She's here!!! (ok, so she has been for 6 months now, but better late updating than never, right?) Lets start from the beginning
My due date of July 8th came and went, but looking back it was good that she was late because Tony and I had time to move all of our stuff into my grandma's house (we moved from our very nice but very expensive condo to her house so that I would be 2 minutes from work and school and so we could afford to have me go back to work only part time) and set up her very cute nursery (pics soon to come in a future post). With all the moving and putting together furniture, I was sure it would put me into labor...it didn't. In fact, my doctor began telling me about 4 weeks before she was due that there was a good chance I wouldn't go into labor myself and would have to have a C-section with her, because I was not dilating at all and apparently I have a "small pelvis"?!? I honestly didn't think I would actually have to have one though. After I passed my due date, we made the decision to be induced on July 13th if she hadn't come already. I really didn't want to be induced either, but my doctor was going to be out of town from July 14th to the next week and I didn't want to take my chances of having to deliver her without him. So the plan was for me to go in the night of the 13th, be induced, and have her by the end of the next day. Well, the morning of the 13th came and I wanted to sleep in and then run a bunch of last minute errands (get Georgie groomed, rent movies, pay some bills a head of time...nothing necessary though). My plan of sleeping in got interrupted by a very early phone call from the Doctor's office, but I wasn't supposed to go in until that night so I hit the ignore button and tried to fall back asleep, thinking I could call them back in a few hours. I fell asleep again and got another call. This time I answered and they wanted me to come in ASAP - my doctor had to leave out of town even earlier! I couldn't believe it was actually time. I called Tony at work and told him to get home right away. Then I hurried and showered, got ready, and finished packing. Then we were off to the hospital. I'll never forget thinking as we left that the next time we were at the house we would be bringing our daughter home. It was such a wierd feeling just driving to the hospital in the middle of the afternoon to be induced. I always imagined my experience would be like it is in the movies - the big, dramatic, water-breaking in the middle of the night, rushing to the hospital, and barely making it in time. But I still hadn't even felt the slightest contraction at that point so it was a much calmer process. My doctor even called me himself while we were on our way to make sure I was doing ok with everything - love him!!!
We arrived at the hospital around 1:00 pm and the doctor checked me and GOOD NEWS - I was dilated to a 2 and 80% effaced - it looked like I didn't need the cervical ripening meds and could just start right on the pitocen and the baby might come sooner than we thought. He also broke my water but nothing really came out, so I didn't get to experience that either. Over the next couple hours I kept progressing and the contractions were coming stronger and stronger. I was trying to hold out as long as I could to get the epidural because we were told in all of our classes it is best to wait until you are dilated more before getting it. But my great doctor came in and basically said, "Why be in pain, if you were my daughter or wife you would already have gotten it by now." But, I was more scared for the epidural than the actual birth and I didn't feel like my contractions were as bad as I expected. Don't get me wrong, they were very painful and felt like really bad cramps, but they were never as painful as the pain from when I had kidney stones.
About 5 min. later the anesthesiologist came in to put my epidural in. That was no where near as painful as I thought it would be either. Tony didn't even pass out watching him put it in. It was more of a weird feeling than anything because you can feel the pain of the administration throughout your whole back and legs, but it was just a stinging feeling that just lasted for a couple of seconds and then I was pain free! I don't know why they don't just give you those from the beginning because I couldn't feel a single contraction after that and it was so much better than being in pain - I could just relax, read, and watch movies (although it was weird to not be able to feel my legs!)
Now that I was laying in bed pain free and not having to focus on breathing through the pain of the contractions, I realized how tired and hungry I was. I hadn't eaten at all since the night before, and I found out I couldn't eat at all until I had the baby! I have never been so hungry in my life. I was also so tired from fighting the contractions. I tried to get some rest but I kept worrying about not knowing enough about the baby so I stayed up for hours reading all the books we received in our classes. My mom, my sister, and my grandma were also there with us so we watched lots of movies. Towards the evening we got a new nurse, and when she checked me she said I was about a 6 so we all got so excited that I was getting closer. But that excitement was quickly shot down when she also casually said, "oh, and I see there is meconium there." WHAT??? no one else had noticed that when they had checked me! I started to get worried because of all the complications I had heard of that are possible when that happens. But no one acted like it was a big deal. Even my doctor didn't seem concerned when I told him and reassured me that they would be prepared to suction it off the baby before she took her first breath.
A little while after the nurse told me I was dilated to a 6, the Dr. came in to check me again and he told me that he didn't know what she was talking about because I was still a 4!!! It had been several hours and I had stopped progressing. In fact, he said that if it had been possible, it was almost as if I was going backwards. They believed the baby was posterior and that this could be another reason I wasn't dilating, and made me lay on my side for a while. My Doctor also explained that he was also the doctor on call that night and he had just been paged to do an emergency C-section delivery for twins. It was now 11:30 pm so he told me that he would be doing that for about another hour and half and that when he was done he would check me and if I still hadn't dilated anymore, we were going to have to take her C-section.
