Saturday, June 2, 2012

At the Hospital

 The evening of Tuesday May 8th, I had some stronger and more consistent contractions.  I went to bed, slept the whole night, and woke up with more contractions between 5-7 minutes apart.  Eric went to work since we did not know how long this would continue.  I worked through the contractions cleaning up breakfast, sweeping, taking out the trash, etc.  The kids could tell I was uncomfortable but were distracted by the snack and videos I allowed them to have.  The contractions stayed consistent and Eric decided to come home around 11am.  Cedulie, my mother-in-law came and got the kids around 12:30pm.  At that point the contractions varied between 3-7 minutes apart and were stronger if I stayed active.  I didn't want to go to the hospital too early, so Eric and I walked our neighborhood over and over again.  At 4pm, I felt like it was time to head to the hospital before rush hour.

This is me leaving the house.

On the drive the contractions were even more painful, plus the bumpy Baltimore roads made it pretty uncomfortable.  It took a while to go through the admission paperwork and get checked in.  At 6pm I was 5cm and admitted.


I got to be in the brand new wing at Johns Hopkins that opened May 1st.  The labor rooms were huge!


I labored sitting up in bed for about 2 hours and finally was ready for the epidural at 8pm (hour 12 of labor).  Once, I decided to get one, I was mad that it was taking so long.



Pre-epidural 

Post-epidural
The epidural was not strong, so I was still pretty uncomfortable and had to breath through the contractions.  I felt lots of pain on the the top of my uterus and lots of pelvic/back pressure.


They checked me again at 10pm at which time my water broke, splashing the doctor.  I was 10 cm and ready to push.  I pushed through about 5 contractions and out popped a sweet little girl without any tearing.  Adeline Rose Lapointe was born at 10:15pm on May 9th, weighing 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 20 1/4 inches long.  My biggest baby by far- Audrey was 6 lbs. 9 oz. and Elliott was 6 lbs. 14 oz.

Here are some of the first pictures:






I was so hungry after labor and thoroughly enjoyed my boxed turkey wrap.  
I was a happy girl to not be pregnant any longer (It was a rough pregnancy).

The kids came to visit the next morning.





Elliott was more interested in the basinet with wheels
and the light switches


Our first family picture as a family of five!

Since Adeline was born at 10:15pm they had (made) us stay
 a second night so that she would be over 24 hours old at discharge.
Though I was bummed not to be going home, we got some extra 
quality time with our new bundle before going home with the other kids.





We also tried to catch up on our sleep- pulling two all-nighters in rough!


Ready for discharge








No comments: