On June 27th our sweet little girl finally decided to make her entrance into the world. I decided I better write down the birth story before I forget all of the details. It truly was a day to remember. The days my kids are born are some of the best days of my life. This one was particularly memorable.
I have to give a little background before I go into the actual labor.... The Saturday before she was born we went down to Bountiful to celebrate the first birthday of my nephew. The whole day I didn't feel quite right in my tummy, but thought it was probably just some weird pregnancy thing like getting sick before labor (at this point I was 37 1/2 weeks, dilated to a 1, and considered full-term). After dinner I found out that probably wasn't the case as I lost everything that I ate that day. We quickly headed home and I made it back in time to throw up 2 more times. That night was rough being in the bathroom every 20 minutes. The poor little girl inside of me was probably so shooken up. I just kept thinking "Don't go into labor now!" I really needed to get over this flu before this little one came out of me! Well, it turned out to be a 24 hr thing and I just kept praying that none of the rest of the family got it since we were within days of having a new baby in our home. I stayed home from church the next day and took a fabulous 3 hour nap.
Monday night I was up timing contractions (real ones- the ones that start in your back and wrap all the way around your body) for about 3 hours. They were about 15 minutes apart, but never got any closer and I fell asleep. The next day I had a few in the morning, but that was it.
Tuesday Shad didn't feel quite right and stayed home from work just to make sure he could get better fast. He laid on the couch, eating toast, and drinking ginger ale. He never got as bad as I did (I think pregnancy made mine worse) but he still felt pretty awful.
That afternoon I had a Dr. appointment. He checked me to find that I was dilated to a 3 and about 60% effaced. He asked if I wanted to have my membranes stripped, so of course I said yes (after last weekend I was so done being pregnant!) Turns out that having him do that moved things along VERY quickly.
After I got home from the Dr. the contractions really started to pick up. They were about every 20 minutes. We went on a walk as a family and they were about every 5-6 minutes. I went to bed that night only to be awakened at midnight to pounding contractions 5 minutes apart. After an hour I decided these weren't going to stop. We called my very sweet visiting teacher at 1:00 am to come and sit at the house with the boys until my parents drove up from Bountiful, and we headed to the hospital.
They checked us in at the ER and called the on-call labor and delivery nurse who had just left the hospital after false alarms from 2 other moms. I kept thinking "I hope they keep me just for the sake of that poor nurse going back and forth!" She checked me to find that I was at a 3 1/2 and hooked me up to the machines to be monitored for an hour. If I didn't progress 1 centimeter within an hour that meant I wasn't in true labor yet. As we laid there waiting I swear I only had 6 contractions within the hour. I was starting to panic a little thinking it wouldn't be enough. At 2:30 she came and checked me again; turns out that those 6 contractions must have been just enough because when she checked me again I was at a 4 1/2. I think she was just as surprised as I was, and probably grateful she didn't get out of bed for nothing.
At 3:30 they called the anesthesiologist out of bed to give me my epidural (one of the downfalls of going into labor in the middle of the night in a small hospital. You have to wake up the whole world!) The pain wasn't too bad, but I knew I would have to wake him up eventually, so now was as good a time as any.
This is where it gets fun...
As I am getting the epidural we are chatting with the guy, who actually turned out to be one of our friends, and all of the sudden Shad has to sit down, then he has to lay down, and then he asks for a barf bag. I am getting stuck with a ginormous needle and he is about to loose his cookies on the couch. He said he was feeling better when we went to bed, but maybe the epidural put him a little over the edge. So as I am watching him lay there and the nurse is helping me I hear Shad say "I'm gone..." and he passes out on the couch and then his whole body just tightens up. His toes point, his glasses fall off, and he is all stretched out and his face goes in the pillow. I'm like "Um....nurse...what is going on with him..." I thought he was having a seizure or something. She rushes to his side and literally has to shake him to get him awake. He is so disoriented. She tells him where he is and what he is doing. There are suddenly people rushing everywhere giving him oxygen, juice, and crackers. Then, he laid there for pretty much the next 3 hours sleeping on and off as I laid there with the lower half of my body numb.
Around 6:00 am the nurse checked me and I was at about a 7. Then she came back around 7:00 and said that if I didn't start having consistent contractions she was going to get me some pitocin to move things along. Then she said "lets just check you to see where you are." I think she was a little surprised to see that I was at a 10 and ready to go. She told me not to move cause the baby was right there and the Dr. still needed to get there. Dr. Miller made it just in time and in 3 pushes she was out. Unfortunately, Shad had to go lay down after the first push and pretty much missed her coming out. He thought he had plenty of time since my boys took an hour of pushing. He had to jump up to cut the cord. She came out screaming and pink weighing only 5 lbs 14 1/4 oz (I just round it up to 15 oz) and 19 inches long. My Dr. and I were both surprised at how small she was considering my boys were both almost 2 lbs more than her. Her apgar score was a 9. She had low blood sugar, which is typical for a baby that is small for gestational age, but after feeding her a few times it jumped right back up. She passed all of her tests and we were out of the hospital the next day.
Here are some pictures of our fun day. My mom was able to be there for the birth and helped us out with filming, but I'm afraid that the picture taking got a bit neglected due to Shad's state at the time. The boys came later in the afternoon to check out their new sister. It was a beautiful day to add another member to our family!
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| She's already got his heart |
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| Getting acquainted with Grandma. She is her first grand-daughter |
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| All cleaned up and beautiful |
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| Now a family of 5! |
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| We females will need to stick together. |
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| Haken checking her out as Shad holds Jack back. I think he had a hard time realizing she was real and not a doll. |
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| Haken kept asking if we really got to keep her and take her home. He is in LOVE with her! |
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| The nurse let the boys help take her vitals and check her blood sugar. |
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| Gracie and grandpa Guy |
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| Going for a walk with "Bampa" his new best buddy after this week. |
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| Enjoying the complimentary hospital snacks. He didn't want anything to do with me or the baby. |
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| All dressed and ready to come home. |
We have had so much help from those in our ward and especially from my parents who took the boys to their house for three days of fun. It was nice (and a little weird) to only have one child to take care of for a few days. I sure missed my boys while they were gone. Now it's back to the new "normal" with one more baby in the house. We couldn't be happier!
