All the gory details

Here is the birth story, for any interested parties.

WARNING: It might be gross


Sunday morning (my due date) I was lying in bed, about to get up and get ready for church. Jordan and I had spent some time after we woke up talking to my belly, giving baby girl a pep talk. I had just said to Jordan: "This day owes me a baby" when I felt a particularly strong kick, and heard a pop. I thought that was kind of weird, so I got up to go to the bathroom and make sure everything was normal. As soon as I was on my feet, I realized that I was doing some serious leaking, and it hit me that my water had broken. I had to tell Jordan about three times, he kept saying "what?!, wait, what?!"

Panic mode.

I had no idea what to do, so I stood in the bathtub to keep the floors clean while Jordan ran to grab my pregnancy reference book. The book said to call my Dr., so I made a call to my clinic and talked to a nurse. She confirmed that my water had broken, and told me to make my way to the hospital, and that she would contact my doctors and let the hospital know I was on the way.

While I was taking a shower to clean myself off (it was sticky, gross) Jordan was running around the apartment freaking out. It was pretty funny, that adorable man. I could hear him running around and just yelling-not saying anything, just shouting "aaaahhhhh!". We got ready as fast as we could, and made our way to the hospital.

Once there, we checked in and got a small triage room. They tested the leaking fluid to make sure it was amniotic fluid. The test came back positive, so they led me to my giant labor and delivery room. Seriously, this room was giant. There was a sitting area with a couch, coffee table, and chairs, the bathroom had a big whirlpool tub, and there was a ton of room for me to walk around while contracting.

Up to that point, I hadn't really had consistent contractions. They were small, and 15 minutes apart. They decided to put me on a very small dose of pitocin to help speed things along. As soon as the iv was in, I felt like the contractions started to come really strong and really close together. This was at 2:00 pm- I did the whole "natural labor" thing for about three hours before deciding that I didn't want to feel that anymore. The contractions hurt like crazy, so I asked for an epidural.

Oh, that epidural. Getting it put in was the worst. I was still contracting, and Jordan accidentally let me know how big the needle was before they stuck it in my back. Once it kicked in though...bliss. It was such a nice relief to not be feeling those contractions anymore. This was 5:30 pm. I couldn't walk around after the epidural, so I had to hang out on the bed for the rest of labor.

It wasn't until 11:30 pm that I had dilated enough to begin pushing. This part was really hard. It seemed like no matter how hard I pushed, I never got any closer to delivering a baby. With each contraction, I would push as hard as I could, and then wait for the next one. This lasted for so so so long. I was so thirsty, but every time I would try and drink water I would start throwing up. Also, the epidural kept me from feeling the contractions, but I still felt all the pressure of a human slowing moving down the birth canal. I tried as hard as I could to not think of that pressure as pain, but it was a pretty fine line. I only looked at the clock a couple times, always surprised at how long it had been.

After four hours of pushing, the doctors starting to talk to me about using a vacuum, and if that didn't work forceps, and if that didn't work a c-section. I knew I wanted to avoid the vacuum and forceps, and Jordan and I both felt hugely against a c-section. Thankfully, her heartbeat was good despite the time spent in the birth canal, so they let me opt to keep pushing. This was the point where I feel like I was outside my body. I was just so exhausted, and I could feel baby girl's head move forward with each push, and then move back. I felt like everything in my body was turned of,f and I was just watching myself push and push and push, take a break waiting for the next contraction, throw up, and then start again.

Finally, her head got out. She had been looking sideways, so her head was getting stuck. The poor girl, her head was so bruised and so swollen. There were a couple sores where blisters had formed and ruptured. I didn't see them pull her out of me, I was so tired and was so in the mindset that I had to keep pushing that I didn't even realize she was out until Jordan told me to look. I saw her just as they were lifting her up, and placing her on my chest. I couldn't believe it! They gave me a baby! It was over! She was finally born at 5:03 am after fourteen hours of labor (from the time my water broke) and five and a half hours of pushing. Jordan and I just held her little hands, counted her fingers and toes, and laughed. It was awesome. I was so glad that it was over, and so glad that our baby was there. We knew looking at her that she was Daisy.

