Hadley's Story

A full 12 days early, little Hadley made her debut into the world quickly and quietly Monday morning.  At my last OB appointment, I had progressed a lot in a week to 80% effaced and 3 cm dilated with Hadley's head at a -1 station which is really low.  My Dr. said that she probably wouldn't see me at my next appointment, but I really didn't believe her because what Shaw goes 2 weeks early?
I had had a few episodes of light contractions that were coming like 20 min apart all week but they didn't really hurt and stopped when I hydrated and sat down, so I wasn't very concerned, but concerned enough to half-pack a hospital bag on Saturday.
Enter Sunday evening.  I had a few contractions, but not much to worry about.  We talked with family and even discussed names with Melanie (Mike's sister) for like an hour because we still did not have a name and thought maybe we should decide on one in the near future.  Whoops!  We went to bed around 10 and at about 2am, I woke up to painful contractions, painful enough that I had to get out of bed and walk them off.  After about 2 contractions, I started timing them to see where I was and they were about 5-7 minutes apart so I woke up Mike after about 30 min and told him we needed to go to the hospital (I have always wanted to say that, it just seems like that is how the typical story should be).  Ryan Tingey came over to watch Allie while she slept and we called my Dr. and headed over to the hospital.  At this point, the contractions were painful enough that I had to stop during the contraction and squat down to get through it.
We got to the hospital around 3 am and changed and got set up in my room and I was in a lot of pain with contractions about 3 min apart at this point.  The nurses were all called in to help set up as I was progressing quite quickly.  The nurse check me and I was at 6/7 and the head was really low.  At this point, the nurse said that she would call for the Epidural, but I might not make it (not really something I wanted to hear at that moment).  Luckily, the Anesthesiologist was quick and I got the epidural in and after an adjustment, I had a working epidural on both sides and IV which slowed down my contractions at bit.  Around 6 am, the Dr. came and checked me again and I was a 9.5 and just had a little bit of effacement left, but my contractions were about 10 min apart at this moment, so they gave me a bit of pitocin and I was back on track right away and after about 3 pushes and an episiotomy (her heart rate dropped a ton with each contraction just like Allie did), we had a cute little baby with dark hair and a cute round face!

At the Women's Hospital of Texas, they give you the option to donate the cord blood to MD Anderson so at this point they took the cord blood and sewed me up while Hadley was taken to the NICU to have her lungs sucked out because she was retracting.   After about 15 min, she was back with us and they left Mike and I alone in our room for about an hour to bond and feed Hadley before they moved us up to our recovery room.
Lucky for me, Hadley is champ at eating and latched on perfectly the first time and has done amazingly well!  I think this has been the biggest difference with this baby and makes it SOOOO much easier!  Yea for 2nd babies!  Hadley passed all of her newborn tests with flying colors and I have been healing quite well, so we were in the hospital for 1 night and went home the next day after Mike finished work on Tuesday.

Hadley was not a fan of her first bath.

My mom flew in Monday night to be with Allie and has been an amazing help with Allie and Hadley!  She was a champ and took the first night's shift and sat up with Hadley all night and let me sleep, just waking me up to feed Hadley and that was it.  What a difference it makes to have sleep and a child who nurses well!
Allie has been adjusting very well and has only had a few moments when she was having a hard time sharing the love.  She is very interested in whatever Hadley is doing, especially having her diaper changed and nursing and sleeping.  She shares all of her toys with Hadley and is learning what a baby can and cannot do, like eating crackers or going to the park.

Allie enjoying her spaghetti in her new Ariel bowl and plate with matching silverware which Grandma and Grandpa gave to her!

Hadley is still working on figuring out night and day, but is getting better each night.  She is such a joy to have in our family and we have been enjoying a little piece of heaven in our home.  Birth really is a miracle and I am amazed every time how everything works out so well.  Mike finished his last final last night so now we get to see him as well and enjoy being a family of 4.  Crazy!