Hadley Sanette Carlisle's Birth Story

 Hadley Sanette Carlisle was born february 8, 2016 at 1:21pm.

For the last couple of nights I was having contractions that were regular but not extremely painful, they were uncomfortable causing me not to be able to sleep. So I had decided if this happened again I was going in to the hospital in hopes that I had dilated and they could induce me or something! I was done being pregnant. Monday morning, around midnight, I convinced Briar to take me in to the hospital. I was not in severe pain, like mentioned previously, but I was having frequent contractions with ovarian pain from a ovarian cyst that still needs to be taken care of. When we got to the hospital the nurse checked me and I was only 3cm dilated and 50% effaced. The on call doctor came in and said she wanted to keep us there for 2 hours and recheck to see if I was progressing. So Briar and I stayed in a room with noisy air flow, so neither of us could sleep, from 1:30-3:30am. The nurse came back to recheck and I was only 3.5cm dilated and still 50% effaced, The doctor came back and sounded annoyed that she had to deal with me. She gave me medication to help me sleep, which didn't help, and then sent us on our way. Before the nurse discharged us she told me that she expected to see us back. I really appreciated that nurse and all that she did for me. As I was walking back to the car at 4am I started to get intense pain that almost dropped me to the ground. Of course I didnt want to turn around and head back into the hospital, I felt too embarrassed, and that it was probably false labor. Briar drove me back home to Forest Grove which is about a 30 minute drive with no traffic. It was a miserable drive. when we got home I was hoping a bath would help, it didn't. Contractions were coming every 3 minutes, 2 at a time. I was hesitant to call the doctor about coming in because I had just gotten home, and my contractions were not a minute long. Eventually I did when I couldn't take the pain any longer. Briar asked me to describe the pain, I first said it was like having a million painful and sore zits on your abdomen and popping them all at once, and then I changed it to having a giant step on your abdomen crushing your insides. We got back into the car and headed back to the hospital. This time I was extrememly miserable. I felt like I was dying in the car. It did not help that Briar missed the exit to the hospital, I tried really hard to keep my cool. When we finally got to the hospital. a few minutes later, Briar dropped me off at the main entrance to the hospital and he went to park the car. We went back up to labor and delivery and got checked in, The same nurse was not surprised to see me, she quickly took me back and rechecked me. I was 5cm dilated and 75% effaced. They admitted me and got me to my suite in labor and delivery. The nurse gave me fentanyl and tried to get me as comfortable as she could while waiting for the epidural, unfortunately her shift was ending, it was 7:30 am. I felt like I was dying in pain. "Why had I not gotten my epidural?" The new nurse explained that we were waiting for my platelet results from lab. The nurse anesthetist came in and was all set up and ready to go. At 9:00am, I was finally given my epidural. Thankfully the nurse anesthetist was fast and very good at what she does. Once the epidural was in I had almost instant relief. The doctor came in soon after the epidural was placed and I was 7cm, 100% effaced.  For the next couple hours I slept and relaxed. The plan was just to wait until the doctor came back in the afternoon to recheck me. Jennifer and my mom came into town for the special event. They were all hungry around noon, so they headed to the cafeteria to get something to eat. As soon as they left, the doctor came in at 12:30pm and checked me. She immediately said "okay its time to push." I was in shock. I was so comfortable, how could it be time? She told me to check myself, and sure enough I felt the babies head. I called Briar to get them back up to Labor and Delivery because it was time for the baby to come. Everyone was back in the room, the doctor was all set up, and I was told to push when I felt pressure. 30 minutes later after feeling no pain, just pressure, a beautiful baby girl was born. They immediately did skin to skin, and an hour and half later they weighed and measured her. She was 8lbs 12 oz and 20.5 inches long, I wonder if she would have weighed more if they weighed her immediately. Thankfully I didn't feel any pain, because I tore from top to bottom with a 3rd degree tear which included a partial tear in the rectal sphincter, maybe that's TMI, but hey now you know what I am dealing with, ouch! Eventually they sent us to the mom/baby unit. They didnt have a nursery, so Briar and I stayed up all night again, we had stayed up 3 days in a row. We felt like the hospital wasn't doing anything for us so we were discharged the next day. My mom and Jennifer have been taking care of all 3 of us. We are so thankful for them and the time and hard work they have given. We love them so much and feel grateful to have such wonderful moms in our lives. 

Hadley is so special to us. She is such a sweetheart and brings a sweet spirit into our home. At times she is naughty waking up at night crying, and sometimes Briar wants to pull his hair out, but we love her so much and wouldn't trade her for anything. It is amazing how much love a baby can bring into your life that you never thought was even possible. We love you Hadley and hope you always remember that.

We are very obsessed with our baby, so we have made an instagram account where we post pictures of her daily. If you want to see her pictures on instagram her account name is hadley_carlisle