That next 2 hours I tried to get some sleep because I still hadn't been able to, and I was SO tired, but laying on my side put tremendous pressure on my back and tailbone and made it so uncomfortable for me. I also starting getting nauseous and luckily Tony woke up fast enough to throw the trash can under me. Soon after that my Doctor came back in and sure enough, I was not dilated any more so we prepared for surgery. Here we are all prepped and ready at about 3:00 am.
As they prepared my for surgery, I have never been so calm in my life. Both Tony and I commented to each other how we had never felt that calm before, and we both knew everything was going to be ok and we couldn't wait to finally meet our daughter. I looked at him and asked if he was ready, and he gave me a huge smile :) After a couple of minutes of feeling the pressure of them tugging at my belly and the relief of pressure when they pulled her out, she was born at 3:39 am weighing 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 20 1/2 in. long.
I'll never forget hearing her scream for the first time. Tony and I looked at each other and couldn't stop smiling. Then came the tears and my next feeling was pure greatfulness that I had received such a miraculous gift from God. I thanked my heavenly father over and over again as I layed waiting for them to finish stitching me up. I could actually see my reflection through the big operating lamp - I forced myself not to watch what was happening as she was being born, but as they were stitching me up it was nice to keep checking to see if I was getting closer to being done! While waiting I asked the anesthesiologist what would have happened to us if this had happened 200 years ago before all this technology and he simply said we both would have died. Thank goodness for modern medicine! I also saw one of the people who was in there go over and whisper a question to one of the doctors while they were doing all of her tests. It turns out they weren't able to get all the meconium off of her before she took her first breath, and she had inhaled some of it. I could tell he was wondering about if something was wrong, and they were considering putting her in the NICU for a while. But after a couple more minutes of observation they determined she was fine. Infact, she had already aced her first test by receiving a 9/10 on her APGAR score, with the one point docked only because of the meconium being inhaled. Again, the whole time I just felt so calm and something inside me just knew she was ok and healthy and that I didn't have to worry about anything.
Finally after about 30 minutes, they were done stitching me up. I will never forget how tired I was laying there on the table waiting. It was such a different tired feeling - even as excited as I was to finally get to see who I had been waiting 9 months to see, I could barely keep my eyes open. But I was soon awakened as Tony walked over with Kaydence in his arms and showed me our daughter for the first time. The first thing I noticed was her nose and that it looked JUST like Tony's. And next was her big, beautiful blue eyes. She was so calm and just stared at me and I will never forget it. They put her in my arms as the wheeled us back to our room.
My mom and my sister were anxiously waiting because the whole process took over an hour. My sister said my mom was freaking out the whole time that something was wrong. Here she is about an hour old - the first picture taken of her :)
The next couple hours are quite a blur to me. I was so exhausted and I honestly don't remember much of that morning. I remember a little bit of nursing for the first time and then being transferred into a different room. I then tried to nurse for the second time but we were both having a lot of trouble and as she was crying I started crying uncontrollably too. Everyone always said your emotions go crazy after you have a baby and they really do. The next thing I remember is Tony finally being able to get me to quit crying by putting some cool washrags over my forehead and eyes so I could FINALLY go to sleep. I fell asleep right as Tony's parents and grandma walked in the room and didn't wake up until after they were gone. I woke up feeling much better and remember more of the rest of the day. Here she is getting her first bath and Tony learning how to do it. She loved it when Tony scrubbed her head and back.
The rest of the day was spent just loving this new baby! She was so awake and alert the whole day! The nurses even commented that she was the most alert newborn baby they had ever seen. She practiced making so many different facial expressions, and I'll never forget all the funny things she would do with her eyes. She would go from bug-eyed to cross-eyed all the time. At one point I even got worried that her eyes would be permanently cross-eyed because she did it so much, but the nurse assured me it was normal for babies and that they were trying to focus. Flaring her nostrils is also a common facial expression of hers, just like her daddy does. We had lots of visitors that day, including our friend Spencer who worked at the hospital, and our friends Nikki and Jesse who work at a hospital nearby. Here she is on her first night getting to know her grandma :)
Her first night was a little rough! She woke up about every 15 minutes and after a couple of hours of my mom, Tony, and I all taking turns getting up with her, I finally just held her in my arms while I layed in bed and she fell asleep with me for a few hours. I was so paranoid about letting her sleep with me but I propped the back of my bed up so I was almost in sitting position and supported my arm with pillows so she couldn't roll out and it did the trick. Here she is so happy the next morning:
Her second day was filled with lots of visitors as well, although unlike her first day, she slept almost the entire day. So much that we had to wake her up to eat. Here are her tiny little toes :)
Day three she had tons of visitors coming, so we woke up bright and early and got her all dressed up for them. My friends Melissa and Tara came first thing in the morning after they got off from working all night, and Tara got this adorable picture of her:
She also got to meet her grandpa Rob, our friends Amee, Lance, Malena, Carly, her cousins Kaili and Austin, and my aunt and uncle Kari and Chad for the first time. I was also feeling great and we took lots of walks around the hall. Then it was hospital picture time. She fell asleep while she was waiting for them to come in:
I cannot believe the pictures they took in the hospital turned out this good.
