Alle is almost two years old now but while we are waiting on our newest addition, I am reminiscing and decided to finish Alle's birth store and post it on here. Hope you enjoy it...
Alle’s Birth Story
Chapter One: The beginning of a new life
We were so blessed to have one little girl, Olivia. But we did want to have more children… We just didn't’ know if it was possible. It took us about three years to get pregnant with Olivia and before we were pregnant with her, I had a miscarriage. I don’t keep it a secret but I also don’t talk about it very much. It was very difficult for Clint and I to handle and although it has made us stronger, I am still very sensitive to it, other’s miscarriages, abortion, hardships in life, and just life itself.
With Olivia I had low progesterone the beginning of my pregnancy and had to take supplements and go in for blood work a couple of times a week. We knew that would be an issue for every pregnancy we would have. Dr Adcock was our doctor for Olivia but after Olivia was born is when he had his accident and I had not gotten a new doctor yet.
In June 2011 my family went up to visit with my Grandpa and others in my extended family in north Georgia. Clint and I decided to go up a little early and let Olivia stay with my parents and ride up with them. We decided go camping and to hike up Brasstown Bald. It was beautiful but very tiring! Clint told me later that when we were at my Grandpa’s house he walked in the room and thought to himself “Wow… I think Anna is pregnant”. Fortunately, he was wise enough to keep it to himself!
For some reason, when we got home from our trip, I decided to take a pregnancy test and it was positive! I had a crazy rush of emotions… I was happy, concerned, excited, anxious, and nervous. I knew that I needed to start taking progesterone immediately but didn't have a doctor. I called Medi-Share (our non-insurance company at the time) to ask them what OBGYNs were covered in our area and surrounding. They gave me all the information and then asked to pray for me over the phone. I called a place in Thomasville and explained my situation but they said I would have to wait over a week. I got off the phone and cried for a little bit. Then I composed myself and decided to go to Dr Adcocks old office. I don’t know what I was hoping to accomplish since he wasn’t in business anymore, but I knew that Mrs Judy Adcock had been up there some finishing up paperwork and reports. The secretary asked me what I needed when I went in and I don’t remember what I said but she could tell I was upset. Mrs Judy came out into the waiting room and I started to cry. She took me back to another room and I explained everything to her. She said she would put in a call to Dr Trescot’s office and I could go straight over there to get my blood drawn and a prescription for progesterone. She prayed for me before I left.
I went across the hospital parking lot to Dr Trescot’s office and they were able to see me right away. I explained my previous situations and told them that I needed to start taking progesterone right away. They did all of the blood work, called in a prescription, and set me up for another appointment to get more blood work.
I was relieved and excited and decided to call Clint. He was working at the church and I asked him to meet me at Dr Trescots office. He, of course, had a suspicion to what I was going to tell him, but it was still so awesome to see him hop out of his car and the look on his face when I told him that we were pregnant again. We went out for lunch and talked about how excited we were but also shared our nervousness. We also started training Olivia to say “Big Sister” so she could help us share our good news with our families.
I was working at my dad’s office that summer and fall scanning and organizing documents. I received a call from the doctor’s office after I had about two blood tests, telling me that my progesterone had fallen and I needed to start taking it twice a day instead of once a day. I was too nervous to ask what the levels were and just said ‘ok’. Progesterone is a pain to take but I knew that it could help our little one growing inside me.
If you don’t know, during a regular month, a woman’s progesterone should fluctuate between 1 and 25. It is of course different for each woman. But at early pregnancy you want those levels to be at least mid teens and to be rising. After a week or two of doubling my progesterone supplements, I asked what my levels had been and they told me that they started out pretty low, around 8/10 and had dropped to around 5. After doubling my progesterone, the levels rose to about 12. It was good that they rose but 12 is still pretty low. After a few more tests and continuing with diligently taking my progesterone, my numbers continued to rise. It was a scary time because we were not sure if we would lose our little one.
June 28th we had an ultrasound appointment. I was 7½ weeks along at that time and Clint and I waited anxiously to check things out. The first thing they looked for was a heartbeat… It was the most beautiful sound! Our little one seemed to be healthy! (as far as you can tell from an early ultrasound). We were overjoyed to see a little bean inside me and to see and hear the little heartbeat. We got our due date of February 8th 2012.
After the first trimester there really weren't any concerns or complications. Everything went smoothly, day by day, as my belly grew. When we found out we were having another precious little girl, we decided to chose family names. Alene was Clint’s Grandmother’s name and Drucilla was my grandmother’s middle name (that she hated). We chose Allene Drue and we would call her Alle.
