**Warning, super long. Details for me to remember.
It all started 10 days before our May 27th, 2008 D-Day. I picked out the most stretchy clothes I had, barely covering my enormous stomach. We went to Becca Stapely's wedding reception and ate some yummy Greek food. Little did I know, I would be tasting that food many more times in the coming days. I had cleaned my house, and showered and done my hair that day, and made the comment to someone at the reception, that I was all ready and it would be a great night for her to come!
We went to bed, and at 4am, I woke up to the feeling of my water breaking. I jumped out of bed and woke Matt up with the good news. When I realized that this was IT, I started shaking really hard. So strange! Matt and I kept saying "I can't believe that we were going to have a baby today!"(Too bad it wasn't that day!) I called my mom, who went into calming mode immediately, telling me it was ok to be shaking, take deep breaths, and call the doctor. Called the Doctor, who said to come on in. Then called Danielle to tell her the good news. After that I went into some sort of strange last minute nesting. I loaded the dishwasher, and started it. I folded some clothes. Emptied the trash. Wiped the already clean counters. I told Matt to take a shower, because I didn't want him to have bedhead in all the pictures. I also instructed him to shave so his scruff wouldn't scratch our new baby. I knew he would be kissing her tons. I was right. After I got dressed, straightened my hair, and put on a little mascara we were on our way. I was getting more and more nervous as we got closer to the hospital. It was an excited nervous more than scared nervous.
Going into the hospital. Notice shirt not coming belly. Notice huge face. I look like a lion.
6am: When we pulled up to the hospital a white van passed us and parked right by us. I said, "That looks like Danielle's van, that would be funny if it was her." And it was. My sister to lives 45 minutes away practically beat us to the hospital. I love her. We got checked in and they made sure I was indeed in labor and that my water had broken. I was a 2.
Happy happy. Baby is coming! No pain yet!
8am: My mom arrived and we had a little party for a few hours before they started my on petocin. A few hours later, still a 2. So they increased the petocin. A few more hours, and lots of painful contractions later, still a 2. Not good.
3pm: I got my epidural.
Epidurals make you feel good enough to text.
Oh how I love epidurals. The party continued with more visitors.
The nurse and doctor were a little concerned that I was not dilating and my contractions were not registering very strong. But they felt sooo strong. A few more hours later the epidural was wearing off and they were hesitant to give me more because they thought the contractions were not that strong (they thought I was a wuss). The doctor thought that with the strength of the contractions (which he thought was low) and how much pain I was in (I thought high), maybe the epidual was not working.
6pm: They started talking C-section at this point. I instantly started to cry. I was tired, and in pain, and the last thing I wanted was a c-section. But, since my body wasn't contracting hard enough, that it might be necessary. I am still a 2. The nurse said that she would check me once more, and then call the doctor, who would check me once more at 9:30 before doing a c-section.
Notice furrowed bow. That is my pain face.
She checked my at 8:45, still a 2. I was beside myself. I was exhausted, in horrible pain, and wanted it to be over. I wanted to meet my little girl. I was bawling and through my tears asked that my family gather around for a prayer. Matt, my Dad, Mike, and David gave me a beautiful blessing that put me at peace and promised that my body would do what it needed to have our baby. The doctor arrived at 9:15 for one last check. He looked at me and said "8/9". To that I said "Excuse me, 8/9 what?" He said "You are almost a 9!" Again, the tears started to stream down my face. This time out of pure relief, the strongest since of gratefulness, and my heart burning with knowledge of the power of prayer and priesthood.
The doctor asked my nurse (that is a whole seperate story, HORRIBLE NURSE) if she had flushed my line recently. She never had. Once she did, my contractions were off the charts.
This is when the real, no epidural pain started.
The whole day I was having hard hard contractions, and not getting any credit for them! The next few hours are pretty much a blur. I can remember lots of pain. Squeezing Matt, my mom, and Danielle's hands very hard through contractions.
I also had back labor, so they also were rubbing my back.
I remember thinking that I must have a long time left since it was still just us and the nurse in there with us. They had not brought the equipment in yet and this was making me nervous. They kept saying I was close, but I figured they were just saying that to keep my motivated since it was now 11pm and no baby yet. I started pushing and still, no one was coming in to deliver the baby! I remember a little hand held fan my mom had in her purse that was my saving grace. I got so hot while pushing that I thought it I didn't have that fan on me, I would die. And Matt was the one who almost died when he thought it was ok to use the fan on himself and the rest of the team (mom and sister). Can you believe that?!
Red fan=life saver. Red fan=almost Matt's death. I think this is right after I yelled at him.
Once I got the hang of pushing things started to move faster. They kept saying they could see her head, and I would push even harder. Still, no doctor, no equipment, they had not even broken the bed down into the correct delivering position. (Remember, I had just seen how everything was suppose to go down 5 weeks prior when my sister delivered their). So, I figured I was going to be doing this for a long time. My sister was the counter while I pushed. She told me later that she was trying to count fast because she felt bad for me. I guess the nurse knew what she was doing and told her count a little slower! My family that was listening through the door told me I was yelling, "I can't do this!" Well, guess what? I did. The babies head crowned and my nurse still had not called the doctor. The head nurse just happen to check in and started calling our orders instantly. She came over and was holding the babies head in, while they called the doctor. They told me to NOT PUSH! Are you kidding me?! The doctor finally came in, delivered the baby without gloves on and sitting on the edge of my bed. 12:09 AM. 20 hours of labor.
My baby girl was beautiful. There are not words to describe the feeling of seeing and holding your baby for the first time. It was amazing.
She weighted 7 lbs. 11oz. and was 20 inches long. Lots of dark hair, and the prettiest eyes I have ever seen. She was perfect.
The second morning in the hospital they brought her to me at 6am. I woke up and looked over to see my beautiful new baby staring right at me. It felt like Christmas morning, but way way better. I scooped her up, and snuggled with her in bed. We both feel asleep and I woke in the same position with her sweet little head right at my lips. No one came in to bother and poke at us that morning. It was just me and my girl. I love that memory.
Look at all this hair! (Since then it has fallen out! Sad!)
Dr. May
The next week at home was so great. She slept from 11-7ish from the get go. Matt took the week off and we got to know our little girl together in our little home. I loved every minute of it. We spent hours snuggling with our little peanut. When we weren't holding, her we were watching her sleep, and when we weren't doing that, we were talking about her. She sure stole our hearts instantly!
The End!
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