For Journaling Sake...

Well, now that Sarah is 5 weeks old tomorrow I think it's time I wrote down her birth story! I tried to hand write it in my journal but it keeps getting interrupted so I'll do it here since I can type faster than I can write...

After a long and hard pregnancy the day finally came! After Nate was born at 9lbs. 5oz. with a broken shoulder bone it makes doctors nervous to let my babies get too big. So at about 37 weeks they do an ultrasound to see out big the baby is and if we need to induce. Well at 37 weeks I went in for my ultrasound and they found that I had an over abundance of amniotic fluid which is part of the reason I was so miserable! Plus at 3 weeks early the baby was measuring 6lbs 14 oz! And if she really were to grow a pound a week like the do in the end she would be HUGE!!! The doctor gave to go ahead to induce the next week. I was beyond thrilled!! I left the office happier than I'd been in months! The end was in sight and I would soon be normal again!! I couldn't wait! Oh yeah and of course I couldn't wait to see our baby girl but sadly after being in so much pain I was just excited about not being pregnant anymore!

So for the next week I got everything ready. Daniel would make fun of me because there were lists everywhere!! I made lists for everyone that would be staying with the boys and labeled everything. I organized the toys and washed all the laundry. It was a busy week. Among all of this "nesting" I went into false labor almost every night. That was nothing new since I'd been having regular contractions for about 2 months or so (a side effect from having too much fluid) but when they started getting really close together and more painful I got worried. I'd never gone into labor by myself and Daniel was usually at work and it just scared me. Luckily after a couple of hours the contractions would stop. I'd usually say, "i'm going to bed and if I can't sleep through them I'll go to the hospital." So every night I'd get nervous and call someone to distract me and see if they'd stop, sometimes it would work but most of the time it didn't. Oh yeah, one more item of GReAT news from the doctor was that at 3 week early I was dilated to a 1!! I'd never started dilating on my own before either so this was GReAT progress! I was thrilled. With Nate it took me 12 hours of being on medicine to induce labor to even get to a 3! With Knowly it moved a little faster but only with medication.

We were scheduled for induction on Friday Feb. 26 and my Dad had all ready planned to be at our house the Wednesday before on a business trip. He was planning on staying through Friday but when he found out the baby was coming that weekend he extended his stay until Sunday! My mom would drive out on Thursday night so they could both be here Friday with the boys while we were in the hospital. Dad would drive back Sunday and Mom would stay for another week or so. It was all working out so perfectly! I was loving seeing Heavenly Father's plan unfold for this little angel to bless out lives!

On Friday morning we went to the hospital at 7am. My nurses were so wonderful! They made the experience so nice. I know there are so many people out there who are all about doing it "all natural." and I say, GOOD FOR YOU!!! I've known since I was 12 that I was going to be getting an epidural no doubt about it! I was more afraid of the pain than anything but then a lady at church when I was about to deliver Nate told me something that made me think of it totally different. She said that having a baby was such a spiritual experience and you can't really enjoy it if you're in pain or trying so hard to focus on something else. I thought that was brilliant advice! So I've had three WONDERFUL epidurals and no problems! I told my nurse that I wanted to get it as soon as possible after they started to pitocin and they did! It was great! I started having a few really hard contractions and I was sooooo glad when the anesthesiologist showed up. He was very good and it worked very fast, thank goodness!

I was reading someone else's natural birthing story recently and don't get me wrong they did a wonderful job with the delivery and had a very great experience but she talked about how she just had to concentrate and some times she lost her consentration and it was hard to get it back. She spent most of the time talking herself into being ok. As I was reading it all I could think was Good for you! but that's WAY too much work! I'm all about give me the goods and let me sit back and relax. After being miserable for 9 months I had been looking forward to the epidural for a long long time!

So, after I got the epidural I took a nice nap....I think I even woke myself up snoring a couple of times. Daniel's mom and brother came to say hi. Nancy had to go to work but Sam stayed until the baby was born. It was nice to have him there to keep Daniel company. They chatted and I just slept. It was nice. Something about their voices was soothing and way less obnoxious than having the TV on.

Dr. Duff came in to break my water between noon and 1pm and said I was doing well. I think by this point I was like a 6 or 7. Daniel and Sam had stepped out so doctor could break my water. After everything was cleaned up the doctor left and then both of my nurses left the room so I was all alone. I started feeling very dizzy even though I wasn't moving. I felt very light headed and didn't know what to do. I looked for my call button but it had gotten stuck on the floor and between the epidural and me not feeling right I couldn't reach it. I started to get very nervous! I thought for sure I was going to pass out. I knew they could see my monitors out in the nurses station but I was still nervous. I said a small prayer and then the baby moved off the monitor so they couldn't read her heartbeat so a nurse came in to adjust the monitor. What a blessing! I'm sure nothing bad would have happened but the nurse came back at just the right time. I told her how I was feeling and she had me turn and gave me lots more fluids. I felt better for a bit but it happened again so they gave me MORE fluids and I started to feel normal again. At that point they checked me and said I was a definite 8. Shortly after that I said you really might want to check again and sure enough I was ready to push!!

