Alice's Birthday!! - Labor and her first few days

Oct. 6th - Monday

I had just finished my last day at work two days before. Today we were going to run errands and get some things done around the house. We started the day off by going to get John updated on his shots. When we were leaving the health department to come home I told him I think I've been having contractions. It felt like back spasms so I was unsure.

We cut our errands short and decided to just do things around the house. I started to record contraction length and times around 1:30pm. They were all over the place!  Seven minutes apart, twenty then and hour but they just kept coming. We got our hospital bag packed and did a few "last minute pre- hospital tasks". We both thought for sure I would be going into labor within a few hours.

It got late. My contractions became stronger and more consistent in length and time. They were averaging about every ten minutes for the last two hours. Then it was more like every five to seven minutes for an hour. By this time (1:00AM) we were both exhausted and decided to go to the hospital to get checked out after all this had been going on for twelve hours now and they were really starting to hurt.

The Hospital

We arrive at the hospital and get checked in to Labor and Delivery. They escort us back to a nice big "birthing sweet". They have me get dressed in a hospital gown so they can check my cervix and see how far dilated I have become.

I was only at 1cm (out of ten) and 80% effaced (out of 100%). This was what I had been a few days earlier at my last OBGYN visit so no progress had been made with my contractions.

The nurse got me some Morphine in hopes that I might be able to go home and get some sleep. I thought I was in a lot of pain 6/10, little did I know.

The nurse told us that you can have painful contractions and still not be in active labor if your cervix isn't being opened by them. We of course asked, "well how do we know if we should come back then?"

We were informed if your water breaks you need to come back in or if the contractions get noticeably worse enough that you can't function when one is happening. ( I thought I was already at that point, boy was I wrong).

We were sent home at 2:30AM

John made me a quick quesadilla and then we were going to go to bed. I was so drugged at this point the morphine shot had just taken it's full effect.  It took a while to finish my food because I felt so drowsy. I remember telling John "I feel like I'm moving in slow motion".

Anyways I managed to finish and we got into bed. I was still having contractions but the morphine was dulling them. I fell asleep for about an hour and then I would have a contraction wake up and immediately fall back asleep once it was over. The contractions got to be every five minutes and I could no longer sleep in between them. I got up and decided to start keeping track again. They were under three minutes apart then two minutes I kept timing for an hour and wow did they hurt 8/10 here. After an hour I decided we needed to go back to the hospital even though I was worried we were going to get sent home again.

I woke John up and we went back.

The hospital - Round two.

Same as the first time I changed and then waited to be evaluated. The nurse tells me you are dialated to a three! Yay we get to stay! She then asked me if I would like an epidural. Yes, please. Linda became my new favorite person. She told me she'd start and IV hook me up to monitors to track the baby's heart rate my blood pressure and contractions. I was going to get an epidural soon after and they were going to check my cervix once and hour.

An hour passed and they checked my cervix which was at a 4cm and gave me the epidural. It was now about 7:30AM and so we were thinking I'd maybe start pushing around 1PM if things continued to progress.

They broke my water and checked me again within the hour I was at 8cm! My epidural had me at zero pain and we were excited things were moving quickly. When they broke my water the commented on how there was a good amount of blood in it so they were going to monitor me closely.

My contractions were over lapping and not having a breather in between them this of course was putting stress on the baby. Her heart rate which had been in the 140-160 range was now dropping to 60-80 beats a minute. They checked me I was at 10cm now within about 20 minutes of the last check. This baby is coming out now we were informed. They paged the Dr. and the NICU (New Born Intensive Care Unit) team and informed us they were going to have to use forceps to pull the baby out to get her out quickly.

They set me up in stirups and had me start pushing. I pushed twice then they used the forceps. I pushed two more times and she was out. But she wasn't crying. She had gotten the cord tangled around her neck. They snipped it and quickly took her over to evaluate here with the NICU team. She was blue and not crying. It was the longest minute of my life before Alice made a squeal. She was still lethargic and they continued to evaluated her and clean her off for the next ten minutes.

By the grace of God she pinked up and started crying. They brought her over to us and I was so happy and relieved for our wonderful miracle and that she was okay.

Alice was born Oct. 7th @ 11:51PM
Weight 6lbs. 15oz.
Length 18.5 inches

Here are some pictures from the hospital

The Shrine

I went through all of the baby clothes/items we've already been given sorted them by size and removed all the tags it took a while lol.... but here is the end result. "The Shrine" as John refers to it.

I finally finished my quilt too!

I feel pretty prepared already and we haven't even had an actual baby shower lol...
Shout out to those who have contributed thus far: Mom, grandma Hawks, Meridith & Craig, Brittany and Aunt Tracy.

Thank you SO much! Love you guys :)

Shout out to Alice and blessings

 It's been a while since I've had the time and energy to post but I needed to share.

