Did You Know I Had a Baby?

Better late than never, right?

Davis

3.10.12

7 lbs 9oz

19.5 inches

11:49 AM

Wanna see lots of pictures? Go here: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77967594@N04/sets/

Oh yeah- and that plan I had to look all cute and have makeup on and my hair done when I gave birth? Yeah- water broke at 2 AM - goodbye dream, fly out the window! ;-)

And for those of you who want a long story - here it is:

We have a son. Davis was born on Saturday, March 10, at 11:49 a.m. In so many ways this whole thing is still surreal to me - and the fact that all of this has happened seems somehow impossible. I have a baby. He is terribly sweet and good. He lives with us. And Chuck and I are expected to raise him to be a good and wonderful human being. The task seems so heavy. 

I look at him every day and it breaks my heart at how fast he will grow. Perhaps that's a silly little thing to think about when I am in the middle of all of this crazy newborn stuff, but my goodness. I can't help but look at his perfect little being and be devastated at the fact that in the blink of an eye, my little son will be grown. What a wonderful part of life I am living. 

So before I backtrack on the last several months of stories, I need to write about the whole experience of Davis' birth. Weird. I've had a baby. 

I'll begin a week prior to our arrival at the hospital. My doctor appointments were always on Fridays, and on Friday, March 2, I had my 37 week checkup. My doctor "checked" me at that appointment, and I was dilated to a 2 and about 50% effaced. Anyway, after that appointment I just felt GROSS. I came home exhausted and having contractions here and there, and just feeling yucky in general. Not fun. I took a bath, though, and felt a bit better. 

Sooooo the following Friday, the 9th, arrives, and again, Dr. Moreland "checks" me. This time I was dilated to a 1.5 (Digression? LAME!), and 80% effaced. At least there was some sort of progression. After my appointment I headed home and started feeling not-so-hot again. My mom came to my house after she'd gotten off work - we were working on getting her a resume and application done for a job with Education Week at BYU. Anyway- when she left around 9 or so, I told her that I felt crappy and wanted to take a bath. Baths always made this prego lady feel better. :-) Chuck had gotten me some "sleep" bath salts, bubbles, scrubs, etc. for Valentines Day, and I tell you, that's how I made it through my last month of pregnancy. 

So I soaked in the bathtub. Felt good, but my back was starting to ache. That had never happened before... and incidently I had read in a pamphlet, earlier that day, that real labor may be felt in the back whereas "fake" labor is just in your tummy. So ya know, that made me wonder, but he still wasn't due for two weeks and heaven knows I would not go to that hospital just to be sent home. But blah, I did not feel good. 

Chuck and I began to settle down for bed, but I could not get comfortable. I began trying to time contractions with an app on my iPhone, but there was really no consistency to any of them. They weren't getting closer together or longer or stronger really, but ugh- they did not feel good.  For me, labor was like REALLY bad gas pains. REALLY bad gas pains. Yep. Not really what I expected, and I suppose there was a bit of menstrual cramps feeling in there too- but honestly, to me, it just felt like awful gas pains. YUCK. Anyway, Chuck knew I wasn't feeling well and was getting frustrated over the fact that I couldn't give him definite "what I am experiencing is THIS and THIS is what it means" answers. I really didn't KNOW for sure what I was experiencing, and Chuck and I never do well late at night - we're cranky and short with one another - so I was just annoyed over the whole thing and he was frustrated. Sigh. 

Around midnight I was extremely uncomfortable and was just praying/hoping that somehow I would "know" if this was "it" or if I should just try and work through it because this was how the next two weeks of my life were gonna be. Ugh. Chuck ended up giving me a blessing, which was great, and not too long after that, around 2 a.m., I was lying in bed dealing with/timing contractions, and all of a sudden I heard a "pop" noise - like someone just threw a water balloon on the cement- and out came the gush. HOORAY! I didn't have to question it anymore! My water broke. I was SO happy that I wouldn't be questioning myself anymore and that we could go to the hospital without having to worry about being sent home. 

Our baby was officially on his way.

I jumped out of bed and the water rushed down my leg, I cleaned myself up in the bathroom and told Chuck, "We can go now! My water broke." He jumped out of bed, not groggy at all, and started to gather up things that needed to be loaded into the car. I had a bag packed for me and the baby, only toiletries needed to be added, and Chuck gathered up a few things for him to get by for the next day or so. 

The bummer things about Davis coming early? (The only bummer things... I am THRILLED that he came at 38 weeks!!!) The following week I was scheduled to have my eyebrows waxed, my hair dyed, and my nails done. I was determined to look and feel pretty when I had this baby. Ha. It was 2 a.m. when my water broke and I was in my jammies and SO not going to do my hair or makeup like I'd planned in my "ideal situation" head. All I wanted was to get into the car and get to the anesthesiologist NOW. :-)

We got into the car and headed to the hospital via Redwood Road. It's about a half hour trip, and by then I could tell that my contractions were getting stronger and close together. When we got to the stop light at Bangerter and Redwood, the light took FOREVER to change. Chuck almost ran the light when it finally decided to turn green. Thhhhhank you, light. 