Alene Janice Drucilla
Chapter Two: Waiting for Baby Alle
38 week, 39 week, and 40 week appointment- One day before my due date: At my 38 week appointment the nurses tried to make me set up an induction date of the 7th even though my due date was the 9th of Feb. I did not feel comfortable with that at all but when I told them that, they just brushed me off so I felt that I had to keep that 7th hospital induction date. However at my 39 week appointment I was able to meet with the midwife and she discussed it with me very differently. She said that I can keep that appointment or they can cancel it and it was entirely up to me. I was only 1 ½ cm dilated with no contractions yet and decided to cancel the induction date and just see what happens.
So at my 40 week appointment they hooked me up to some machines that monitor baby’s heart rate, movements and any contractions. I was able to listen to Alle’s heart beat for about 15 minutes and her heart rate was about 148 beats per minute. I was only a ‘tight’ 2 cm dilated but everything looked great. I discussed induction again with the midwife and told her I was comfortable with setting up a date for next week in case she hasn’t decided to come before then. She said I would need to go in on Monday night and they would induce Tuesday morning. It was exciting to think that if Alle waited until then we would have a Valentine baby!
Thursday, February 9th - My due date: Instead of having a baby, I got a pedicure with my mom while drinking a latte then visited with my friend Anna from California and her family at chick-fil-a for about two hours. It was a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate my 40 week mark. I wrote more about my due date and doctors appointments in my blog if you want to read more. That night I had my first contractions. They were mostly in the late evening and I was able to get some sleep after midnight.
Friday, February 10th - One day past my due date: I was tired and was still having a few contractions that morning. I asked my in-laws if they could take Olivia to gymnastics for me because I didn’t think I would be able to help her out like I needed to. I called the doctor's office to tell them that I was having contractions through the night and early that morning. She said since they were irregular and I currently wasn’t having any, then she couldn’t do anything. She gave me some advice for if I wanted to hurry up my labor or if I wanted to slow it down and wait till Monday. I was fine that afternoon and felt good enough to go to my mom’s birthday party at Margaritas but that evening my contractions started back up.
Saturday, February 11th - Two days past my due date: I was still tired but was able to get some sleep between long breaks in my contractions. For some crazy reason I decided to sew some matching blankets and a burp cloth for Olivia and Alle that morning. We went over to the Fleetwoods for lunch because Sara was home. The guys decided to go golfing but I was feeling pretty crappy so I made sure Clint had his cell phone with him on the golf course and I went home to sleep and watch some hulu. We all went back over that night for supper. I sat on the couch most of the time with my touch pad because i just felt plain tired and ready to have this baby! Contractions started back up again around 10:00pm that evening and I was only able to sleep between 20 and 45 minutes at a time throughout the night on the couch.
Sunday, February 12th - three days past my due: Soon after Olivia woke up that morning, she threw up. She threw up several times that day. She was not being fussy or anything but it was still difficult to feel like I was taking care of her properly since I was still feeling poorly myself. We just watched movies all day and layed down on the couch. Olivia ended up going to sleep at 6pm on her monkey in the living room and when I tried to wake her up to see if she wanted to eat, she said that she wanted to go lay down in her room. So I put her on a pull-up and put her in her bed. She slept all night... but I on the other hand, had more contractions that lasted all night long. I was definitely ready to have baby Alle at this point.
Monday, February 13th - Four days past due:
Olivia still was not feeling well and neither was I. Clint went on to work because he had a meeting that morning. I asked Mrs Connie to come over because I was still having contractions. They were pretty regular and I wanted to get checked out at the Doctors office. Clint came home early and we loaded up our car with our hospital bag and went to the doctors office. I was only 2 cms but my cervix was softened so the midwife said I didn’t have to go in to the hospital that night to be induced tomorrow. I can just wait till 6am or when I go into labor. They hooked me up to a machine again to monitor baby movements and contractions. I had contractions every 6-7 minutes until i stepped into the doctor's office. I only had one contraction during the 20 minutes hooked up to the monitor but we could hear Alle’s heartbeat and everything was fine with her. I was sent home to wait it out.