Pushing was amazing! I couldn't feel my legs very well so it was hard to use them but I managed ok. I think I pushed like 3 times and then I felt the baby move into position and it was amazing! I started bawling and pushed harder and she was out. With the boys I was able to reach down and pull them up onto my chest after the shoulders were out. I told the doctor I wanted to do this again and she agreed but unfortunately my IV was twisted around somewhere and my arm wouldn't reach far enough. but I still got to hold her and love her and enjoy that beautiful amazing moment! What a miracle! She was perfect! It's amazing to see how much love can grow in that little tiny moment. They took her and suctioned her and checked her vitals and everything was great. They had her on a cart close enough so I could touch her. She had reached up her hand and held onto my finger as the cleaned her up and Dr. Duff finished helping me. It was such a tender moment. She cried for a minute but was perfectly content while they took care of her. She just had the sweetest spirit about her. It was amazing.

After the nurse weighed her they announced that she weighed 8lbs. 15oz 21.5 inches long!!! WOW!!! Good big girl! No broken bones, 10 fingers, 10 toes, perfect! Oh yeah, and I remember thinking that she look JUST like Knowlton when I very first pulled her up on my chest. They let me nurse her for a good 20 minutes and she latched on right away. We had a great connection and everything worked right. It's nice how much better my body has been able to handle each delivery. With Nate I had a TON of stitches and nursing didn't come as easily, it was fine after someone showed me how to do it right. With Knowly I had a few stitches and nursing came very naturally, with Sarah, NO STITCHES! and everything with nursing was GREAT! Hooray!

Well, they took Sarah to the nursery and got me ready to move into my recovery room where I'd stay for the rest of the time I was in the hospital. We got everything settled on my end and were just waiting for the nurse to bring Sarah back to us. After being in my new room for 2 hours I asked the nurse what was going on and she said she'd find out. She told me that they had to keep Sarah in the nursery for a little while because her blood sugar was one point too low so they gave her formula and would test again in an hour. They FINALLY let me have her back 5 hours after she was born! But I was told not to nurse her because they were waiting on a sugar test to see if she was OK....I as FURIOUS! I couldn't nurse my baby for like 8 hours after the initial nursing right after she was born! Not only did they give her formula, I wasn't able to nurse so my body wasn't cuing the milk to come in. I had to ask for a pump which kind of helped but I was still really mad. Daniel and I finally got to love on her for a little while and I finally did get the OK to nurse. Had they let me nurse the first time it probably would have made her sugar go up just fine but they didn't so I made sure to tell them that I didn't appreciate that. She slept great the first night and was so content still. I loved her peaceful spirit! The next day the 2 bottles formula they gave her made her tummy so gassy (I could hear it loudly) and she was so upset. she pretty much cried unless she was nursing for the rest of the stay in the hospital. It was so not fun!

On Sunday morning, the day we were to leave, the nurse's aid came in at the beginning of shift change to introduce himself. That's right HIMselft! Lol! It wasn't a big deal but I thought it was funny. He came in and gave me an embarrassed look and said, "I don't normally work on this floor but they needed extra help here today so they sent me here." I said it was fine and I didn't mind. Luckily all I really needed him for was to get me ice water when I needed it, no big deal. Well, he was such a nice guy! He came back to check on me every hour and would get me anything I needed. A few hours later Daniel came up to take me home. I could hear him walking down the hall and this is the conversation I heard, "Hey Casey! I didn't know you worked this floor." "I don't I normally work on the peds floor, oh wait! That's your wife isn't it? I've been taking care of your wife all morning!" They came in together and Daniel told me that they were in nursing school together! haha!! Small world! Now I'm REALLY glad I didn't need his help with anything embarrassing! lol

So we took Sarah home, she cried the whole way, and took her into the house and it was like as soon as she heard the boys she was happy! She LOVED sleeping in the bouncy chair in the middle of all the action. It was so cute. She must have just missed her brothers. For someone who sure had a hard time in the hospital she sure is mellow and sweet here at home! She hardly ever cries and just sits and watches. I love it! I love her! :)

SO there you go, if there's anyone still reading this WOW! You made it! Thanks :)