After Jordan cut the cord, he and the nurses took Daisy away to clean her up, weigh and measure her (7 lbs 10 oz, 20 in), and do all the security measures. Her footprints were recorded on a sheet with my finger prints, a tag was attached to her umbilical cord stub that has a chip in it to shut down elevators and stairwells so no one could take her, and matching wrist tags for all three of us. Meanwhile, the doctors were attending to me. Thankfully, I barely tore-just one stitch. I pushed out the placenta, and they carried it over to me to show it to me. It was super gross and pretty fascinating. They lifted up the opening for me to see where Daisy and floated around for nine months, and it was hard to believe that it held my baby. It looked so thin! I can't believe it didn't pop before then.

We were taken to our recovery room, which was super nice-a HUGE shower-and promptly passed out.

We are so glad to be home with our Daisy, and so in love with her. She is just super adorable.

Fighting Pickles

So the elevator in our building smells EXACTLY like the elevator in the dorm I lived in at art school.

I was just looking at some pictures from back then, watching my giant baby belly move, and thought to myself: "Wow. Aren't things different now?" It's been so long (5 years? 6 years?) that I don't really think about it that often...that is until I finally made the connection between the elevator smells. Weird sentence, I know, but it was only last week that I realized where I knew that smell from, and felt like I was right back on the third floor.

I definitely miss parts of it. I miss working long hours with really talented people. I miss being able to focus all my time on art stuff. I miss the novelty of living away from home for the first time. I miss the friends I made.

Our lives are all so different now, and even though I occasionally indulge in daydreams of me living lives like them-living in a big city, working as an artist...I'm happy with the choices I made. I'm glad I left art school for BYU, glad I got married, and real glad to be expecting a baby. I still paint. Not as often as I would like, but I still do. I hope I always will.

Jordan is really supportive of me making art. He never wants that part of me to become less of a priority. What a gem.

Anyways, tomorrow is my due date. Tomorrow owes me a baby.

Packed bags

I'm starting to get nervous.

Before now, I knew I wasn't going into labor anytime soon because I couldn't go into labor while Jordan was on his business trip. He got home Thursday night, and since then I've been using other things I've been putting off to mentally delay the thought of going into labor. Here are some examples"

I can't go into labor until I have the apartment really really clean.

I can't go into labor until I have my bag packed.

I can't go into labor until we unpack and set up the car seat, stroller, and bassinet.

I can't go into labor until I finish all the headbands and clips for the craft fair.

Well...Jordan started to notice I was putting some of this off. So unfortunately for my sanity, the apartment is nearly spotless (just bathrooms left), the baby gear is out of the boxes and set up, my bag is packed, and I am nearly done with all the hair clips.

I know last post I was all "GET THIS BABY OUT OF ME", but now that it is getting closer, it's starting me make me really nervous. Really, I know I still have two weeks. My due date is six days away, but it is pretty likely that I'll be late. My doctor will induce me after going a week or so over...but that doesn't stop me from obsessing over every braxton hicks contraction, or thinking to myself every morning: "Is this the day?"

It's okay though. We have a ton of ice cream in the freezer now. So. That makes me feel better.

It also makes me feel better knowing that we have so many people around us that care and want to help out. Our families have been sending us stuff non stop, and have been calling me almost every day to see how I'm doing. A friend in my ward threw me a surprise baby shower (I thought I was going to be babysitting her baby, so I showed up in stretchy pants and one of Jordan's shirts-wear what fits, right?-still embarrassing), which was such a nice surprise. I feel like I've made some real nice friends here.

Anyways, I'm starting to get real nervous about labor, but it's okay. I know it will be just fine, and our baby will come out all normal and healthy and stuff. One of the things I am the most excited for is to see Jordan hold her for the first time. This is going to be really sappy, so I'm sorry...but it just melts my heart anytime he talks about her, and I can't wait to see him be a dad. He is going to be so great.

We have been having a real nice fall-apple orchards, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, donuts, costumes, etc. We don't take any pictures ever. We need to get better about this when our baby comes.

I'll keep everyone posted, I promise.

Gross

My feet are so swollen, my toes are sticking out at weird angles.


Two weeks.


Jordan is out of town until Thursday night. Friday commences the nightly walks, trampoline jumping, and spicy food eating frenzy.

