Hadley Michelle Heath

She's here!  Sweet girl arrived exactly on her due date, Sunday April 22.  On Saturday, we stayed home...I wasn't feeling the best in the world.  I had actually gone to bed as soon as I got home from work on Friday because it had been a crazy day with me trying to tie up a lot of loose ends at work and I was exhausted and just not feeling good at all.  I had planned for last Friday to be my last day of work, whether Hadley had come on Monday or not.  Mallory had asked to go to her favorite restaurant (Two Dogs Pizza) all day Saturday and I told her we would go that night.  My parents went with us and before we left, I noticed that I was having some contractions so I started timing them with a contraction timer app on my phone.  All through dinner, contractions were regular at around 8-12 minutes apart.  Nothing painful though and I really didn't think much of it.  We got home and they continued.  I drank a big glass of water and laid down about 9:30 to see if they would stop.  The contractions continued on and were coming every six minutes so I decided to call my doctor.  She told me I could come on in and be checked.  Patrick's parents came over and picked up Mallory.  Bless her heart, she was so worried about mama.  I was in no pain or anything, but she knew I had called the doctor and she was confused by going to Grandma and Grandaddy's house so late at night.  We got to the hospital Saturday night a little after 11.  They checked me to find out I was only 1 cm dilated and they did not seem impressed although my contractions were now 3-4 minutes apart and starting to be painful.  They told me I could walk for an hour and be re-checked or go back home.  Since we live an hour away from the hospital, I was not about to go back home so we walked.  After walking for 15 minutes, we went back into the triage area and I told the nurse that the contractions were becoming too painful to walk through and I had had 5 contractions in the short time I had been walking.  The nurse told me she wouldn't re-check me within an hour and to keep walking because that was the best way to dilate more.  She said on average, women dilate 1 cm an hour.  Not what I wanted to hear again...I was ready for some pain medicine at this point but we kept on walking.  After 15 or 20 more minutes of walking, I couldn't bear the pain anymore so I went back and laid down in the triage.  At this point, another patient came in who was saying this was her 6th baby and she had delivered her 4th baby at home because it had come so quick, etc, etc.  The one and only triage nurse focused solely on getting this lady into labor and delivery at this point while I was laying on the other side of the curtain, slowly dying.  My water broke around 12:35 I think and Patrick called out to the nurse that my water had broke.  That got her attention and she called my doctor to come check me.  My doctor came in and I was at a 4, yay!  I was happy to hear that I had gone from a 1 to a 4 in an hour.  They finally said I could go to labor and delivery.  During this time, my pain level had sky rocketed.  I felt like I was going to throw up with every contraction and I was begging them to hurry up with my epidural.  They tried to get me to walk to labor and delivery and that wasn't happening!  I was in so much pain that I couldn't move much less get off the bed, walk down the hall and get on another bed.  They rolled me down to L&D and I did manage to change beds.  My doctor checked me again and I was at an 8!!  That's when she informed me there would be no time for pain medication.  NOT what I wanted to hear...but then she said at this rate, I would be holding my baby within a few more contractions.  That was promising to me after such a long labor with Mallory.  Immediately after hearing that, I started feeling the urge to push.  My doctor put on her scrubs and after about five minutes of pushing, Miss Hadley made her entrance into the world at 1:21 am.  She put her on my chest right away...she was beautiful and perfect. 
 

First bath and my awesome L&D nurse who I never had a chance to meet BEFORE delivery but she was on shift all night and she was wonderful.

Big sister and little sister meeting for the first time.

My two girls

First family photo (even though we were all looking at another camera)

In the moment, I thought my labor was awful and traumatic but looking back it really wasn't so bad and faster is MUCH better.  Compared to Mallory's it was a breeze and I feel like I have bragging rights saying that it was all natural!  Hadley has been such a good baby so far.  She even lets us sleep at night right now!  She wakes up about every three hours most nights and goes right back to sleep.  This whole experience has been so much different than my first.  Breast feeding has come naturally this time and there is no doubt that she is getting enough milk and thriving on it.  We can not express how blessed we are to have two healthy and happy girls.  Mallory has been very clingy to me, but she loves her little sister and enjoys helping mama out with Hadley.  Not everyone agrees, but to me Hadley looks just like Mallory did as a newborn.  It is hard to imagine yourself loving another child as much as your first, but it does happen!  We are so in love with this little girl and enjoying every minute with her.