Alina's Birth Story

We have been anticipating Alina's arrival for a few weeks now--the birth mother's family has a history of delivering early, and we felt that the clock was ticking. We were invited to be at Alina's birth, but it was hard to imagine how we would make it with passing David off, packing last minute items and jumping on a plane that could have a route as long as 17 hours to land in Minnesota. It was overwhelming just thinking about it, so I stayed focused on the work we had to do to prepare our home, and counted on miracles to happen to see the rest through.

LW was planning to be induced a week early, in hopes of helping us arrive for the birth as well as her mother. So we had tickets to fly to MN a day before the planned inducement, which was Sept 10.

My mom flew in to Anchorage to be with David on Tuesday evening, September 3. When she came, I felt the same relief I remember feeling when I came home from college after finals. We have been on overdrive at our house trying to finish up projects and prepare our new home,  as well as slowly dig out of the piles of boxes remaining in the basement. I felt a huge burden lifted with Mom in town. She helped me sort through some of the remaining boxes, she gave me peace of mind that David would be cared for if we had to leave at the drop of the hat--and with her arrival, I was finally able to unwind mentally from house projects. I was finally able to turn my full attention and my full heart to the pending arrival of our baby girl.

Two days after Mom arrived (on Thursday), we were at the dinner table when Sam said, "Why don't we go early?" Mom quickly agreed with him, saying she had felt the same need. In an instant, it made sense to change our plane tickets and leave early for MN. The feeling was, "We could be waiting for LW to go into labor from 3000 miles away or from 3 miles away--so let's get the travel behind us." This later proved to be pure inspiration, and we are still in awe at the perfect timing. I think it was amazing that those who were with me received this inspiration. I think my mind was still too busy to have tuned in to this bit of inspiration--but once I heard it, I recognized it as being confirmed by the spirit.

Meanwhile, LW was praying that if Alina decided to come earlier than the inducement date, that we would be inspired to come early so we could attend her birth. 

We landed in MN on Saturday evening, and met up with LW for the first time to go to dinner. We have exchanged countless emails with her over the last 8 months, and even skyped a few times. But it felt so good to be in her presence. She is as beautiful as we expected--the strength of her spirit is amazing to us, and we enjoyed meeting her. 

We spent the next 24 hours or so with LW. We went to church together, had Sunday dinner in the home of her aunt and uncle who have hosted her for the last 5 minutes, then played a few games together. We broke up the party about 7 pm, knowing that she was feeling some contraction pain through the evening. My favorite part of Sunday was when LW said, "Put your hand over here, Carmin, and I'll push Alina from the other side." Alina moved around in her belly and gave me a good strong kick. It was electrifying through my entire body to feel my baby kick. LW was so generous with us, and every reference to Alina was in the frame of "This baby was never mine--she has always been yours."

That night I couldn't sleep.

At 4:35 the phone rang. Oh, how we had been waiting to hear the phone in the middle of the night for the last few weeks. It was surreal when it rang. LW had just checked in to the hospital, and invited us down to wait for labor to progress in the waiting room. We were planning to check out of our hotel before noon that day, so we decided to do it right away instead of having to come back before noon. After all, this was a first time mom and we certainly had time to pack up! 

So we showered and started packing our bags when we got a text from LW's doula at 6 am. "LW is at an 8, and 100% efaced." Wow! I guess we better step it up! We hurried faster, but still stopped to grab a quick breakfast from the hotel, thinking there was time to kill before the delivery. Just as we pulled out of the hotel parking lot, we got a call from LW"s doula telling us it was time to deliver this baby! And where were we!?! We got to the hospital at 6:30, were ushered in to sit next to LW while she labored through the last bit, and at 7:12 am our beautiful baby girl made her appearance.

Alina came out with the cord wrapped tightly around her neck twice. It was tight enough that the cord was cut before her shoulders were out because the cord was pulling back on her instead of allowing her to come out freely. Once she was all the way out, the doctor handed her to me (as per LW's instructions, they had prepped me with a blanket) and I was instructed to hurry her over to the table for the nurse to work on her. It took an eternity for her to take that first breath--the records say it was only 15 seconds, but I'm telling you it was much longer than that! She was quite purple at first, not responding to the rubbing at all. Finally she got a gust of oxygen from the mask and her big eyes flew open at the same time she finally let out a cry. It was the best sound we've ever heard.

We have met so many people that love LW. Her mom flew into town a day early once she learned of the baby's birth and it has been so nice to get to know both of them better this week. Lots of people came to the hospital to give their love to LW--and we are grateful for the network of love and support she has had over the last several months! LW wins people over with her kind soul, and it has been obvious that lots of people love our dear birth mother!

One of the best things about this experience was that the hospital had a policy that adoptive couples get to stay in a room while the baby is still in the hospital. For this reason, we had complete hands-on care of our daughter for the first 48 hours of her life. It has been a wonderful experience! LW was in her room, and we had a room 5 doors down, and LW kept instructing the nursing staff that "Whatever Carmin wants is what we'll do to care for Alina." At one point, a nurse just coming on shift asked me, "And what boundaries do  you have with LW?" I replied, "Whatever LW wants, LW gets. This is a completely open adoption." After this clarification, the staff would stop us in the hall and tell us how meaningful this adoption was to all of them--they had never seen such an easy-going relationship between birth mother and adoptive parents. We were constantly visiting back and forth, enjoying each other's company, and we had such a great hospital stay for 48 hours while they took care of LW and Alina.

 We even had a nurse's board in our room!

 Packing up to leave our 5-star hospital room. The service was tremendous!

 She's so tiny in that carseat!

 Just beautiful.

 This poor volunteer was so confused, it was almost comical. "And where is the baby going? And where is the Mom going?" I don't think he was used to having the adoptive couple and birth mom leaving at the same time.

 This was the view of the hospital that I knew--we went in and out through the ER.

 The front of the hospital.

Here we go, on our own with our brand new daughter!

Our first order of business after this photo was to buy tiny bows for her hair. After 4 stores, we found them at the craft store in the section with wedding favors. They came in a pack of 60 bows, and I chose two colors. Yes, I have a supply of 120 tiny bows for our baby girl's gorgeous hair. And we love it!