GET THIS BABY OUT OF ME.

Fulfilling promises

So I thought we would have Babygirls room done by now, but it isn't. It's close though! So here are some in progress pictures:

Here is the crib. In front of it is a sheep skin rug my Dad got while he was on his mission in New Zealand.

This is a shot of the bedding. The crib skirt and sheet are from sheets found at a thrift store (and washed real well, don't worry). unfortunately, I didn't have enough of the yellow floral material to make a ruffled crib skirt so it is just boring straight panels. The outside of the bumper is from fabric I got at Joanns (but don't worry! I used a coupon!) and the inside is fabric my Mom sent me.


That cute elephant was given to us by my Aunt Jennifer. Isn't it awesome?



These are going to be hung over the crib. Jordan picked out the lanterns-they light up! He was pretty cute when he found them. I love how excited he is about this little girl.

A cool mirror I found at a thrift store and repainted. Also a small piece of the curtains-the color isn't the best in the picture of the curtains, they are greener than they seem.

I have two pieces of this fabric, and I love it so much I can't bear to cut into it. So I am going to use a spray adhesive and stick it onto two small canvases to hang on the wall. I love it when my Mom sends me her left over fabric!

K, ignore the obvious need for another coat of yellow paint. I just wanted to show you this great lamp. Another thrift store find, and I recovered the shade with fabric from an old dress that needed too many modesty modifications to make it worth it. I have more of that material, and I will probably make something cute for Babygirl (once I get better at sewing. It's happening!)

Not my favorite chair, but it is going to be great for nursing. It is real comfy, and it was super on sale.

Side table we are repainting to have next to the glider. The recovered lamp will go there.

Not pictured are some more stuff for the walls-I can't paint the walls, so I want to have plenty of stuff up to make the room more exciting than it is. I have some cool old platters, some more fabric to affix to canvases, and a couple watercolors of giraffes and hot air balloons and stuff. I also want to get/make some letters and put her name on the wall. Won't be doing that until after she is born, because although we are 98% certain about her name, we aren't telling just in case we decide we need to change it. It's pretty dang cute though.

Here are some pictures of the headbands I am making for the craft fair with my Mom, and for mah baybee.

These take forever, but I really love them. They are going on headbands like this:



These are all on alligator clips, but I am making more that will go onto elastic.

Specifically this elastic, which I just got off etsy. It was incredibly cheap, which I am always real happy about.

I love this one.

I need to make more of these.

Aaaaannndd a belleh shot.

This is 36 weeks 1 day. That's right. Her due date is in 27 days. We are anticipating she will be late, but still. 27 days!

She is more than welcome to come anytime (save for Jordan's business trips). I am super uncomfortable and ready to get her off my spine :)

Third Trimester is the Worst

So lately I have had this awful pain in my left leg, along the inside joint area. It makes the simplest things really painful-putting on pants, getting into the car, getting out of bed, switching sleeping positions...basically any time I move my left leg. Once I start walking, the pain calms down, but getting started is more painful than it should be. So I talked to the Dr. about it today, and this is what is going on-normally during this late stage of pregnancy, my body sends out hormones or chemicals or whatever that cause the ligaments around my pelvis and pubic bone to relax and loosen, preparing for delivery. Mine went overboard, and now my pubic bone is all misaligned and that is what is causing me really annoying pain. The best part? There is nothing that can be done. It will fix itself after I give birth (thank goodness) but until then, I just have to deal with it. Maybe by itself it would be fine, but add on the back pain, and leg cramps, and heartburn...no thank you. All I can do is slow down, take it easy, and take frequent rests. Good thing we have netflix.


Ugh, k I had this big long post written but it turns out I published it to a different blog that I technically contribute to, but never actually contribute to. The above paragraph was all I was able to save-which is a shame because it is definitely the grumpiest. Here are the main points I lost:

-My mom is great at quilting and doing a craft fair, and wants me to send her some headbands to sell at her booth. So I'm making a ton. Pictures to come.

-I'm glad I never had the money to spend on stuff we don't need: read this article

-I'll have pictures of the baby's room soon.

Good to Know

Just some parenting notes I'm taking in.