This little girl is such a blessing in my life and she hasn't even gotten here yet. I don't even mind waking up still exhausted, peeing at least once an hour, heartburn, her kicking me when I finally lay down. We haven't officially met but she brings so much joy to my life. You may be wondering what on earth I am talking about? How can an unborn child bring you so much joy?

Well let me tell you. I have always felt I've had a relationship with my Heavenly Father but I didn't really know he was there, I hoped and wished and wondered. With this pregnancy I've felt the veil in between earth and heaven become very thin. With my daughter growing in me here on earth and still having part of her in heaven it's amazing.

As you may or may not know my husband and I we're expecting last January but I ended up miscarrying, after a year of trying to conceive in the first place. When I found out I was pregnant with Alice I didn't allow myself to become excited at first. I was terrified of getting my hopes up again, just to loose her.

I was so very sick my first trimester. Throwing up all the time, at least every morning if not more. But as I was sick it was a reminder that I was still pregnant that this was still happening. If I had a day with out nausea I became worried that something was wrong with her. Talk about a blessing in disguise.

My husband and I got a horrible flu/respiratory virus a few weeks ago. We had told our familes we were expecting already but I was still worried something was going to go wrong and we were going to loose our little miracle. I asked my husband for a blessing. It was the closest I've ever felt to my Heavenly Father. This was the day I went from believing and hoping in an almighty to knowing he is there. We hadn't found out the gender yet but I knew she was a girl. I could feel her spirit so strong and see her face. I felt like someone was giving me a loving hug and we were assured that our baby and I were here to stay. My husband got choked up which in the three years we've been married I've never seen. It was an amazing experience. He loves us all SO much and I feel so lucky to know that.

I can't even imagine the amazing blessing Alice will bring to us when she arrives in October.

Thank you for reading   

And the gender is.....

The big announcement!

We finally shared our wonderful news with the world! Feels so good to not have to try and hide my baby bump anymore! It's been really fun getting to talk baby stuff with everyone as well :). In case you missed the announcement video I'll re-post it here. #NotActuallyMovingToTexas #FirstGrandkidOnBothSides

14 Weeks and counting

This week I grew immensely (literally, see the photo below.)
We picked up my sister-in-law on Wednesday and since she was going to be staying with us for a couple of days we decided we had to tell her early because it's pretty obvious at this point lol... especially if you are at my home in the morning, morning sickness and a round belly are kind of a dead give away.

When we arrived at the airport and I got out of the car I saw her glance at my belly lol. The gig was up. We drove only a couple minutes before I decided it was time to tell her. "So Megan, we were going to wait to tell you with everyone next week but since you'll be staying with us..." That was all I started to say when the biggest smile came on her face and she started shacking everything limb with excitement. So I just jumped to the point laughing I said "Yes, I'm pregnant!" Still shrieking she said " no offense but I could totally tell!" haha It was really fun. I can't wait until this Thursday when we tell everyone! I just wanted to show you my belly and let you imagine how hard it is to hide! Luckily I wear large scrubs to work but that's about all I can get away with now lol.

12 weeks

12 Weeks baby!

I am feeling very large... especially since virtually no one knows I'm pregnant there's been a lot of baggy clothes, sucking in and standing up tall.

There have been some life altering things happen this week. My beloved grandpa had heart surgery and after days of fighting and not waking up he went home to Heaven yesterday.

This of course has added stress to my life and when you are pregnant you are advised to avoid stressful situations... So I had my day to wollow yesterday and am taking a few days off of work. The funeral and viewing are this weekend. I thought about telling my family I was pregnant to reroute some grief but decided against it after talking to my husband he said it's important to grieve and remember your loved one's you don't want to seem as though you are trying to overshadow that with your happy news and you don't want it to be tainted with the sorrowful memories.

We've decided to announce it the night before John's graduation when we go out to eat with both of our families. I can't wait! Trying to focus on the blessing in my life right now and not the sadness. I truely am grateful for the atonement and knowledge that my grandpa is up in heaven not suffering from anything looking like a stud and probably riding horses. I know I would feel really lost if I was uncertain what the universe had in store for us after this life is over or if I thought that it just ended when you died. Save me a dance grandpa, I love you.

My other grandpa (Church) was saying the other day how when a soul returns to heaven it's as joyous as a baby being born on earth. I really liked that and had never thought of it that way.
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We went to our 12 week appointment today! Even though I'm actually just over 13 weeks now. It was good we got to see Dr. Reese (Jr.) today and he was fantastic! Got to our precious baby's heart beat, Dr. Reese said "the hearbeat is very strong! this mean the chance of a miscarriage is very very small now". Yay! That was a breath of fresh air. Hearing your baby's hearbeat for the first time is an amazing experience and very surreal like everything else. This is really going to happen it just keeps hitting me. I won't be able to have doubts anymore I am definetly gaining weight and my belly and chest are growing at a ridiculous rate lol.

 

 Can't wait to share this wonderful news with everyone! Thanks for reading I'll try and update after we announce to our parents in just a couple of weeks!!! :)