ada's birth story {russ's perspective}

Since I was a bit loopy during Ada's delivery, I asked Russ if he would be willing to write down details of the birth as well as his thoughts and feelings surrounding her birth :) Here's what he had to say.

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When I got the confirmation that Ada was going to be born on Friday morning, my initial reaction was what I thought was excitement, and I told everyone in the office that I could think of. It was an exciting idea, because I knew Ashley had wanted to have Ada that day, so I was happy about that, but I hadn't really considered what having her would be like, nor how the process would affect my feelings. As the work day ended and I went home to Ashley, my feelings seemed to change to more of fear and worry. I didn't know how to take care of a new baby, nor did I know what it would be like to have a new baby since I hadn't really been around a new baby in a way that would be comparable since Chan [his younger sister] was born. I was scared that I wouldn't know what to do, or that I wouldn't be able to handle the stress of not having enough sleep all the time. There were so many things that would mess with my whole life and the new schedule that I had been implementing to help me stay on top of things more effectively! That night it was hard to fall asleep because of all the thoughts running through my head, but I eventually got to sleep.

The morning was interesting, because Ashley and I were both just getting ready, and it kind of felt like we were just getting ready for a day, maybe where we would go out on a date or something. It was weird to think that we were going to the hospital to have a baby and that our lives would never be the same again. As we drove to the hospital, we talked like we normally did when driving together, and everything just felt so normal, and yet so surreal at the same time.

Upon arriving at the hospital, there were a lot of things that the nurses wanted to talk to Ashley about, since she had been visiting the hospital for several months before and knew some of the nurses that were working with her. I felt like I was kind of superfluous because I just seemed to be there, without really serving a purpose. Ashley's mom was in the room with us, which felt a little bit weird for me at first since she hadn't been invited, but it turned out ok. We were in the prep room for about two hours, and it felt like forever because everything had been done to get her prepped for the procedure, so then we were just waiting for a long time. 

At about 9am, Ashley asked her mom to leave us alone for a little bit of time just the two of us so we could be together and just savor the last few moments we would have as a little family of two. It was so sweet to be together and consider a little bit of how our lives would never be the same. I felt like my heart was going to burst from the amount of love I felt for Ashley in those moments. I was so grateful for all she had been through to prepare a little baby to come into our world. They took Ashley to get her all prepped and give her the injection that would numb her at about 9:15am, and when they took her, I got all prepped in my blue jumpsuit and hair net, so I looked kinda like a smurf! 

After waiting for what felt like forever, but was probably only about 10 minutes, a nurse came to get me and take me to the operating room where Ashley was. She was already set up with the screen above her abdomen so she couldn't see what was happening, and she was already feeling some of the effects of what the anesthesiologist had given her, so she was kinda shaky. I sat down on a stool and stayed up at her head and touched her face as they began the procedure. She was so calm, just getting progressively more shaky. I felt so much love for her and was proud of how well she was doing when it seemed like such a crazy situation.

After a few minutes, Ashley asked how things were going, so I stood up and looked over the screen to see where they were in the process. They had already cut her open, but they just working to spread the incision open a little more so they could cut the uterus and get Ada out of there. As I was watching, they cut the uterus so the amniotic fluid kind of squirted out, like a sprayer! It was pretty wild to see that much fluid come out, because I didn't know how much to expect to come out. In a few more seconds, they could see Ada's head, and they talked about how much hair she had, which made Ashley smile a lot, because she was hoping Ada would have a lot of hair. After they got her head out, it was a little difficult to get her shoulders out, so I stopped watching for a minute while they did that, because I saw them grab her head and start pulling, and I didn't really want to watch that ha.

Once they had pulled her all the way out and cut the umbilical cord, Ada was kind of a bluish color with a white film all over her. As the nurses took her over to a small bed on the side of the room where they starting wiping her off, she started to cry a little bit, and it was so cute to hear her cry, which I did not expect. As they wiped, the white film came off, but she was still kind of blue. They put a pulse oximeter on her hand to see how she was doing with her breathing, but she kept staying below 90%, so they ended up calling in a respiration person to double check her. I just remember looking at her and thinking that she was so beautiful, and being so grateful that she was here with us finally. I wasn't sure who to be with more, Ashley or Ada, because I wanted to be with both of them. Seeing Ada brought tears to my eyes, and I just said a prayer of gratitude in my heart that things had gone so well with the C-section. After the respiratory person cleared Ada, they wrapped her up in a blanket and asked if I wanted to hold her for a little bit while they finished closing Ashley up, and of course I said yes! It was so precious to hold our little girl for that first time, to just look at her and hold her close to me for those first minutes, with Ashley looking over when she could. I couldn't get over how much I loved this little girl from the first moment I saw her; I just didn't know it would be possible!

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Is he not the cutest? I'm so happy to have his memories of Ada's birth recorded like this :)

**ashleynicole