And we decided to take some of our own while they were being edited.
After she was done taking pictures, Tony changed her and got her back into comfy clothes.
I love this picture of when he took off her clothes, it was like she was thinking, "I'm FREE!" :)
The third night was a little rough for me. I was so worried about our poor dog Georgie (who up until this time was like our child) who was at home cooped up in her cage, only getting let out to go to the bathroom and eat. I started thinking about her and just started crying and couldn't stop. I don't know what an anxiety attack really feels like but I think I was having one. Like I said, your hormones really do go crazy for the first little while after you have a baby. I asked the nurse for some anxiety meds and after talking to the doctor on call she came back in and said the doctor ordered for the baby to be put in the nursery for the night, to give me an Ambien, and for me to finally get a good night's sleep. Put the baby in the nursery for the night?!? I didn't even know I could do that! But that ambien and full night's sleep did wonders and about 30 min. after I took it and with Tony laying next to me rubbing my back, I fell fast asleep and woke up the next morning feeling 100% better.
Here she is getting some sun on day four. We had a little scare on her second day when she was having trouble regulating her own temperature. She would get too cold and would have to go under the warmer and then get too warm and have to be undressed. It also didn't help that Tony got very hot that day and turned the AC up in our room. :) The nurses got worried that she might have had an infection from the meconium she inhaled when she was born and had her blood tested. She was fine, and they just recommended that we let her get some sun often, and the sunshine that came in our east-facing window was perfect for this.
By day four we had also noticed some distinct habits she had already formed. She always had to hold her binky in her mouth with her hands
And when she didn't have a binky in, she had to have her hands up by her face like this:
Day five finally came and we were ready to finally go home and see Georgie. The nurses had put this cute little bow in her hair in the nursery that morning.
Here she is in her car seat for the first time, buckled up and ready to go home. It was really sad to me that not even a couple weeks later we had to take out this newborn padding because she had outgrown in already.
Here we are excited to leave, even though I look back at those first 5 days of Kaydence's life in the hospital and I will always cherish those memories. Everytime I drive by IMC I think back to those days and I miss them! I got to do nothing but eat, sleep, and bond with our new baby, and I look forward to those days again when we have our next baby (in the distant future after I am finished with grad school and have started my career, hopefully!)
My whole family was waiting for us at our house for brunch and to welcome Kaydence home. All of her cousins got to finally hold her for the first time.
And yes, Georgie was so excited to see us and meet Kaydence, as you can tell from this picture of her from when we got home :)
Having Kaydence was an amazing experience! Dr. Froerer is the BEST doctor, and I'm so thankful for all the comfort he gave me. I'll never forget talking to him for a few minutes while I was laying on the operating table and waiting for the anesthesiologist to come in so I could have my C-section. He was so reassuring and comforting. And like I said, I will never forget the overwhelming feeling of peace and calm during the C-section, as I knew my Heavenly Father was with us, watching over me, reassuring me that everything would be alright and that we would both end up safe and healthy. I'll never forget looking into Tony's eyes as we heard our baby scream for the first time and crying tears of joy, thanking Heavenly Father over and over again for our little miracle. I'll never forget Tony telling me that I did a good job and all the support he gave me throughout the entire process. I'll never forget all the support and congratulations we got from all our friends and family who called, texted, facebook commented, and visited us. I'll never forget all the peace I felt at the hospital and all the good care we received. I am so thankful to have had a healthy baby, and that the C-section worked out so well for us. I am being completely honest when I say that I was never in any pain from the time I got the epidural on. I was able to get up, take a shower, and walk around the very next day, and I didn't take a single pain med besides the ibuprofen they forced me to take. The nurse even forgot to give me one in the middle of the night one time and I still wasn't in any pain. I also didn't need any support sitting up, getting out of bed, or holding the baby. I did not regret getting a c-section at all when I was doing laps in the hall while the other girls could barely walk and had to carry around ice packs and sit on donuts! If I had my way I would have had her normally because I know that is what is best for the baby, but unfortunately that just wasn't the case for us, and I am so glad it turned out to be okay for both of us afterall. Although it was a long nine months of waiting, getting kicked from the inside, swollen feet so bad I could barely walk at the end of the day, horrible heartburn, and all day sickness, all the waiting and pregnancy pain was worth it and we are so excited to have this baby in our lives. We love her so much!