I'd called the hospital from home to tell them we were on our way. When we got there, we pulled into a parking space for "mothers in active labor," and headed up to the second floor of Jordan Valley Hospital's "Women's Center."  We'd taken a tour of the facility just one week before - glad we did that - it was nice to be somewhat familiar with what was going on. 

When we got into the labor and delivery room, they gave me a gown, had me pee in a cup, and I think they swabbed me to get what they needed to "make sure that my water broke."  Uh, duh. I know my water broke. You have to send things to a LAB to confirm it??! How long will that take? And when can I get drugs???  Obviously I am not a mommy who wants to experience "natural" birth and yada yada. Heavenly Father made smart people who invented drugs for a reason- and I am grateful. 

Chuck and I patiently waited for the lab results to come back - and I have to admit that I didn't deal with contractions too well as we had to answer questions and fill out paperwork and everything. They just hurt, a lot - and at one point I really thought I was going to throw up all over myself. Chuck grabbed a garbage can, and soon after that they came in and told me that we were good to go- it WAS my water that broke. (DUH.) Apparently the lab had originally messed up and told the nurses that it was NOT my water, but they later realized that they'd looked at the wrong person's results. Awesome. Ha. 

I was in the clear for my epidural! Hooray! First, though, they had to get an IV into me. My arms do not handle IVs so well. When I had nose surgery back in 2001 it took the nurses ELEVEN tries before they finally got the IV into me - so I figured it was going to be difficult. After three tries in my left arm they finally decided to get the anesthesiologist to come in and do the IV and the epi at the same time. 

Enter Ron the Anesthesiologist : He is a good man. 

He got the IV in first thing, and then it was epidural time. I'd wondered if I would be nervous about the epidural, but I wasn't at all. I didn't feel much, and the only weird thing I experienced was a could of crazy electric shock buzzes through the right side of my body. That was trippy and unexpected, so I jumped because I was startled by it. Chuck sat in front of me holding my hands through the whole thing. After it was done I felt instant relief, and they showed me a button on the side of my bed that I could push for more medicine if needs be. It felt glorious! I could still wiggle my toes, but everything else was pretty numb. 

By about six a.m., I was all drugged up and dilated to a nine. Everything had gone pretty fast, and the nurses had previously assumed that I would not deliver until late afternoon/evening the next day. BUT since things did go quicker than they'd originally thought, and the doctor on call wasn't around yet, they decided to just let me get some sleep while he "moved down" on his own. I slept for a couple of hours - Chuck tried, but the room was cold and the chair he was sleeping on was pretty bad, so I don't think his experience was the greatest.  :-/

It was a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining into the room and it was just lovely. A good day to come into the world. :-) Around 9:30 or so the nurse wanted me to do some practice pushing. She asked Chuck if he'd help and hold my left leg . . . I knew he'd be hesitant, but he did a GREAT job. Originally he'd wanted to stand up by my head through the whole thing and not look and not SEE anything happening. I'd been a bit nervous about how he'd handle it all, but I was thrilled with how he watched and helped and really seemed to enjoy it all. As I was pushing and the nurse mentioned being able to see his head, I asked what color his hair was - she said, "I won't say... dad can look!" And he did. Sooooo we practiced pushed and moved him down a little more for about an hour. In between contractions we had a good conversation with our nurse about lots of different things - working at Disney, creativity, how we met, etc. - she was great. It was just so chill - we loved it. 

Speaking of "chill" - the only weird thing I had going on was the shivers. I shook a lot before, during, and after the birth. I was really cold and had the shakes quite a bit of the time. But hey- it's all good. :-) 

The doctor on call - Dr. John Nichols, came in to check on me probably around 10:30 or so. He was in his jeans and a t-shirt and decided that I was ready to go, so he headed off to get ready and the nurses prepped everything. My doctor was out of town, but Dr. Nichols was great and came back in ready to go, gave me great directions on how to push, and at 11:49 a.m., Davis was born. 

Lots of women talk about feeling a lot of pressure and stuff even with the epidural. I honestly felt hardly anything. I could feel something when he came completely out, but other than that I was gladly completely numb. 

Right after he was born I watched Chuck cut the cord, Davis let out a couple good screams, and then they laid him on my chest. I was a little emotional, but more than anything I was just in awe that all of this had happened to me. And that this little baby lying on my chest was mine. It was, and still is, all very surreal. And it's weird to think that next time I do this, I'll know more what to expect. Everything this time around was so fresh and new and unchartered. 

Soon after, they took Davis over to his nurse and she cleaned him up, did some little tests, etc etc etc, and I remember just watching closely as he scaled the room with his big eyes. He didn't make a peep. Just looked around at the people there - he seemed so content. I got to hold him once more, after I was stitched all up, and then they took him off to the nursery for his first bath. AND they needed to get him to cry. Apparently getting him to cry was a struggle... he was just very content to look around and observe. For the most part this adequately describes his litte personality... except when he's hungry. Then he gets cranky...  ;-)

After he was taken to the nursery, the doc finished up with me - telling me that ice was going to be my best friend for a few days - and the nurses moved me into another bed and wheeled me into the post partem room. As they wheeled me into my recovery room, we went past the waiting room and I said hello to all of our parents as they wheeled me by.

And that's the story . . . I've documented the next two days in the hospital, but I won't bore all of you with that. :-)