it's an adventure...: introducing delaney elizabeth

here is delaney's birth story:

i had contractions the last 2 months of my pregnancy with delaney. some days, they seemed like i should time them, some days not. at 38 weeks (sunday), i had contractions every 7 minutes all day. they were manageable, but still uncomfortable. my dr said to hold off coming in until they are more painful. tuesday, i had contractions 3 minutes apart for 2 hours, so they had me come in to the hospital. i was only 1 cm dialated so they had me walk for an hour. after walking (and still having contractions) there was no progress so they sent me home to labor there. wednesday, my mom came to help with oakley and my contractions were pretty severe (i couldn't walk or talk through them) and a few minutes apart. we went to the hospital thinking we were having a baby. the contractions continued like that and got pretty severe (more pain than i ever felt with oakley) with a ton of bad back pain. then...they stopped completely at 3 am. so. frustrating. the nurses were shocked that i didn't have her that night and concluded that she was face up and my body was having contractions (with no progress in dialating) to try to flip her over. we think she flipped that night and that's why my contractions stopped. we were sent home. again. we were so frustrated. my dr. pretty much put me on bed rest over the weekend and said we would induce at 39 weeks on monday. brian's parents came thursday night to help with oakley. i was so thankful for that! i'm sure oakley appreciated it, too because mommy was pretty boring and he could only sit through so many books and puzzles. :)

monday morning, we went in for the induction at 7 am. we were so excited to meet our little girl! they started the pitocin right away. my contractions started and i was so happy to not feel the back pain i felt the week prior. this was an indication that she flipped! my nurse told me there were 6 inductions that morning and 4 of us planned an epidural. she told me to plan wisely when getting it so i wouldn't have to wait on the anesthesiologist. about an hour later, i had my epidural. i didn't want to risk it, so i went ahead and got it. my blood pressure plummeted shortly after the epidural and it made me pretty sick. my doctor broke my water and things progressed quickly after that. at noon, i was at 7 cm and at 12:50, i was complete and ready to push. my nurse had me do a "practice push" and then told my mom, who was hanging out with us in the room, that it was time to go to the waiting room. at 1:01 pm, i started pushing. my dr arrived at 1:05 and delaney was born at 1:11. it was so fast! i pushed through four contractions. i can't believe the difference between baby one and baby two. it was incredible! delaney was perfect and beautiful. we couldn't have asked for a more smooth delivery.

since we had sarah take pictures of oakley's delivery, we thought we should do the same for delaney. rachelle kuntz, of sugarsnaps photography, graciously agreed to take pictures for us. she did a fantastic job of capturing every emotion of that special day. we are so thankful for her doing that for us! here are a few pictures that we took on delaney's birthday: (i'll post rachelle's pictures in another post)

ok, they are all out of order and i don't feel like taking the time to re-arrange, sorry!

first family-of-four picture

nana and delaney

"aunt" kelly and delaney

we gave oakley a "big brother bag" with a bunch of activities and goodies for the hospital. here i am attempting to draw a tractor, by oakley's request. notice his big brother tshirt he's wearing. he still wears it all the time.