Welcome Adalee Rose Bell

On December 2, 2014 at 7:36am, we welcomed Adalee Rose Bell into the world. Here is the story of her birth...

We had set our alarm for 4:00am the morning of Adalee's scheduled delivery, but I had hardly slept the night before, and from 2:00am on I was simply lying in bed waiting for it to be time to get ready. We had to be at the Shawnee Mission Birthing Center by 5:30am, so I took my time showering, getting ready, and going through our packed bags to make sure we had everything we would need. We even had time to take a final maternity photo at 37 Weeks and 5 Days...

We arrived at the Shawnee Mission Birthing Center a little after 5:30am. After checking in, I was taken to a small room where I would be prepped for the caesarean delivery. I was given two bags of fluid through an IV and had to drink this horribly sour liquid before I was ready to go to the operating room.

Waiting for Dr. Ridgeway to arrive at the hospital, while
getting lots and lots of fluids!

Our last family photo as just two!

Around 7:00am, Dr. Ridgeway arrived and they took me to the operating room to get an epidural. The epidural was fairly painless, but I will always remember the feeling of having my legs slowly going numb. It was a little scary to be trying to move my legs and then not seeing them move. Once the anesthesiologist was sure the epidural was in place, I laid down on the OR table. I remember the room being very cold and there were lots of nurses and doctors moving around and getting prepared for the surgery. At this moment, reality set in and I began to get a little scared. C-Sections are very common and safe, but even so, it is still a surgery and things can go wrong. One of the nurses noticed that I had started to quietly cry. She came over to hold my hand and tell me that everything was going to be just fine. Meanwhile, Michael was getting dressed in his gown and hat. He wasn't allowed in the operating room while the epidural was being placed - I guess too many Dads before us didn't handle that procedure very well...

Michael taking selfies while waiting to come
into the operating room.

After everything was ready to go, Dr. Ridgeway came into the operating room. At first I didn't even recognize her with her scrubs, hat, and mask. Right before the procedure began, they hung a sheet at chest level so that I wouldn't be able to see what was happening. Once the sheet was in place, I heard Dr. Ridgeway say that the first incision had been made. This through me off a bit because Michael wasn't even in the operating room yet. I turned to the nurse next to me and asked where my husband was. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw another nurse scurry out of the room. Within a minute, Michael was coming in to the OR. Someone had obviously forgotten to go get him, but it didn't matter to me - I was just glad he was there. He sat next to me through the whole procedure. While I didn't feel any pain, I felt like someone was roughly massaging and squeezing my stomach. Michael kept telling me to breathe - over and over again. He also made some comments about how Adalee was probably trying to hide from the doctor so that she could stay inside my belly. Then one of the nurses told Michael to look over the sheet - Adalee was making her way out. Michael quickly looked over the sheet and saw her for the first time. At the same time, I heard her first cry. Michael looked at me and said, "She is beautiful, and she has dark hair". Looking back, it is a little funny that his first comment was about her hair, but we were both expecting her to be blonde. Both Michael and I had blonde hair as kids, so we just assumed Adalee would as well.

After she was born, they took two seconds to quickly show her to me, and then immediately took her over to the warmer and started to clean her up and check her weight, length, and vitals. The nurses had Michael come over to watch the procedures. They kept saying, "Get in there Dad and take some pictures!" I guess he had forgotten about the large camera hanging around his neck. While Michael was busy checking out Adalee and taking pictures, I was still lying on the OR table while the procedure was being finished. I remember being really frustrated that I couldn't see anything. I kept asking Michael to tell me what was going on. He kept saying things "She's good", "She's good-sized", and "She's beautiful", but I wanted to see her for myself. After her initial cry, Adalee had been fairly quiet, with the exception of some gurgled coughs. This was my first indication that something wasn't right.

Our first picture of Miss Adalee

Adalee getting cleaned off and warmed up

The first of many times she would be suctioned

Adalee being weighed and measured

Official birth weight was 7 pounds, 2 ounces and
she measured 20 inches long

Adalee getting her eye treatment

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally was able to hold Miss Adalee. She was so much bigger than I thought she would be. The nurse placed her on my chest and I instantly began to cry, becoming so overwhelmed with emotions. Also, because Dr. Ridgeway was still finishing my surgery, they had to awkwardly place Adalee super high on my chest. I felt like I didn't have a good grasp on her, and because she had nuzzled her face into my shoulder, I couldn't see her face very well. But I could see her feet and I remember them being being a little blue.

My first chance to hold Miss Adalee...
I was a little emotional...

Cuddle time with mommy

After about 10 minutes of cuddle time, they had to take Adalee back to the warmer to be swaddled in a blanket. As they were swaddling Adalee in her blanket, the nurses noticed a lot of fluid coming out of her mouth and her coughing became more frequent and more gargled. They suctioned her a bit more and then handed her to Michael to carry to the recovery room. Once we were both back in our recovery room, they placed Adalee back on my chest for more skin-to-skin time. But after only five minutes, the nurses noticed that the blueish color in Adalee's hands and feet was not improving. They checked her vitals again and her oxygen levels were not where they needed to be. The nurse wheeled a warmer into our recovery room  and then placed an oxygen mask on Adalee's face. Everything was happening so fast, I could hardly keep up. Michael kept being positive and telling me everything was okay, but I was already worried. When her oxygen levels did not improved with the mask, they made the decision to take her to the NICU. Michael quickly went out to the waiting area to get my parents so I wouldn't have to be in the recovery room by myself, and then he followed Adalee up to the NICU.

When my parents arrived in the recovery room, they looked so confused. I tried to explain what was happening, but at the time, I barely understood what was going on myself. Mostly they just tried to distract me from worrying about Adalee. Meanwhile, Michael made his way to the NICU. Once he arrived, he was told to scrub up and then was escorted to Adalee's room. They still had the oxygen mask on her face and the pediatrician on staff was conducting an evaluation of Adalee. The pediatrician explained that Adalee took a big gulp of amniotic fluid right before her delivery and that the fluid was still sitting in her lungs. The excess fluid was forcing her to work really hard to open her lungs and keep her oxygen levels up. Once it looked  like Adalee was settled, Michael took a quick photo of Adalee and headed back to my recovery room to give me an update and show me that she was doing okay.

Our first photo of Adalee in the NICU

We didn't know it at the time, but this was the first of seven days that we would spend in the NICU with Miss Adalee. Her birth definitely did not go according to plan, but we already felt so blessed to have our little angel in our lives.