My contractions slowed during the afternoon so I was able to take a nap. That evening Clint said he would get me whatever I wanted for supper. I sent him to get me some chicken fried rice, and a sonic milkshake. We watched episodes of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ all evening while I moved from the bed to rocking chair to exercise ball to standing and back to the bed again. I finally tried to lay down to sleep for a little while but my contractions hurt too much to sleep. I decided to let Clint sleep and I went to the couch to wedge myself into a sitting/laying position with pillows propping me up. I might have dozed for 15 minutes at a time but not much more than that. I had to get up and walk around. At every contraction I would time them with the app on my phone. Yes... there is an app for that. :)
Chapter Three: The day we meet our Little Valentine
Tuesday, February 14th - Delivery Day:
At Home
Through the night I was timing my contractions with the app on my phone sitting in a big chair and walking around. I wanted Clint to be able to get some sleep so he could help coach and support me for what would come very soon. Around 2:45am or so, my contractions were at a pretty steady 5 minutes. I went to take a shower a little after that to let the water hit my back in hopes of it helping with the pain.
While in the shower my contractions went to 3 minutes apart consistently (I had my phone on the towel rack and still hit the button to time them). I stayed in the shower until I was about to cry because of my contractions. I only had about 1½ minutes between the end of one contraction and the start of the next and they were getting pretty painful.
Clint checked on me when he heard me get out of the shower and asked if we needed to go on to the hospital. We already had everything in the car except for out phone chargers. We grabbed those and put on some clothes and went to the hospital at 3:50am.
looking back at it now, I should have probably labored at home a little longer. I think that sleep sleep deprivation made me not think so clearly or deal with the pain like I could have.
At the Hospital
We went in, got someone to take me in a wheelchair to the OB, signed in, and they got us into our labor and delivery room. When we showed up they looked at us funny and said "ya'll are early". And I was like "yeah... I'm in labor!" For some reason my contractions are shy of doctors and nurses because they slowed back down to about every 5/6 minutes. I asked them to go ahead and get me some medication and they had to check with the on call doctor to get some for me. I continued to have regular contractions but was glad to get a little rest because I was so exhausted.
A nurse checked me out around 5:50 - I was 5cm dilated and 75% effaced and they started me on a low dose of pitocin. My contractions went back to 3 minutes at that point. Clint plugged in our touch pad so we could have some Pandora playing while I tried to rest. My mom and Carrie came around 8:00am or so. I talked to them some but then my contractions started getting bad again. My dad also came in for a little while. I asked for some more medication and they gave me some around 8:45am. It was something different because it was a different on-call doctor prescribing and they also gave it to me without checking me first. The nurse said that the midwife would be in soon and she would check me then.
The medicine was not working and the contractions were getting more and more painful. The monitor that was for the baby’s heartbeat wasn’t picking up Alle very well so the nurses came in to adjust it. They fiddled with it for what seemed like a very long time making me move and roll around in the bed and pushing on my stomach... which was very painful!
Finally the midwife came in around 9:15 so the nurses let her do her thing. She announced that she was about to check me and for everyone to clear out unless they wanted to see me exposed. Dad told me goodbye and he would come back later that day and Mom and Carrie would stay around the waiting area until the midwife was finished. When she checked me I was 9 ½ - 10 cm and it was time to push! I was thinking that it was no wonder the second meds weren’t working and they couldn’t keep the monitor on the Alle’s heart beat!
Clint called Carrie and my mom to let them know what was happening and they rushed in and got in their positions in the corner and behind the bed while the nurses were preparing for the delivery. I remember asking the midwife if my water had broken yet and she told me that she had just done that.
Around 9:30 the nurses had everything ready, got into position and started coaching me through the pushing process. At one point they had to give me some oxygen and stuck some sort of prob on Alle because her heart rate wasn’t where it should be. I remember hearing Luara Story’s song called ‘Blessings’ come on our Pandora station during this time which calmed me down and helped me to focus on what I was doing. It seemed like I was pushing forever with no progress but then finally, at 9:52am Alle came into this world and I heard her cry. The nurses quickly rubbed her down with a towel and passed her to me. All I could do was just put my hands on her and close my eyes. I was so exhausted but the first thing I said was “I love you Alle”.
She stayed on my chest for a while until the nurses took her over to the other table to be checked out. I watched Mom, Carrie and Clint huddle around Alle watching her as they measured and stamped her feet. Everyone in the room was amazed at what had just happened even though it is something that happens every day. It is a beautiful, amazing thing how God lets everything come together to bring a life into this world. We love our little Alle Bug.
Three Months Six Months
The landing on the stairs where you can look out the window, was a favorite spot. We would play there and we would also run there to look out the window whenever someone would come down the driveway and the loud chimes would let everyone in the house know that someone new was there…. or that someone was just using the drive way to turn around - that was always disappointing. 
