back 2 more times to give me more medication. My left side was feeling very numb now, but my right side took a little longer. Eventually, I was pain free and it never felt so good! The doctor came in at that point and asked me if I wanted her to break my water and then have the baby. I was really enjoying the relaxation after all that pain and asked if I could just wait and rest a little. She said I could and there was no need to rush. So, Jeff and I slept for a couple of hours...well, I mostly just rested. It's hard to sleep knowing you're about to have a baby!
Around 5:30am I decided I wanted to have this baby now. I asked the doctor if she could break my water. She said she barely poked it and it broke, and then the baby's head was right there. So, I had to push about 4 times and he was out! It was unreal. I literally didn't believe what had just happened so quickly, not knowing any of this when I went to bed that night. It was so overwhelming and fast that it took us a while to even comprehend. We forgot all about taking pictures of his weight or anything!
Little Leo Spence Ady was born at 6:15am on March.9. He weighed 8lbs, 3oz. The joy we felt when he arrived was indescribable. The newest soul on the earth sent to us from heaven! It took us maybe an hour to decide on the name, but we were both very happy with what we decided and for the first time I actually felt like he looked like and was our little Leo. We named him without even knowing we had named him after my dad's grandpa! The middle name is after Jeff's Grandpa Spence who we just love dearly.
The process afterwards went really well and I was told I, once again, didn't tare at all. Leo came out with no crying so I kept asking if he was okay. He just had some phlegm from coming out so fast and not getting squished enough! He cried eventually and then they encouraged skin to skin to help him out. He cried some more and then started feeding pretty quickly after. He had no problem latching onto me and has been eating very well since then.
After calling and messaging our families with the news, I ordered some breakfast and Jeff went to get some food from the cafeteria. I always love eating after having a baby, so I was pretty excited for my food. It didn't end up coming until about 2 hours later though, so the nurse grabbed me some toast and peanut butter. Not exactly the well-deserved meal I was looking forward to but it still tasted delicious. Well my parents were now at our house taking over for Scott so he could go to work, so we decided to have them come after Deacon's nap. Cindy decided to grab Bentley and bring her to the hospital first to see Leo. Bentley came with cookies she had made with Grandma Nielson and a picture she drew for Leo. She smiled the whole time, but wouldn't say anything for some reason. She seemed a little nervous, like she didn't know what to think about Leo. She didn't really want to hold him either, but she smiled the whole time. A little bit later Scott and Kellie and family arrived for a visit and each took turns holding Leo. That broke the ice for Bentley and she decided to hold him and realized she really liked him. After their visit Jeff and Cindy took Bentley to the cafeteria to get some food. My parents arrived later with Deacon and Bentley had stayed so she was around as well. It was the absolute cutest sight watching Deacon meet Leo. I wish I had it all on video because he was so excited and cute with him! He held him, giggling and pointing to his fingers, eyes, nose, etc. It was one of those moments where I truly think they knew each other in heaven and could've even remembered each other. I'm sure Leo had told Deacon to go first and he would meet him down there soon. It was precious!
Well, the hospital was very full that night and they told me they needed me to go home that night so they could have the room. So, Leo got his first bath at the hospital, as many tests as they could do (I had to do some of them later), and then we filled out some information and packed up our things. My parents took the kids home before we left and started getting them ready for bed. We got home to our house around 9 and the kids were still reading books so I brought Leo up to join them. It was a sweet moment as our whole family of 5 sat in Bentley and Deacon's (now shared) room. The kids thought it was so fun that Leo was there too and that he was going to be staying in our house now. They wanted him to sleep in their room too but we told them he would wake up and cry lots in the night so they could see him in the morning.
I was really glad we were home and didn't have to spend a night in the hospital. Not that I got a lot of sleep that night anyway, but it was still nice having my comfortable bed! I recovered really quickly afterwards and it felt great to not be pregnant anymore!! Pregnancy is not my favorite thing, but it's sure worth it in the end. We love our sweet Leo!!
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